John James Perry Blinn

He entered the Wabash Preparatory School in 1856, and was a student and Captain of Cadets at Wabash College by 1860. He was absent from school, ill, at the start of the War and was commissioned First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the new 14th Indiana Infantry on 21 April 1861.

Colonel Harrow, in his Official Report for Antietam, wrote:

My adjutant, J. J. P. Blinn, was with me during the day, and conducted himself as only a brave man can, bearing messages for me, and when not thus engaged remaining at my side witnessing the heroic conduct of his regiment.

He resigned his commission on 27 October 1862 and returned to school in January 1863. Soon after, on 24 March, at the request of by-then Brigadier General Harrow, he accepted a commission as Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General, US Volunteers and served on General Harrow's Brigade staff. He was mortally wounded by gunshot to the hip in action at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July and was treated at the 2nd Division/2nd Corps field hospital there. His mother Dorothea Fremont Blinn arrived on 10 July to help care for him but he died of wounds on 13 July 1863.

In his Gettysburg Report, General Harrow said:

My own assistant adjutant-general, Capt. John P. Blinn, throughout both days manifested himself a thorough soldier and patriot. He fell, mortally wounded, on the 3d, while gallantly cheering on the men of the command to which he was attached. No tribute can now reach him, but a worthier man and soldier has not died for his country.

Service information from the Indiana Adjutant General1 and Heitman.2 Details from a blog post on Dear Old Wabash by Beth Swift at Wabash College, source also of his picture above. His full name from The History of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity (1906). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Blinn wrote a letter on 9 September 1861 to Richard W. Thompson, an influential Indiana politician, seeking assistance in obtaining a Regular Army commission (in the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection from the Indiana State Museum and the Allen County Public Library). Another letter online hints that he may have been a candidate for Major of the 14th Indianan in March 1862 (from the Gilder Lehrman Collection).

1841; Terre Haute, IN

07/13/1863; Gettysburg, PA; burial in Woodlawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, IN