George Frank Lemon

He had previous service in the Mexican War, enlisting as Sergeant Major of the 1st New York Volunteer Infantry in 1847. By 1848 he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and appointed Post Adjutant at San Francisco. After discharge in 1848 he remained in San Francisco and was a member of the local legislature, and, after 1850, held various City offices. In a measure of the wild nature of the City at that time he fought a pair of very public duels in July and August 1851 with local lawyer and gunman William H. Graham, a "former friend". This after Graham published the following in the 1 July 1851 San Francisco Herald :

I hereby post and publish George Frank Lemon as a scoundrel, villain, liar and poltroon, and declare him to be out of the pale of gentlemen's society.

He was mortally wounded in the left thigh by a gunshot which broke his femur in action at Crampton's Gap on 14 September 1862.

He was treated at a field hospital in Burkittsville, MD and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 22 October. By 3 November "a speedy recovery [was] beyond doubt", but then he began to bleed, probably from his femoral artery, and his general health failed. As a last resort to stop the bleeding his leg was amputated at the thigh on 9 November 1862, but he died 12 hours later from the shock.

His service from Mexican War Veterans 1 and the State of New York.2 Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR,3 as G.F. Lamon. The 1851 duel information from Dan L. Thrapp's Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography (Vol. II, 1988) and Mary Williams' History of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 (Ph.D thesis, 1921). Further personal details from the bio sketch on his Findagrave memorial by Tim Reese. His picture from one at the US Army Military History Institute, also provided by Mr Reese; it's now available online from the Library of Congress.

01/10/1822; Troy, NY

11/10/1862; Burkittsville, MD; burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, NY