Paul Joseph Revere

A Grandson of the famous Revolutionary Rider. He finished at Harvard in 1852, and was in family business(es) before the war. After the Confederate attacked Fort Sumter Paul Revere volunteered for military service, and was commissioned a Major of the 20th Mass Voluntary Infantry at Readville, on 1 June 1861, serving under Colonel William Raymond Lee. He was slightly wounded and captured at Ball's Bluff in 1861 (along with his brother Edward and Colonel Lee). He was paroled, arranged an exchange for the three of them, and they rejoined the Regiment on the Peninsula at Yorktown.

General Sumner promoted Paul to inspector-general on his staff, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on 4 September 1862. He was engaged in Glendale and in Malvern Hill, and afterwards, he took sick leave (from malaria and severe rheumatism) and went home to recuperate on furlough.

He fought, with General Sumner, at Antietam, received a wound and "cheated death again." General Sumner cited Revere for distinguished conduct at Antietam, where his brother Edward was killed.

In April 1863 he was promoted Colonel and put in command of his old 20th Massachusetts Regiment. He joined his regiment at Falmouth, near Fredericksburg, in June 1863, and led it North on the Gettysburg Campaign. He died July 4th of wounds received at Gettysburg on July 3, while in command of the Regiment.

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889. The photograph here from a CDV offered at auction by Cowan's in December 2008.

9/10/1832; Boston, MA

7/4/1863; Westminster, MD; burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass