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D.B. Penn
(1836 - 1902)
Home State: Louisiana
Education: Virginia Military Institute (1852),
University of Virginia, Law
Command Billet: Regimental Commander
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 7th Louisiana Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
A businessman in New Orleans, he was commissioned Captain of Company D (Virginia Guards of Orleans Parish) of the 7th Louisiana Infantry on 1 May 1861, was promoted to Major to date from 28 May 1861, and to Lieutenant Colonel on 12 June 1862 after the death of Lieutenant Colonel DeChoisel. He was slightly wounded at Coal Harbor, VA on 27 June 1862 and was appointed Colonel to replace Colonel Hays when that officer was promoted to Brigadier General on 22 (or 25) July 1862.1
On the Campaign
He commanded his regiment in Maryland and was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
Between August 1862 and January 1863 he was recommended for appointment as Brigadier General by Generals Taliaferro, Early, and Jackson, and the officers of his own regiment, but no appointment came. He remained in command of the regiment leading them at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and through late 1863. 2 He was captured in action at Rappahannock Station, VA on 7 November 1863, and passed through the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC on 11 November enroute to Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, OH.
He was a prisoner there until 27 January 1865, when he was transferred to Fortress Monroe, VA for exchange. He was exchanged by 1 April and afterward awaiting orders. On 14 April 1865 the CS Secretary of War, then in North Carolina, noted that Colonel Penn was "recommended for promotion by Gen'l Lee to command the Trans-Mississippi Department" but by then the point was moot. He was formally paroled on 12 May 1865.3
After the War
He was Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana (1872).4 In 1874 he may have been a leader of the "White League", a vigilante group which temporarily displaced the (Republican) Reconstruction government in Louisiana by armed action known as the "Battle of Liberty Place" - in the city of New Orleans, then the state capital - 14 September 1874.5
References & notes
His death data is from the Louisiana Archives6, and the photograph is from a CDV offered for sale by Heritage Auctions in 2014. There is a copy in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA - as published by Davis7. Additional military details from his Compiled Service Records,8 online from fold3. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Marie Allain (1840-1883) in November 1859 and they had 10 children.
Birth
03/13/1836; Lynchburg, VA
Death
11/15/1902; New Orleans, LA; burial in Live Oak Cemetery, Pass Christian, LA
1 Sifakis, Stewart, Compendium of the Confederate Armies, The, State vols., New York: Facts on File, 1995, Louisiana, p. 12-14 [AotW citation 265]
2 US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), 128 vols., Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1880-1901, various citations [AotW citation 266]
3 Booth, Andrew B., Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands, 3 Volumes, New Orleans: State of Louisiana, 1920, Alphabetical Roll, Pg. 102 [AotW citation 267]
4 Krick, Robert K., Lee's Colonels: A Biographical Register of the Field Officers of the Army of Northern Virginia, Dayton (Oh): Morningside Press, 1979, pg. 278 [AotW citation 356]
5 Welch, David, Encyclopedia Louisiana, Published 1998, first accessed 17 September 2005, <http://www.enlou.com/>, Source page: /time/year1874.htm#september1874 [AotW citation 268]
6 Transcribed online from RootsWeb
State of Louisiana, Orleans Parish (La) Vital Statistics, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Archives, 1804-1938, Deaths, 1902, Names M-Q [AotW citation 269]
7 Davis, William C., editor, and National Historical Society, The Image of War, 1861-1865, 6 volumes, Garden City (NY): Doubleday, 1981-1984, Vol. 3, pg. 86 [AotW citation 952]
8 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 32807]