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Federal (USA)

Lieutenant

George Somerfield Lauman

(1842 - 1864)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Command Billet: Company Commander

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 2nd and 10th United States Infantry

Before Antietam

Giving his age as 22 (he was probably 18), he enlisted in Reading and mustered as Private in the Ringgold Battery, Pennsylvania Light Artillery on 18 April 1861, but he was commissioned shortly after as 2nd Lieutenant, 10th United States Infantry to date from 26 April. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 25 June 1861.

On the Campaign

He commanded Company E of the 10th US Infantry at Antietam.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Captain on 16 October 1863 but died of disease, at home, on 3 October 1864.

References & notes

Service information from Heitman1 and the Card File.2 Personal details from the US Census of 1860 (then age 17) and family genealogists; one has his middle name as Summerfield. Genealogies have his birth year variously as 1830, 1838, 1840, and 1842. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

His father George Myers Lauman (1812-1871) had been a Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, USA during the Mexican War 1846-47, and grew wealthy building railroads in Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada.

More on the Web

His First Lieutenant's commission, signed by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton was sold at auction by Heritage Auctions in November 2025.

Birth

1842; Lancaster, PA

Death

10/03/1864; Reading, PA; burial in Charles Evans Cemetery, Reading, PA

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 617  [AotW citation 26394]