N. B. Lord

Federal (USV)

Colonel

Newton Bosworth Lord

(1832 - 1890)

Home State: New York

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 35th New York Infantry

Before Antietam

Newton B. Lord, of Jefferson County NY was a foundryman and machinist. He had formed a militia company, the Jefferson Greys, which he joined with other troops to form what became Company K of the 35th NY Volunteer Infantry, himself as Captain, in May 1861. At the organization of the Regiment he was elected Major, and mustered into Federal service for 2 years on June 11.

He was promoted to Colonel in command on August 2, 1861, replacing Colonel William C Brown. He was Court-martialed in January 1862 for failure to obey orders while stationed at Binn's Hill near Falls Church, Virginia. He had twice refused to follow commanding General James Wadsworth's orders to reduce the number of his men exposed to enemy fire on a picket post on that hill. He was convicted and censured by the General, but remained in command.

On the Campaign

In command of the 35th New York Infantry, part of the Patrick's Brigade of the 1st Division, I Corps. His men were deployed as skirmishers at Turner's Gap on South Mountain, September 14th. It is not clear who actually led the men, as their Colonel was reported sick in an ambulance and not on the field.

With the rest of the Brigade they advanced along the West side of the Hagerstown Pike early on the 17th in close support of Brigadier General Gibbon's 4th 'Black Hat' Brigade.

The rest of the War

He led the Regiment at Fredericksburg in December 1862.

General Patrick wrote in January 1863

"Since Colonel Lord took command, there has been constant quarreling in this regiment, except when he was absent sick. The citizens of Jefferson County have requested of me that he be brought to trial. I may add that the Major now in command is by far the best officer in the regiment, and the only one upon whom I could rely as a commander."

He was by then again under arrest for fraudulent expense reports, drunkeness on duty, and cowardice. These and additional charges stemming from drunken incidents in the field and in his hometown of Brownsville were dropped in February 1863 when he resigned his commission and left the Regiment.

However, in June 1863 he was authorized and raised the 20th NY Cavalry Regiment, and was again commissioned Colonel and it's first commanding officer. He resigned that commission in March 1865, just before the end of the War, without further disciplinary action.

After the War

By 1890 he was vice-president and manager of the North and South American Construction Company, in Chile, building railroads.

References & notes

Basic biographical information is from Child, Hamilton, Gazetteer of Jefferson County, N.Y., 1890, quoted by Mark Chidichimo on his fine 20th NY Cavalry website. Mark also kindly provided Lord's death information from an obituary, with detail from the Watertown (NY) Times of 23 June 1890. His Federal service is documented in Regimental histories, including an extract from Evert's History of Jefferson County, transcribed online by Shirley Farone. His gravesite is on Findagrave; at least one reference says he's buried in Cemetario General, Santiago, Chile.

Details of his Court Martial and subsequent legal issues can be found in Lowry, Thomas P., Tarnished Eagles: Courts-martial of Fifty Union Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels, Stackpole Books, 1998.

Birth

01/01/1832; Brownville, Jefferson County, NY

Death

04/15/1890; Santiago, CHILE; burial in Brownville Cemetery, Brownville, NY