Henry Clinton Lyon

He had been a delegate for Abraham Lincoln at the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1860. On 22 May 1861, a 24 year old farmer on his widowed mother's place in Pulteney, Steuben County, he enlisted in South Pulteney. He mustered as First Sergeant of Company I, 34th New York Infantry on 15 June 1861 and first saw combat at Fair Oaks, VA on 31 May 1862.

He was mortally wounded by a gunshot through his spine in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was treated at the Hoffmann Farm field hospital near Keedysville, MD, then admitted to the New Church US Army hospital in Frederick, MD on 1 October. He died there of his wounds on 5 October 1862.

His service from the Adjutant General.1. Wound, hospital, and death details from the Patient List 2 and Nelson,3 citing the Army Corps Hospital Register 95, which has him as 2nd Lieutenant. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post No. 535 in Pulteney, NY, chartered in 1881, was named for him.

His wartime letters and 1862 diary were published in Desolating this Fair Country: the Civil War diary and letters of Lt. Henry C. Lyon, 34th New York (McFarland, 1999) edited by Emily N. Radigan, source of his picture, from a photograph. The editor also stated that Henry received a brevet to 2nd Lieutenant dated 26 May 1862 (not seen in the Adjutant General's Report, Phisterer, Chapin's History, or his CSRs) and that he died on a train on the way home.

04/14/1837; Steuben County, NY

10/05/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Glenview Cemetery, Pulteney, NY