Background
George Lucas Hartsuff was born on May 28, 1830, at Tyre, New York, United States.
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George Lucas Hartsuff
Edit ProfileEducation
At the age of twelve George moved with his parents to Michigan from which state he received his appointment to the United States Military Academy. In 1852 he graduated nineteenth in a class of forty-three members.
Career
After graduation George Hartsuff received an assignment to duty at Fort Columbus, New York, as brevet second lieutenant of the 4th Artillery. Within a few months he went to the Texas frontier, whence after receiving his first promotion, he went to duty in the hostilities against the Seminole Indians. A surveying party which he was conducting was set upon by the Indians under Billy Bowlegs, and Hartsuff, severely wounded, saved his life by hiding under water in a pond. When the Indians left, he dragged himself fifteen miles before he was discovered three days later by a rescue party. Upon his recovery, Hartsuff served as assistant instructor of tactics at West Point for three years (1856 - 1859) and then returned to duty at Fort Mackinac, Michigan.
At the outbreak of the Civil War Hartsuff had just received his appointment as assistant to the adjutant-general. His first war service was at the defense of Fort Pickens, Florida, from which he passed to duty as chief of staff for General Rosecrans. In the spring of 1862 he was on duty at the War Department for a few weeks, but having meanwhile received a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, he went into active service along the Rappahannock from May to July and in the campaign of Northern Virginia in July and August. He fought at Cedar Mountain and Manassas, and in the Maryland campaign, at South Mountain and Antietam, where he was severely wounded. For his conduct here he was brevetted colonel and in November 1862 was promoted to major general of volunteers. From April to November of the following year he commanded the XXIII Army Corps in the operations in Kentucky and Tennessee. He still suffered so severely from the wound received at Antietam that until July 1864 he was inactive, and until March 1865, he performed no field duty. In the operations around Richmond, he commanded the Bermuda front of the works for the siege of Petersburg and later commanded at City Point and at Petersburg itself.
During the war Hartsyff had been regularly promoted to the grade of captain in 1861, to major in 1862, and to lieutenant-colonel in 1864. In the closing days of the war he was brevetted brigadier-general and major-general for his services. After being mustered out of the volunteer service in 1865 he took up his duties in the adjutant-general’s department and continued them for another five years. Then the hardships of an unusually adventurous life began to tell upon him and he applied for retirement. Already Congress had begun to reward the leaders in the great war, and Hartsuff received his retirement as a major-general of the regular army. He lived uneventfully at his home in New York City until his death three years later.
Achievements
Connections
On December 11, 1858, Hartsuff married Sarah J. Maine, at Malden, Massachusetts.
References
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Born
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Died
May 16, 1874 (aged 43) -
Resting place
West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York, United States -
Nationality
American