Background
Israel Bush Richardson, the son of Israel Putnam and Susan (Holmes) Richardson, and a descendant of Israel Putnam, was born on December 26, 1815 in Fairfax, Vermont.
Israel Bush Richardson, the son of Israel Putnam and Susan (Holmes) Richardson, and a descendant of Israel Putnam, was born on December 26, 1815 in Fairfax, Vermont.
He was appointed a cadet to the United States Military Academy from Vermont in 1836. He graduated on July 1, 1841.
He was commissioned brevet second lieutenant, 3rd Infantry, and at once saw active service against the Seminole Indians in Florida. He was promoted to second lieutenant on September 30, 1841. After the campaign against the Seminoles, he served in various garrisons from 1842 to 1845, when he joined the army of military occupation in Texas. In the Mexican War he served in General Taylor's army at Palo Alto, Resaca-de-la-Palma, and Monterey during 1846 and was promoted to first lieutenant on September 21 of that year.
From February 1847 to the end of the war he served in General Scott's army, being actively engaged in every important battle from the siege of Vera Cruz to the capture of Mexico city. For gallant and meritorious services during this campaign he was twice brevetted, first as captain and later as major. For the calm intrepidity with which he led his company at Cerro Gordo, his comrades dubbed him "Fighting Dick, " a name he bore until his death. For seven years following the war he served in various garrisons in the Southwest. He was promoted to the rank of captain on March 5, 1851.
In 1855 he resigned from the army and took up farming at Pontiac, Michigan. At the outbreak of the Civil War he organized the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Regiment of which he became colonel on May 25, 1861. Near the end of June he reported with his regiment in the defenses of Washington, D. C. , and shortly thereafter was assigned to the command of a brigade. At the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, his brigade, guarding Blackburn's Ford on the flank of McDowell's army, was able to cover the retreat of the Union forces in an orderly manner.
After the battle of Bull Run he was promoted brigadier-general of United States Volunteers with rank from May 17, 1861. The following March he was given command of a division in Sumner's corps, with which he served throughout the Peninsular campaign. His prudence and skill in the command of his division won for him the promotion to major-general of Volunteers on July 4, 1862. After the withdrawal of the Union army from the Peninsula Richardson's division was assigned to Hooker's I Corps.
At Antietam, on September 17, 1862, his division won glory in the sanguinary struggle which drove the Confederates from the "Bloody Lane, " but its brave commander fell mortally wounded while directing the fire of a battery. He died at Sharpsburg, Maryland, on November 3, 1862.
With his massive frame and iron expression, his unpretentious manners and absolute fearlessness, he had been a real leader of men and his untimely death was an inestimable loss to the Union.
He was twice married: first on August 3, 1850, to Rita Stevenson of El Paso, Texas, who died the following year, and again on May 29, 1861, to Frances A. Traver of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who with their infant son survived him.