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F. Conner
(1836 - 1906)
Home State: New Hampshire
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 44th New York Infantry
Before Antietam
Soon after coming of age he went to Chicago, where he engaged in the grain business. He was a member of the Ellsworth Zouaves [United States Zouaves Cadets], a famous Illinois military organization, which came East in 1860s attracting much attention by the excellence of its drill, and which escorted President Lincoln to Washington in March, 1861. Later Colonel Ellsworth organized a similar organization in New York City from the ranks of the firemen there [11th NY Infantry], which Mr. Conner joined with the rank of [First] lieutenant [of Company D]. After the tragic death of its commander, and the first battle of Bull Run, this regiment was disbanded [June 1862]; but its officers immediately went to Albany, where they organized the Forty-fourth New York, or 'Ellsworth Avengers,'...He was commissioned Major on 4 July 1862 and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 9 September 1862 (to date from July 14).
On the Campaign
He commanded the regiment in Maryland.
The rest of the War
He was wounded at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862 and discharged for wounds on 3 April 1863. He was reinstated and mustered again as Lieutenant Colonel on 12 May 1863 and was wounded again, on 8 May 1864 at Laurel Hill, VA. He mustered out with his regiment on 11 October 1864 at Albany.
He had been commissioned Colonel of the 116th New York Infantry on 5 September 1863, but did not muster or serve at that rank.
After the War
He was in business briefly in Charleston, SC, then returned to Chicago, where he was in the grain business, active in the GAR and in politics. At the time of his death of a heart attack in 1906, he had been living on a fruit farm in Valparaiso, IN.
References & notes
Biographical information and his picture are from Nash,1 and his death notice is in the Granite Monthly (1906), source of the quote above. His service from the Adjutant General.2 Carman3 has him as a Major at Antietam. Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Elizabeth M Julien (1840-1921) in November 1865 and they had 2 daughters. He married again, the widow Elizabeth Goodenough Pank (1850-1915) in March 1897.
Birth
03/02/1836; Exeter, NH
Death
03/28/1906; Chicago, IL; burial in Graceland Memorial Park, Valparaiso, IN
1 Nash, Eugene Arus, A History of the Forty-fourth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War, 1861-1865, Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1910 [AotW citation 871]
2 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1900, Ser. No. 24, pg. 41 [AotW citation 29423]
3 Carman, Ezra Ayers, and Dr. Thomas G. Clemens, editor, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, 3 volumes, El Dorado Hills (CA): Savas Beatie, 2010-17, Vol. II, pg. 531 [AotW citation 29424]