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H. W. McNeil

H. W. McNeil

Federal (USV)

Colonel

Hugh Watson McNeil

(1830 - 1862)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Education: Yale College, Auburn (Law)

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (1st Rifles)

Before Antietam

He had been a lawyer in New York in 1857, but due to ill health returned to his native state and was a banker.

At outbreak of War, he joined the Regiment as Private, was elected 1st Lieutenant, and soon after promoted Captain of the company called "The Raftsman's Guards" of Warren County, PA, later known as Company D. After Colonel Biddle's resignation, McNeil won the election for Colonel (January 22, 1862).

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded late on September 16th leading his "Bucktails" in a furious skirmish at the edge of the East Woods.

More on the Web

There's a period engraving of him at the Old Bucktails site. Additional biographical details from Tenney's History.1

Birth

1830

Death

9/16/1862

Notes

1   Tenney, William Jewett, The Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the United States, New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1865, p. 736  [AotW citation 680]