Burton, Henry Stanton (ca. 1816-1869) to Henry Jackson Hunt
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02382.022 Author/Creator: Burton, Henry Stanton (ca. 1816-1869) Place Written: Salem Church, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 14 May 186[4] Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 13.1 x 10 cm. Order a Copy
Reports location near Salem Church with plans to proceed. Written in pencil. Printed date of 1863 is belied by the place of writing: Salem Church was abandoned by Union forces by this time in May 1863, but was the site of a battle in 1864 shortly after this date.
Career artillerist Henry S. Burton emerged from the Civil War as a regular army brigadier general by brevet. The New York native had received his appointment to West Point from Vermont and was posted to the artillery upon his 1839 graduation. A veteran of both the Seminole and Mexican wars, he had also been a professor at West Point before the Civil War. After a year and a quarter as a prison commander, he joined the field armies and directed the reserve guns of the Army of the Potomac in the Wilderness campaign until the unit was broken up at Spotsylvaia. From then through Cold Harbor he was on inspection duty, then became a corps artillery chief during the early operatons against Petersburg for which he was breveted brigadier general. Hunt served as Chief of Artillery for the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.
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