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A. Raszewski
(c. 1814 - 1884)
Home State: New York
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 31st New York Infantry
Before Antietam
He came to America from France about 1851 and in 1860 was a 46 year old master painter - a fine artist and engraver - in New York City, and his wife taught French. He began recruiting a company of his fellow Poles, enrolled with them in New York City on 2 May 1861 to serve two years, and mustered in as Captain of the "Polish Legion" - Company C, 31st New York Infantry on 27 May (Lewis Domanski, 1st Lt., Vincent Kochanowski, Ensign). He was first in action at Bull Run in July, and was promoted to Major on 1 March 1862.
On the Campaign
He was in command of his regiment at Antietam on 17 September 1862 in relief of Lt. Col. Pinto of the 32nd New York, who returned to his own regiment on that day.
The rest of the War
He resigned his commission on 4 October 1862.
After the War
In 1880, then age 68, he was operating a nursery in New York City.
References & notes
His service from Phisterer,1 the Adjutant General,2 and his regiment's Muster Roll [pdf] from the NY Military Museum. His command at Antietam from Pinto.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860 & 1880, Anthony C. Tomczak, editor, Poles in America (1933), and Peter Hastings Falk, editor, Who Was Who in American Art: 1564-1975 (Vol. 3, 1999); his first name also seen as Alexandre. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a Brady photograph now in the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.
He married Emilie de la Perelle (1829-1895) in France where they had a son Gustave (1849-1908).
Birth
c. 1814 in POLAND
Death
10/10/1884; burial in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY
1 Phisterer, Frederick, New York in the War of the Rebellion, 6 volumes, Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1909-12, Vol. 3, p. 2098 [AotW citation 31346]
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. No. 21, p. 834 [AotW citation 31347]
3 Pinto, Francis Effingham, History of the 32nd Regiment, New York Volunteers, in the Civil War, 1861 to 1863, and Personal Recollections during that Period, Brooklyn: F.E. Pinto, 1895, p. 101 [AotW citation 31348]