Robert Patterson Kennedy

Son of a prosperous banker, in 1860 he was a 20 year old student listed at his parent's home in Bellefontaine, Logan County, OH, a recent graduate of the Hopkins School in New Haven, CT. He was a college student in Connecticut at the start of the war, but returned home and enrolled on 1 June 1861 as 2nd Lieutenant of Company F, 23rd Ohio Infantry. He was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company A on 9 February 1862.

He was with the army in Maryland, detailed as Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of Colonel Scammon, who commanded the brigade, and at Antietam, the division.

He was promoted to Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, US Volunteers on 7 October 1862 and assigned to Brigadier General George Crook to November, then to the staff of Brigadier General Kenner Garrard. He was sent as AAG to the Department of West Virginia, General Crook, commanding, in about September 1864 and was promoted to Major & AAG on 16 November. He resigned on 8 April 1865 to take command as Colonel of the 196th Ohio Infantry (to date from 14 April). He mustered out on 11 September 1865.

He was honored by brevets dated 13 March 1865 to Lieutenant Colonel for the Western Virginia and Shenandoah Valley Campaigns, and to Brigadier General for his war service.

He was admitted to the bar and began to practice law at Washington in Fayette County, OH in 1866. By 1870 and to at least 1880 he was a prosperous lawyer in Bellefontaine, OH, and was also Collector of the Revenue, a Presidential appointment, from 1878 to 1883. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1885-1887) then to the US House of Representatives, serving two terms (1887-91). From 1901 to at least 1910, by then 70 years old, he was a practicing attorney in Bellefontaine.

His service basics from the Roster 1 and Heitman.2 His presence at Antietam from Colonel Scammon's after-action report. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1910, his Congressional Biography, and a bio sketch in Reid.3 His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a full length portrait photograph [pdf] in the Roget D Hunt Collection at the US Army Heritage and Education Center. There's a lovely print of that photo also at the Library of Congress. Thanks to the poke from Jim Smith to look into Kennedy.

He married Maria Lewis Gardner (1844-1893) in December 1862 and they had 5 children. He married again, the widow Emma Cowgill Mendenhall (1845-1927) in September 1894, and they had 2 daughters.

01/24/1840; Bellefontaine, OH

05/16/1918; Columbus, OH; burial in Bellefontaine City Cemetery, Bellefontaine, OH