Delos Bennett Sacket

An 1845 graduate of West Point, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Second US Dragoons. He saw service in Texas and in the war with Mexico - where he was cited by brevets for bravery at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He was an instructor at the Academy (1850-1855), but otherwise spent the pre-War years in service in the West. He was promoted to Captain in the First US Cavalry in 1855, and Major in January 1861.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd US Cavalry and assigned to Washington and New York on administrative duties. He was further promoted to Colonel in the Staff corps and assigned as Inspector General to Major General McClellan in October 1861. In December he was appointed Inspector General of the Army of the Potomac.

He was Inspector General of the Army of the Potomac on General McClellan's staf. on the Maryland Campaign.

After Fredericksburg in December 1862, he led the Office of the Inspector General in Washington, DC and was on Boards to create the Invalid Corps and retire officers (to April 1864). He then was in Inspector duty in the Western Theater until the end of the war.

He continued in Army service as an Inspector General with tours in the West (to September 1866), in the Departments of Tennessee, the Cumberland, Division of the Atlantic, Washington DC, and Missouri (to 1881). He was then appointed Brigadier General and Inspector General of the Army. He served in that post until his death in March 1885.

His service history compiled by Cullum1 (Sacket's #1267), and his photo is from an original in the US Library of Congress. The General's last name is also spelled Sackett in some records.

For more detail, see also a bio post on behind AotW.

04/14/1822; Cape Vincent, NY

03/08/1885; Washington, DC; burial in Cape Vincent, NY