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R.C. Bentley

R.C. Bentley

Federal (USV)

Major

Richard Charles Bentley

(1831 - 1871)

Home State: New York

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 63rd New York Infantry

Before Antietam

Age 31, he enrolled on 22 May 1861 at Troy and mustered as First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 30th New York Infantry on 1 June. He was discharged 14 February 1862 to take the commission as Major of the new 63rd New York Infantry.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in the arm in action at Antietam on 17 September 1762.

The rest of the War

He was promoted Lieutenant Colonel on 31 October 1862. He was wounded by a piece of shell in the head at Chancellorsville, VA on 2 May 1863, and again, in the leg, at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863. He was discharged for disability on 18 September 1864. He was honored for War service with the brevet rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers to date from 13 March 1865.

After the War

By 1865 and to at least 1870 he was a life insurance agent working and living with his father in Albany, NY. He died relatively young in 1871 at 40 years old, probably from the effects of his Chancellorsville wound.

References & notes

His service from McLernon1 and the Adjutant General.2 Personal details from family genealogists, the NY State Census of 1865, and the US Census of 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary E Horn (1830-1894) in January 1852 and they had 3 children. They do not appear to have been living together by 1865.

More on the Web

See much more about him by way of Joseph Maghe's collection of Bentley's personal items, online in a fine blog post from John Banks. His picture here from a tintype in that collection, which also includes a CDV photograph of his wife Mary and one of his small children. There's a sad story behind those pictures, I'm sure.

Birth

04/06/1831; Columbia County, NY

Death

12/01/1871; Albany, NY; burial in Albany Rural Cemetery, Albany, NY

Notes

1   McLernon, Robert, Casualty List, 63rd New York Volunteer Infantry, Meagher's Irish Brigade, Antietam, Maryland; September 17, 1862, Springfield (Va): R. McLernon, 2001  [AotW citation 2207]

2   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 1899, Ser. 21, pg. 565; 1901, Ser. 27. pg. 7  [AotW citation 26169]