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R.B. van Valkenburgh
(1821 - 1888)
Home State: New York
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 107th New York Infantry
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
He studied law, was admitted to the bar and practiced in Bath, NY, and was a member of the NY State assembly in 1852 and again in 1857 and 1858. At the start of the War he was in command of the recruiting depot in Elmira, N.Y., and organized seventeen regiments for war service. In 1861 he was elected Republican U.S. Congressman from New York.
He enrolled in the 107th New York Infantry at age 40 at Elmira and mustered in as Colonel on 13 August 1862.
On the Campaign
He was commanding officer of the regiment in their first action, at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was discharged 9 October 1862 to return to his House seat, which he kept until 1865.
After the War
From 1866 to 1869 he was US Minister to Japan, and from 1875 until his death, Associate Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
References & notes
His service from the Adjutant General.1 Personal details from his US Congressional Biography and the 1885 Pensacola City Directory. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture is from a group photograph with members of his regimental staff in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress.
Birth
9/4/1821; Prattsburg, NY
Death
8/1/1888; Suwanee Springs, FL; burial in Old St. Nicholas Cemetery, Jacksonville, FL
1 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1903, Ser. No. 34, pg. 158 [AotW citation 29498]