Samuel Breck (general)
Samuel Breck | |
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Indian Wars |
Samuel Breck (February 25, 1834 – February 23, 1918) was an officer in the
Early career
Born in
Breck served at several forts along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from 1856 to 1860. From 1856 into 1857 he was at the garrison at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. He served at Fort McHenry in Maryland from 1857 to 1859. In 1859 he marched from Helena, Arkansas to Fort Clark, Texas. Later in 1859 into 1860, he was again in the garrison at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.
At Auburndale, Massachusetts, on September 23, 1857, Breck married Caroline Juliet Barrett (b. May 18, 1832), daughter of Samuel and Anne Juliet (Eddy) Barrett. They had two children: Amelia, born August 25, 1860, at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, died in infancy; and, Samuel, born August 8, 1862, in Washington, D.C., who became a practicing physician in Boston.
From September 24, 1860, to April 26, 1861, Breck served at West Point as Assistant Professor of Geography, History and Ethics. From April 26 to December 3, 1861, he was Principal Assistant Professor of Geography, History, and Ethics, during which time he was a first lieutenant with the 1st Artillery from April 11, 1861, to February 20, 1862. Breck was promoted to captain on November 19, 1861.
Civil War
On November 29, 1861, Breck became staff captain—assistant adjutant general of General Irvin McDowell's division of the Army of the Potomac, which defended Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War or, as it was characterized at the time by the Union, "the Rebellion of the Seceding States."
On March 24, 1862, Breck became assistant adjutant general of the 1st Army Corps. From April 4 to June 20, 1862, he was assistant adjutant general of the Department of the Rappahannock. On April 18, 1862, he was engaged in the occupation of
On July 2, 1862, Breck took the post of assistant in the adjutant general's office in Washington, which he held until the end of the war. He was in charge of "Rolls, Returns, Books, Blanks and business pertaining to the enlisted men of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, and of the records of discontinued commands and the preparation and publication of the 'Volunteer Army Register.'"
Samuel was successively brevetted lieutenant colonel (September 24, 1864), colonel (March 13, 1865) and brigadier general (appointed March 8, 1866, and confirmed May 4, 1866, to rank from March 13, 1865[3] "for diligent, faithful and meritorious service in the adjutant general's department during the rebellion").
Later career
Breck remained in the Adjutant General's Department following the end of the war. From 1879, he served in California, New York, Washington, D. C., and Minnesota. From 1885 he served as adjutant general for various departments, including the Department of the Platte, Omaha, Nebraska, and the Department of Dakota. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel assistant adjutant general February 28, 1887.
In August 1893 he returned to the Adjutant General's Department in Washington as a colonel, and on September 11, 1897, was elevated by
See also
Notes
- ^ Long, E.B., The Civil War Day by Day, p. 201. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, 1971. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-163653.
- Peninsula Campaign began as Jackson's forces approached from the Shenandoah Valley to reinforce the Confederate forces defending the Richmond, Virginia, area. Long, 1971, p. 230. See also generally, Tanner, Robert G., Stonewall in the Valley. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.
- ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
References
- Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Long, E.B., The Civil War Day by Day, p. 201. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York, 1971. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-163653.
- Association of Graduates (1919). Fiftieth Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy. Saginaw, Michigan: Seemann & Peters. p. 48.
- Bowen, James Lorenzo (1889). "Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Breck". Massachusetts in the War, 1861-1865. Springfield, Massachusetts: Clark W. Bryan and Company. pp. 888–890.
- Breck, Samuel (1889). Genealogy of the Breck Family Descending from Edward of Dorchester and His Brothers in America. Omaha, Nebraska: Rees Printing Company. pp. 109–111, 115.
- "General Ruggles Retires; Col Samuel Breck Succeeds Him as Adjutant General of the Army". New York Times. September 12, 1897. Retrieved 2010-01-22.