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Federal (USV)

Major

Arthur Maginnis

(1840 - 1891)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 3rd Delaware Infantry

Before Antietam

A hatter from Philadelphia, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Company G, 19th Pennsylvania Infantry on 18 May 1861 in Philadelphia for 3 months' service. He mustered out on 29 August. He was commissioned Major, 3rd Delaware Infantry on 30 December 1861 in Camden, DE.

On the Campaign

In command of the depleted Regiment at Antietam, he was wounded in action on 17 September, and relieved by Captain William J. McKaig.

The rest of the War

He resigned his commission on 23 November 1862. He was commissioned Major of the 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry on 9 July 1863 but mustered out only two months later on 1 September. He helped recruit [poster] and organize the Fourth Union League Regiment (later the 183rd Pennsylvania Infantry) in Philadelphia in late 1863 but apparently did not serve with them. He was again commissioned, as Lieutenant Colonel of the 100-day Fifth Union League Regiment (196th Pennsylvania Infantry) in July 1864. He mustered out in November.

After the War

He owned and operated the Swiftwater Inn [1882 photo], a vacation boarding house in the Poconos. He was awarded a US patent for an improved method of street paving in 1876 and was appointed a State Fish Commissioner in 1881.

References & notes

Service from Bates1 and his Compiled Military Service Records (via the Historical Data Systems database. His occupation from a Philadelphia City Directory for 1863 - he was a partner in Charles Laing & Co. His gravesite is on Findagrave. The recruiting poster and Swiftwater Inn photo (in the Marriott C. Morris Collection) are from The Library Company of Philadelphia, Locust Street.

Birth

1840

Death

06/10/1891; Swiftwater, PA; burial in Swiftwater Cemetery, Swiftwater, PA

Notes

1   Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871  [AotW citation 20112]