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(1824 - 1862)
Home State: Wisconsin
Command Billet: Soldier
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 6th Wisconsin Infantry
Before Antietam
Reuben Huntley arrived in what became the town of Necedah, Wisconsin - in an area called "Yellow River" on the Wisconsin River - in 1851 to work in a mill there, and was selected Constable of the town when it was formally established in 1853. A number of Dawes' were his neighbors, including Robert, Charles, and Columbus. Reuben enrolled as a Private in the Lemonweir Minute Men at Mauston, WI in May 1861. They mustered into Federal service in July as Company K of the Sixth Wisconsin Infantry - Captain Rufus Dawes, commanding. Reuben was listed as one of 8 Corporals in the Company on the August 1861 muster roll.
On the Campaign
The 6th Wisconsin fought at Turner's Gap on South Mountain in Maryland on 14 September 1862. The regiment reportedly lost 11 killed, 79 wounded, and 2 missing on that day - one of those killed was Corporal Reuben Huntley.
References & notes
Reuben was a great-great grandfather of Chet (Chester Robert) Huntley, the TV newsman. Chet donated wartime letters of Reuben's to the Wisconsin State Historical Society in 1971. Reuben's wife's name was Sarah (Ann) Dawes, They wed in 1844. The exact relationship between the Huntley's and the Dawes' is not certain, but it looks like Captain Dawes and Reuben were cousins-in-law. Reuben and Sarah had 5 children.
Service details from Dawes1 with family history from Johnston2. The Necedah details are from the editors' footnotes in Sullivan3. Thanks to descendant Robert McKeever for bringing Corporal Huntley to our attention.
More on the Web
One of Reuben's wartime letters is online from the University of Wisconsin library.
Birth
1824; Machias, ME
Death
09/14/1862; Turner's Gap, MD
1 Dawes, Rufus Robinson, Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, Marietta (OH): E.R. Alderman & Sons, 1890, pg. 17 [AotW citation 1074]
2 Johnston, Lyle, "Good night, Chet": a biography of Chet Huntley, Jefferson (NC): McFarland & Company, 2003, pp. 9 - 10 [AotW citation 1075]
3 Sullivan, James P., and William J. K. Beaudot and Lance J. Herdegen, editors, An Irishman in the Iron Brigade, Bronx (NY): Fordham University Press, 1993, pp. 20, 29, 33 [AotW citation 1076]