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Samuel P. Heintzelman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samuel Peter Heintzelman (September 30, 1805 – May 1, 1880) was a U.S. Army General. He served in the Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, the Cortina Troubles, and the American Civil War, rising to the command of a corps.
Heintzelman was born in Manheim, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1826 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry.
In 1859, during the First Cortina War in Texas, he was largely responsible for the defeat of Juan Cortina's forces.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Heintzelman became the colonel of the 17th Pennsylvania Infantry, and was soon promoted to command of a division in the Army of Northeastern Virginia. He was wounded at the July 1861 First Battle of Bull Run, but soon recovered and resumed his duties.
Heintzelman was in overall command of the 2nd Michigan Infantry regiment that was responsible for the raid, ransacking, and devastation of the Pohick Church in Lorton, Virginia, on November 12, 1861. The historic church was built in 1769 by George Washington, George Mason, and George William Fairfax, among others, and restored after the War of 1812 by President Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, and Francis Scott Key, among others. This ransacking caused the loss of a myriad of irreplaceable artifacts.
He commanded the III Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign and at Second Bull Run. He was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Regular Army and a major general in the volunteers. Relieved of his command in late 1862, he later commanded XXII Corps, assigned to the defense of Washington, D.C., where he remained for the remainder of the war, commanding the Northern Department.
Heintzelman retired in 1869 as a major general in the regulars. He died in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Pohick Church history