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H.H. King
(1839 - 1932)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Branch of Service: Cavalry
Before Antietam
In 1860 he was a clerk in Pittsburgh living with his parents and siblings in Allegany Township, PA. He enrolled and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant, Company I, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry on 11 February 1862. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 8 July 1862 and assigned to the First Cavalry Brigade (3rd and 4th PA, 1st NY, and 5th US Cavalry, Colonel Averell) on 9 August as acting Assistant Adjutant General (AAG).
On the Campaign
He was probably with Colonel Rush as Brigade AAG in Maryland. On 17 September 1862 at Antietam he was with the mortally wounded Colonel James H. Childs, 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry, who
called Captain Henry King, Assistant Adjutant General, to whom he delivered his last messages to his family, and wishes as to his property.
The rest of the War
He was appointed Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, US Volunteers on 9 November (to date from 20 October) 1862, but resigned his commission on 10 December 1862.
After the War
He was in the oil business in Pittsburgh, then in Philadelphia, as partner in Waring & King to at least 1870. He went to Denver, CO, was admitted to the bar there in 1873, and practiced law to at least 1880. He returned east to Pittsburg in 1883 and was a partner in the Pittsburgh Supply Company (plumbing, mill, and mine tools and supplies) and in the Equitable Meter Company (manufacturer of gas meters and equipment) there. He finally retired in 1922.
From about 1892 to his death at age 93 in 1932, he summered in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada and wintered in Pittsburgh.
References & notes
His service from the Card File,1 Heitman,2 Rawle,3 source of his photograph, and Bates,4 source also of the quote above. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, and his obituary in the New York Times of 4 October 1932. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Alice L Hill (1858-1930) on Christmas Day 1877 in Denver and they had a daughter Winifred (1886-).
His father Josiah King (1807-1882) was a successful businessman; before and during the war he was partner/owner of King, Pennock & Company, which ran the Eagle Cotton Mills in North Pittsburgh.
More on the Web
Lt. King is seen in a group photograph with Colonel Averell and two other officers at Westover Landing, VA in August 1862, by Alexander Gardner, now at the Library of Congress.
Birth
03/09/1839; Pittsburgh, PA
Death
10/02/1932; burial in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA
1 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 28973]
2 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. 599 [AotW citation 28974]
3 Rawle, William Brooke, and Regimental History Committee, History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the American Civil War, 1861-1865, Philadelphia: Franklin Printing Company, 1905, before pg. 321; pp. 101, 108, 147 [AotW citation 28976]
4 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871, Vol. 2, pg. 525 (quote) [AotW citation 28975]