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G.B. Force
(1831 - 1862)
Home State: New York
Command Billet: Regimental Officer
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 108th New York Infantry
Before Antietam
From Rochester, New York since childhood, he had been active in the 54th Regiment, NY State Militia from 1852-58 rising to the rank of Captain. He moved to Plainwell, Michigan in 1858, and was in business there when the War began. In October 1861 he raised and was Captain of Company B of the 13th Michigan Infantry, and served with them at the siege of Corinth, but resigned in May 1862 due to illness. He returned to Rochester after recuperating.
He volunteered as drillmaster for the new 108th NY Infantry as that unit began organizing in Rochester. He formally enrolled in the regiment on 9 August, and mustered as Major on 18 August (commission dated 9 September) 1862.
On the Campaign
He "was instantly killed while in the fearless discharge of his duty" at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
References & notes
Biographical details from a profile in Washburn's History1 - which includes a portrait sketch of the Major - with Michigan service dates from Robertson2 and New York dates from Phisterer3. FIndagrave has his gravesite online. The picture here from a photograph in the collection of the New York Military Museum available online through the New York Heritage portal.
Birth
1831 in NJ
Death
09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY
1 Washburn, George H., A Complete Military History and Record of the 108th Regiment N.Y. Vols., Rochester (NY): Press of E.R. Andrews, 1894, pg. 193 [AotW citation 1006]
2 State of Michigan, Adjutant General's Office, and John Robertson, Adjutant General, Michigan in the War, Lansing: W.S. George & Co., State Printers, 1882, pg. 828 [AotW citation 1007]
3 Phisterer, Frederick, New York in the War of the Rebellion, 6 volumes, Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1909-12, Vol. 4, pg. 3275 [AotW citation 1008]