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A.H. Coleman
(1829 - 1862)
Home State: Ohio
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 11th Ohio Infantry
Before Antietam
Son of wealthy physician Asa Coleman, in 1860 he was a 30 year old farmer living with his parents and siblings in Troy, OH.
After his graduation* [from West Point] he returned home, and occupied himself in the peaceful life of a farmer. When President Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand men, A. H. Colemnn responded, and in forty-eight hours he raised Company D, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went with them to Columbus, Ohio, where he was unanimously chosen captain of the company ...He was enrolled 25 April 1861 in the 11th Ohio Infantry for 3 months service, and appointed Major on 29 April. He was discharged and was appointed Major of the 11th Ohio Infantry for 3 years service on 7 July 1861. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 9 January 1862 and promoted to Colonel on 23 April, but did not muster at that rank.
(from Miami History)
On the Campaign
He commanded the regiment in Maryland.
and I cannot refrain from paying the poor tribute of honorable mention to the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Coleman, commanding Eleventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He had acted the part of a hero at the recent fight at Bull Run Bridge and at the battle of South Mountain [on 14 September 1862]. He met a hero's death in the battle of the 17th of September.He was mortally wounded on 17 September 1862 leading his regiment's assault on the lower bridge over the Antietam, and he died later that day at the Locust Spring field hospital near Keedysville, MD. He was followed in command by Major Jackson.
(from Col Scammon's report)
References & notes
Service dates from the Roster.1 Hospital detail from Nelson.2 Personal details from the US Census of 1860 and the Biographical History of Miami County, Ohio (1900). His gravesite is on Findagrave. The picture here from one at the Troy Historical Society, kindly provided by Martin Stewart.
* This statement not quite true. The USMA Official Register for 1849, the end of his second year, indicates he was 'deficient' and sent back to repeat the year. He repeated that year, and was successful. He then failed the next, his third year ending June 1851, and is not found in the Register for 1852 - suggesting he did not continue at the Academy. He is not in Cullum's Register 3 of graduates.
Birth
10/29/1829; Troy, OH
Death
09/17/1862; Keedysville, MD; burial in Rose Hill Cemetery, Troy, OH
1 State of Ohio, Roster Commission, Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, 12 Volumes, Akron: The Werner Company, 1893-95, Vol. 2, pg. 237; Vol. 3, pg. 321 [AotW citation 13219]
2 Nelson, John H., As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, Hagerstown: John H. Nelson, 2004, pg. 167 [AotW citation 29474]
3 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79 [AotW citation 29475]