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T.H. Neill
(1826 - 1885)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1847;Class Rank: 27 of 38
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
He served in the Regular Army after graduating from West Point, appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th US Infantry, and serving in the war with Mexico (-1848). He was at frontier posts with the 5th Infantry and an instructor at West Point (1853-57) where he was promoted Captain (1857). He helped organize (Aug 1861) for 3-years service and was later appointed Colonel of the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry in relief of Colonel David Birney, promoted, in February 1862. He led the regiment in action on the Peninsula Campaign.
On the Campaign
He commanded the regiment in Maryland.
The rest of the War
He assumed Brigade command at Fredericksburg in December 1862 as senior Colonel, and was shortly after appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers to date from November 1862. He fought at Gettysburg and Marye's Heights in 1863 and later as a staff officer with Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia in 1864.
After the War
He returned to Regular Army service as Major, after the War, including service as the Commandant of Cadets at West Point, and retired in 1883.
References & notes
Birth
04/09/1826; Philadelphia, PA
Death
03/12/1885; Philadelphia, PA; burial in West Point Cemetery, NY
1 Wray, William J, History of the Twenty Third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Philadelphia (?): Survivors Assn, 23rd Pa., 1904, frontpiece, pp. 29,34, 42-45, etc [AotW citation 927]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, pp. 200-201 [AotW citation 928]