Joseph Peter Gerhardt

He was a participant in the failed Revolution of 1848-9 in Germany, and fled the country through Switzerland, arriving in Washington DC in 1851. He operated restaurants and hotels and played violin on the side for extra income. He was also an employee of the US Department of the Interior for at least a short time.

In 1860 he was a hotel keeper in Washington, DC and at the start of the War he raised a militia company there and was their Captain. On 25 July 1861, then 44 years old, he enrolled and mustered in New York City as the Major of the 46th New York Infantry. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 1 June 1862.

He commanded the regiment in Maryland.

He was promoted to Colonel on 29 December 1862 and was discharged for disability on 8 November 1863.

By 1870 he was back in Washington, DC, in the restaurant business. He had contracted malaria during the war, and had several repeat episodes, the last of which was the cause of his death in Washington at age 64.

His service from the Adjutant General,1 as Joseph Gerhard. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 ( as P. Joseph Gerhardt) and 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Ernestine Leonard (1823-) in 1842. He married again, Dorothea Pauline "Dora" Wolff (1833-1903) in 1853 in Baltimore, and they had at least 8 children.

05/15/1817; Bonn, GERMANY

08/19/1881; Washington, DC; burial in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Washington, DC