Civil War Service and Death
When the American Civil War began in 1861, Chapin chose to follow his home state and the Union cause. He was mustered into the Union Army on September 6 as a captain in the 44th New York Infantry Regiment. The 44th left New York on October 21, numbering 1,061 strong, and joined the Army of the Potomac. On January 2, 1862, Chapin was promoted to major, and he fought during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia. On May 27 he was seriously wounded in the Battle of Hanover Court House, among the 86 casualties the 44th suffered in the fight. Chapin's performance there was praised by his commanding officer, Brig. Gen. John H. Martindale.
On July 4, 1862, Chapin was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 44th New York, however he resigned that day and returned home. During the convalescence from his wound, Chapin was approached by Buffalo officials requesting he raise and lead a new regiment, the 116th New York Infantry. On September 5 Chapin was appointed commander of the 116th, with the rank of colonel. He led the regiment south to Baltimore, Maryland, where it remained until ordered to Mississippi that November.
Chapin and the 116th arrived at Ship Island, Mississippi, by sail on December 14, 1862, and by the end of the year they reached New Orleans, Louisiana. On February 9, 1863, Chapin was given brigade command in the army of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, operating against Confederate forces defending the Mississippi River. Chapin and his command saw action at the Battle of Plains Store on May 21, where he was again praised for his conduct by his superiors. Six days later Chapin led his brigade (part of Brig Gen. Christopher C. Augur's division) against the Confederate fortifications around Port Hudson, Louisiana, the first assaults in the Siege of Port Hudson. What happened has been described as:
After several hours of heavy Federal cannonading upon the Confederate works, at 3 pm on May 27, 1863, General Augur’s men advanced from the woods across an open area of about a mile in length obstructed by fascines, abattis, and underbrush. Colonel Chapin’s Brigade rushed forward under heavy grape, shell, and canister fire from the Confederate artillery during which Colonel Chapin, wounded in the knee early in the contest, received a mortal wound from a Minié ball in the head within a few yards of the Rebel breastworks.After being wounded in the American Civil War with the second injury causing his death, Chapin's body was sent back to Waterloo, New York, and was buried there in the city's Maple Grove Cemetery. Four months after his death, President Abraham Lincoln sent Chapin's father a commission, appointing Chapin a brigadier general "for gallant and meritorious service at the assault on Port Hudson." The commission was dated from the day of Chapin's death, but was never confirmed by the U.S. Congress. Chapin Parkway in Buffalo, New York, was named in his honor.
Read more about this topic: Edward Payson Chapin
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, civil, war, service and/or death:
“A war between Europeans is a civil war.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“The funny part of it all is that relatively few people seem to go crazy, relatively few even a little crazy or even a little weird, relatively few, and those few because they have nothing to do that is to say they have nothing to do or they do not do anything that has anything to do with the war only with food and cold and little things like that.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“We could not help being struck by the seeming, though innocent, indifference of Nature to these men’s necessities, while elsewhere she was equally serving others. Like a true benefactress, the secret of her service is unchangeableness. Thus is the busiest merchant, though within sight of his Lowell, put to pilgrim’s shifts, and soon comes to staff and scrip and scallop-shell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We like the chase better than the quarry.... And those who philosophize on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)