Francis Effingham Pinto

He was First Lieutenant and commanded Company D, 2nd New York Volunteers in the Mexican-American War (1846-48). He went to California in 1849 to look for gold, but soon became a merchant selling supplies to miners in Stockton and San Fransisco. He was living in San Joaquin County, CA by 1852, and was probably a member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1856. He returned to New York by way of Nicaragua in 1859, and in 1860 was a successful 36 year old dry goods merchant in Amsterdam, NY.

He enrolled and mustered as Lieutenant Colonel of the 32nd New York Infantry on 22 May 1861.

On 13 September 1862 he was assigned to temporarily command the 31st New York Infantry, as they had no field officers present on the Campaign.

On the morning of the 17th … [a] committee of officers from my old regiment, the 32nd N.Y., went to Gen. Newton and requested him to send me back to the 32nd Regt, Col. Matheson and Major Lemon having been wounded at Crampton’s Gap. The Regt. was without a field officer. He assented to their wishes, and I unexpectedly received orders to join my gallant old Regiment. This change left the 31st Regt. under the command of their Major, which was not pleasant to the officers.

He was commissioned Colonel of the 31st New York Infantry on 23 October 1862 (to date from 13 September), but did not muster with them. He was concurrently commissioned Colonel of the 32nd New York and mustered out with them on 9 June 1863 in New York City.

By 1865 and to at least 1880 he was a merchant, then in the warehousing and grain storage business in Brooklyn, NY. He had retired there by 1900.

His Civil War service from Heitman,1 the Adjutant General,2 and Carman.3 His Mexican War service from Robarts.4 The quote above from Pinto's own History of the 32nd Regiment, New York Volunteers, in the Civil War, 1861 to 1863, and Personal Recollections during that Period (typescript, 1895). Personal details from family genealogists, the California Census of 1852, the New York Census of 1865 & 1875, the US Census of 1860-1900, and his bio sketch from Green-Wood Cemetery. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the MOLLUS Massachusetts collection.5

He was the defendant in a commercial case which eventually ended up in the US Supreme Court in 1892, having to do with legally fixed fees for movement of grain from his stores and elevators in Brooklyn, NY.

He married Jessie Laimbeer (1830-1873) and they had 4 children between 1853 and 1862. He married again, Gertrude Eleanor Cumming (1849-1915) in 1884.

He published the History of the 32nd Regiment, New York Volunteers, in the Civil War, 1861-1863, and personal recollection during that period in Brooklyn in 1895.

His Recollections of the period 1823 to 1856 are in the Archives of the New York Public Library [finding aid].

His history of the First New York Volunteers in the Mexican War is in the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley [finding aid].

See more about Pinto's Brooklyn grain storage business and others in the Atlantic Basin, Brooklyn in The Red Hook Waterfront mid to late 1880s from Maggie Land Blanck.

06/30/1823; New Haven, CT

07/17/1905; Brooklyn, NY; burial in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY