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Federal (USA)

Lieutenant

Thomas Swaby Doebler

(1840 - 1874)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 14th United States Infantry, First Battalion

Before Antietam

He was briefly a Cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY from July to September 1859. In 1860 he was a 20 year old clerk living with his well-to-do parents and siblings at Williamsport, PA. He enlisted as a Private in Company E, 2nd Battalion, 14th United States Infantry in Hollidaysburg, PA on 1 May 1862, and was appointed 2nd Lieutenant on 30 June 1862, then at Harrison's Landing, VA.

On the Campaign

He was with Company C, First Battalion, 14th US Infantry on the Maryland Campaign of 1862.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 31 July 1863 and retired on 25 February 1865. He was honored by a brevet, to Captain, for his service at Snicker's Gap, VA in March 1865.

After the War

By 1870 he was back in Williamsport, listed as a retired Army Captain.

References & notes

His service from the Registers 1 and Heitman.2 His role at Antietam from Captain Brown's after-action Report. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a group photograph of officers of the 14th US Infantry in camp near Alexandria, VA in March 1862.

He married Martha Ellen Gibbs (1843-1911) five days after he enlisted in 1862, and they had 3 children.

More on the Web

J. Mountain Antiques offered an 1868 photograph of Captain Doebler for sale (2023).

Birth

01/01/1840; Bloomsburg, Columbia County, PA

Death

05/12/1874; Williamsport, PA; burial in Wildwood Cemetery, Williamsport, PA

Notes

1   US Army, Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914, Washington, DC: National Archives, 1956, Vol. 141, pg. 220  [AotW citation 29176]

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. 377  [AotW citation 29177]