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S. H. Weed

S. H. Weed

Federal (USA)

Captain

Stephen Hinsdale Weed

(1831 - 1863)

Home State: New York

Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1854

Command Billet: Battery Commander

Branch of Service: Artillery

Unit: 5th United States Artillery, Battery I

 

see his Battle Report

Before Antietam

After graduating from West Point, he was appointed Brevet 2nd Lt, 2nd US Artillery, 1 July 1854 and 2nd Lt (perm) in the 4th US Artillery 18 Dec 1854. He was on frontier duty in Texas 1854-55, and service against the Seminoles in 1856-'7. He was promoted to First Lieutenant 16 Nov 1856. He engaged in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1858, and then on the Utah expedition, participating in skirmishes with hostile Indians at Egan Station, 11 August, 1860, and Deep Creek on 6 September. He was promoted to Captain, 5th US Artillery on 14 May 1861.

On the Campaign

He commanded Battery I on the Maryland Campaign.

The rest of the War

From 3 December, 1862, till 23 January, 1863, he was chief of the artillery corps at Falmouth, Virginia. After a short leave of absence he took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, and on 6 June, 1863, was made brigadier-general of volunteers for gallant conduct there. After 10 May, 1863, he commanded an artillery brigade in the 5th Army Corps.

At Gettysburg, while holding a position on Little Round Top, he was mortally wounded. He said "I would rather die here than that the rebels should gain an inch of this ground." The point is now known as "Weed's Hill."

References & notes

Service data from Heitman1, with further detail from Appleton's.2

More on the Web

See also a CDV (carte de visite) of him, source of the picture here, and a brief online discussion of the events surrounding his death at Gettysburg.

Birth

11/17/1831; Potsdam, NY

Death

7/2/1863; Gettysburg, PA; burial in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, NY

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 1014  [AotW citation 13245]

2   Fiske, John, and James Grant Wilson, editors, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 6 vols., New York City: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889  [AotW citation 13246]