Henry A. Cole

He enrolled and was appointed Captain on 10 August 1861, actively recruited troopers, and was commissioned Captain, Company A, First Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade Cavalry on 27 November 1861 when they mustered for Federal service. He was promoted to Major in July 1862 when Companies A, B, C, and D first began operating together along the upper Potomac.

He led his Battalion as part of the cavalry breakout from Harpers Ferry on the night of 14-15 September 1862.

His battalion was expanded to a full regiment in the Spring of 1864 and he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 5 March and Colonel on 20 April 1864. He mustered out with his command on 28 June 1865 at Harpers Ferry.

Service from the Maryland Volunteers.1 His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from from one in C. Armour Newcomer's Cole's Cavalry: Three Years in the the Saddle in the Shenandoah Valley (1895), which is online from the Internet Archive.

A National Guard facility in Montgomery County was named the Colonel Henry A. Cole Military Reservation (now Readiness Center) for him.

For much more about the Harpers Ferry breakout, see a fine series of posts from Don Caughey at Crossed Sabers [Part 1], with an illustrated supplement on our own behind AotW.

07/25/1838; Frederick, MD

05/26/1909; Baltimore, MD; burial in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, MD