Eliakim Sherill

A tanner and farmer, he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1846, serving one term. He held local offices and was elected to the State Sentate in 1854, and was a Major in the state militia. In 1862 he helped organize and recruit a regiment of infantry and was commissioned Colonel of the 126th New York Infantry on 6 September 1862 to date from their muster of 20 August.

He was wounded by gunshot to his lower jaw in action at Harpers Ferry on 14 September and was captured there on the 15th.

He was paroled at Harpers Ferry and sent to the parole camp at Chicago, IL with his regiment and was on furlough for his wound to January 1863. He assumed command of his Brigade (Third Brigade, Third Division, Second Army Corps) after Colonel Willard was killed at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863 but was himself mortally wounded in the bowels on the 3rd in action along Cemetery Ridge there. He died the next day.

Basic service from the Adjutant General.1 Details from his Congressional biography [online] and a bio sketch from the US Park Service. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph sold by Heritage Auctions in 2015.

A bronze portrait bust of him is on the 126th New York Infantry monument at Gettysburg [online from Steve A. Hawks on Stone Sentinels].

02/16/1813; Greenville, NY

07/04/1863; Gettysburg, PA; burial in Washington Street Cemetery, Geneva, NY