Tetanus Took Him

Union Brigadier General George Crockett Strong died from complication of a wounding on July 30^th 1863.

George Crockett Strong was born October 16^th 1832 in Stockbridge, Windsor, Vermont the son of David Ellsworth and Harriet (Fay) Strong. He was raised by an uncle in Easthampton, Massachusetts. He attended the Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and Union College in Schenectady, New York, before settling in and graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1857.  He was ranked 5^th out of a class of 38.  He served in several military arsenals, becoming the assistant superintendent of the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, Albany, New York.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Strong was serving as an ordnance officer on the staff of Union General Irvin McDowell with the rank of First Lieutenant, and was with him at the First Battle of Bull Run.  He commanded an expedition against Biloxi, Mississippi in April 1862, and received a commission to Brigadier General in November 1862.  While leading and assault on Fort Wagner at Morris Island, South Carolina on July 18^th 1863 he was wounded in the thigh.  While on his way to New York City to recuperate, Strong developed tetanus because of the wound and died June 30^th 1863.  He is buried in the Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.