Henry B. Chamberlain

He enlisted in the US Marine Corps in February 1857 and made a Pacific cruise; he was a Corporal when he was discharged on September 1859. On 15 June 1861, at age 24, he enrolled in Fairfield, NY (CT?) and mustered as First Lieutenant, Company K, 34th New York Infantry. He resigned that commission on 22 November 1861. He enlisted again, as a Private in Company I of the 97th New York Infantry and mustered in on 18 February 1862. He was promoted to First Sergeant, date not given.

He was with his Company at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was appointed First Lieutenant on 19 February 1863. He was captured at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July 1863, but escaped from a prison in Richmond, VA on 20 February 1864 and returned to duty. He was promoted to Captain to date from 4 January 1864, was wounded at the Weldon Railroad, VA on 19 August 1864, and was discharged on 28 February 1865. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of the 108th United States Colored Troops on 17 August 1865, promoted to First Lieutenant on 1 January 1866, and mustered out with the regiment on 21 March 1866.

He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant of the 26th United States Infantry on 18 June 1867 and transferred to the 10th US Infantry on 19 May 1869. He died, still in the Army, in June 1877. His widow Mary received a US pension beginning in November 1877 which continued to her death in 1928.

His service from the New York Adjutant General,1 Heitman,2 and Henry.3 His gravesite is on Findagrave; his birth information and middle name there probably confused with a different person. His picture from a c. 1864 photograph which once hung in the NY State Capitol, now online from the New York State Military Museum.

He married Mary Jane Field (1842-1928) in 1864 and they had 2 children.

c.1837 in CT

06/20/1877; Fairfield, CT; burial in Mountain Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum, Bridgeport, CT