Tuesday, September 18, 2012

He Was Shot Four Times

Union Colonel Henry Walter Kingsbury died September 18th 1862 from a wound he received the day before at the Battle of Antietam.

Henry Walter Kingsbury was born May 25th 1836 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of United States Major JJB Kingsbury.  He was a May 1861 graduate of the United State Military Academy at West Point; ranking 4th in his class, and was made a First Lieutenant in command of Battery D of the 5th United State Artillery.

He saw action with the 5th during the Seven Days Battles and was attached to the First Division of the V Corps.  In July 1862 Kingsbury received an appointment to Colonel in the 11th Connecticut Infantry.  The 11th with Kingsbury leading them made the first assault on the Rohrbach Bridge or Burnside’s Bridge on September 17th 1862.  After being driven back the 11th continued to fire on the Confederates from the bank of the Antietam River.  Sometime in the early afternoon during all the shooting Kingsbury was mortally wounded, being hit in the abdomen, foot, leg and shoulder.

He died the next day September 18th 1862 at the Henry Rohrbach Farm in Sharpsburg, Maryland.  Kingsbury is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC.

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