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Henry Prince (general)

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Henry Prince
Born(1811-06-19)June 19, 1811
Eastport, Maine
DiedAugust 19, 1892(1892-08-19) (aged 81)
London, United Kindgom
Cause of deathSuicide
Buried
Hillside Cemetery,
Eastport, Maine
44.91080, -66.99250
AllegianceUnited States
Union
Service/branchUnited States Army
Union Army
Years of service1835–1877
Rank Major
Brigadier General
CommandsSecond division, III Corps
Battles/warsSeminole Wars

Mexican War

Utah War

American Civil War

Alma materUnited States Military Academy

Henry Prince (June 19, 1811 – August 19, 1892) was a Union civil war general and Army paymaster. A veteran of the Seminole Wars and Mexican–American War, he would become one of the oldest surviving officers in the American Civil War. During the Civil War he was a recipient of the brevet grade of brigadier general of volunteers for gallantry in action. Gravely injured during his military service, Prince never entirely recovered from his wounds. Despondent over his constant pain, Prince would die by suicide at age 81.

Background

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Henry Prince was born in Eastport, Maine, the son of Benjamin D. Prince. His father served as paymaster in the Massachusetts Militia during the War of 1812.[1][2] His son would follow in his footsteps both as a military officer and paymaster.

Prince enrolled as a cadet at the United States Military Academy on September 1, 1831. He graduated 30th in his class from West Point on July 1, 1835.[3][4]

On September 18, 1835, he was commissioned as a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Regiment.[5] Prince made his formal oath of allegiance to the United States on November 3, 1835.[6]

Early service

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Seminole Wars

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Prince's first posting was to Florida where he would see regular action in the Seminole Wars. He would be engaged in number of battles, among them, at Camp Izard, Oloklikaha and Thlonotosassa Creek. He would be wounded while defending Camp Izard.[7] On June 11, 1836, he was formally appointed Second Lieutenant of the 4th U.S. Infantry, Corps of Topographical Engineers.[3]

He remained in Florida for the Second Seminole War. On July 7, 1838, he was appointed as First Lieutenant of the 4th Infantry.[8] Later that year, he was transferred to Fort Gibson and Fort Smith, for frontier duty. He would return to action in Florida in 1841, serving both in the recruiting and as a member of the Coast Survey.

Prince kept a diary during his time in Florida. It would later be transcribed and published in 1998 as a book titled Amidst a Storm of Bullets.[9]

Mexican–American War

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At the start of the Mexican War, Prince was serving in the 4th Infantry on recruiting service. The regiment would soon become involved in action, notably in the Mexico City Campaign. Prince would distinguish himself in his conduct. From November 1846 to September 1847,[10] Prince would serve as adjutant under General George Cadwalader.[11]

John Baillie McIntosh later recalled Prince's actions:

The cool deportment of the experienced officers at this time, particularly of my acting adjutant. Lieutenant Henry Prince, who, at this critical moment, advanced in front of the line and urged the men to follow, greatly contributed to encourage and to restore the enthusiasm of the command...[12]

General Cadwalader described Prince's efforts in a difficult crossing over the highly contested Puente Nacional:

Lieutenant and Adjutant Henry Prince, of the 4th infantry, who had been assigned to command the howitzers, rendered me highly valuable service at this critical moment. He advanced with the battery, and succeeded in breaching the barricades, and preparing the way for our troops to charge, which was made under a heavy fire from the enemy.[13]

Battle of Molino del Rey

Later, he would take part in both the Battle of Contreras and the Battle of Churubusco, where he would be brevetted for gallantry for his actions.[7]

On September 8, 1847, at the Battle of Molino del Rey, Prince was severely wounded with an injury that would trouble him for the remainder of his life. Maj. Francis Lee recounted, "Prince was severely wounded while actively engaged in encouraging and animating the men by his example".[12]

During his recovery, Prince would be promoted to Captain of the 4th Infantry on September 26, 1847.[14][15] He would additionally receive a brevet major for his actions in the Battle of Molino del Rey.[7]

Paymaster

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Prince would spend the next three years recovering from his injury at home in Maine. While convalescing, he was in communication with the Army regularly. Despite the state of his injury, Prince wished to make himself available to the Army in Maine should needs arise.[16]

Prince returned to active duty on December 10, 1850. He would serve as a Coast Surveyor for the next five years. On March 7, 1855, he took command of Fort Steilacoom, Washington.[3]

On May 23, 1855, Prince was promoted to the rank of Major.[14] That year he would begin serving as paymaster,[17] a role that his father had once performed in the War of 1812. In 1857 he became paymaster in San Antonio,[18] and later served in the Utah Campaign.[14] During his time in Utah, Prince was engaged in the response to the Mountain Meadows Massacre.[19]

Civil War

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Brig. Gen. Henry Prince of the 2d Division, 3d Corps, and staff, Culpeper, Virginia. Photograph from the main Eastern theater of the Civil War, Meade in Virginia, August–November 1863. Prince is seated third from right.
Brig. Gen. Henry Prince of the 2d Division, 3d Corps, and staff, Culpeper, Virginia. Photograph from the main Eastern theater of the Civil War, Meade in Virginia, August–November 1863. Prince is seated third from right.
See also: Battle of Cedar Mountain and Battle of Mine Run

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Prince was working in the Army's pay department as a paymaster.[20]

Prince would join the 6th Maine Infantry Regiment, as part of Company K. Prince was first elected Colonel of the regiment,[21] but later declined the position as he would have had to resign his position as paymaster .[22]

On April 28, 1862, he was appointed Brigadier General United States Volunteers.[23] He would then command a brigade and later a division in Nathaniel P. Banks's Army of Virginia.[7]

On August 9, 1862, he was captured in a cornfield during the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia.[24] He described the moment of his capture in a report to the military command:

On approaching the right I perceived that the firing in the other brigades had ceased, which forcibly impressed upon me the necessity of learning immediately something of the day.  No staff officer was left with me.  I was the only mounted person present.  I determined to go back to the ridge, where I might see the field or communicate with others... While walking my horse in the dense corn, where the ground was heavy, my bridle was seized, and I perceived that I was in the midst of enemies before otherwise discovering any person to be there.[25]

After he was exchanged, he participated in the North Carolina campaigns[26] and then the Overland campaign.[27]

Prince would later command the Second division of the III Corps.[28] As division commander, he participated in the Battle of Manassas Gap,[29][30] as well as the Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns.[31] His participation in the Mine Run campaign came under scrutiny as William H. French blamed his failure to exploit a Confederate advantage on one of his "division commanders", widely considered to be Prince.[32] Prince would successfully defend himself against French's accusations after the war concluded.[27]

After Mine Run, Prince was removed from his division command. In 1864 and 1865, he held commands over garrisions in Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina.[32]

On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted colonel and brigadier general in the U.S. Army for gallant and meritorious services during the war.[7]

Postwar life

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On April 30, 1866, he was mustered out of the volunteer service.[33] He continued to serve in the Army and returned to his work in the pay department.

In 1869 he was named as paymaster for New York city under the Military Division of the Atlantic.[34][35] In 1873 while serving in New York he was proposed as a member to the Century Association by George S. Green. He was elected a member on October 4, 1873.[14]

In 1875 he was assigned to the command of Deputy Paymaster General of the Military Division of the Pacific.[36][37] He rose to Lieutenant-colonel and then department paymaster general in 1877.[3][38] He would then retire from army service on December 31, 1879, at age 62.[39]

In 1886, Prince was living in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. While in the process of moving his belongings from Maine to Massachusetts, the facility where they were stored caught fire, causing him to lose a significant amount of his private papers, books, records and valuables.[40]

Prince later moved to England where he was said to live off the interest of his retirement pension of $3,000 per year.[41] He was considered quite wealthy and the former paymaster reportedly had no money troubles.[42]

Death

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On August 19, 1892, Prince committed suicide at Morley's Hotel on Trafalgar Square in London at the age of 81.[43][32]

Six weeks prior to his death, Prince was receiving treatment for chronic Bright's disease. He was reportedly seriously depressed, telling his physician that he wished to die and asking for sedatives. He was refused. Two days before his death, Prince purchased a revolver for protection from a local gunsmith.

Morley's Hotel in Trafalgar Square, pictured in 1908

Prince's body was found by a chambermaid with a bullet wound above the right temple. Prince left an unsealed letter that read:

To all friends, When life has run its cycle and become a waste of nature in the body, overwhelming its natural and physical qualities with weakness and pain to an intolerable degree, it may with all propriety be removed. Such being the case with the life of the writer, his apology to the world is by these terms made through his most beloved and most intimate friends, who, he trusts, will appreciate the relief to him and ceaseless distress, which in his opinion, ought to be brought by the physician who is summoned with his drugs surely for that purpose when not to cure.[44]

A coroner's inquest recorded a verdict of "Suicide while in a state of unsound mind".[44] Prince's body was returned to the United States and he was buried in Hillside Cemetery, in his hometown of Eastport, Maine.[32] Prince never married and reportedly left no near relatives.[42]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Pearson, Brig. Genl. Gardner W. (1913). Records of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a threatened Invasion during the War of 1812-1814 (PDF). Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers. p. 158.
  2. ^ Massachusetts. Adjutant General's Office; Baker, John (1913). Records of the Massachusetts volunteer militia called out by the Governor of Massachusetts to suppress a threatened invasion during the war of 1812-14. Boston Public Library. Boston : Wright & Potter printing co., state printers.
  3. ^ a b c d "Henry Prince • Cullum's Register • 815". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-07.
  4. ^ Berard, A. B. (Augusta Blanche) (1886). Reminiscences of West Point in the olden time. Derived from various sources, and register of graduates of the United States Military Academy. Boston Public Library. East Saginaw, Mich., Evening News Printing and Binding House.
  5. ^ "Henry Prince". Civil War Data.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Page 4 - US, Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1822-1860". Fold3. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  7. ^ a b c d e Powell, William H. (1871). A history of the organization and movements of the 4th regiment of Infantry, U.S.A., 1796-1870. University of California Libraries. Washington City, M'Gill & Witherow.
  8. ^ The Army and Navy Chronicle 1838-07-19: Vol 7 Iss 3. Internet Archive. Open Court Publishing Co. 1838-07-19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ Prince, Henry (1998). Amidst a storm of bullets : the diary of Lt. Henry Prince in Florida, 1836-1842. Internet Archive. Tampa, Fla. : University of Tampa Press. ISBN 978-1-879852-59-4.
  10. ^ Tutorow, Norman E. (1981). The Mexican-American War : an annotated bibliography. Internet Archive. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-22181-1.
  11. ^ Gardner, Charles Kitchell (1860). A dictionary of all officers, who have been commissioned, or have been appointed and served, in the army of the United States, since the inauguration of their first president, in 1789, to the first January, 1853 ... including the distinguished officers of the volunteers and militia of the states ... navy and marine corps, who have served with the land forces . Robarts - University of Toronto. New York, D. Van Nostrand.
  12. ^ a b United States. War Dept (1848). Report of the secretary of war, in answer to a resolution of the Senate, calling for such military reports as have been received from the commanders of our army in Mexico. The Library of Congress. Washington.
  13. ^ Brooks, N. C. (Nathan Covington) (1849). A complete history of the Mexican War: its causes, conduct, and consequences: comprising an account of the various military and naval operations, from its commencement to the treaty of peace. The Library of Congress. Philadelphia, Grigg, Elliot; Baltimore, Hutchinson & Seebold.
  14. ^ a b c d "Century Archives – The Century Association Archives Foundation". centuryarchives.org. Retrieved 2024-10-07.
  15. ^ United States Adjutant-General's Office (1850). U. S. Army Register. University of Michigan. U. S. Govt. Print. Off . [etc.] p. 22.
  16. ^ "Page 2 - US, Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1822-1860". Fold3. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  17. ^ U.S. Congress. Journals and Records of the 34th United States Congress. p. 43.
  18. ^ https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/230101809.pdf
  19. ^ Carleton, James Henry; Mitchell, William C. (1860). Report on the subject of the massacre at the Mountain Meadows. The Newberry Library. Little Rock : True Democrat Steam Press Print.
  20. ^ United States Adjutant-General's Office (1865). U. S. Army Register. University of Michigan. U. S. Govt. Print. Off . [etc.]
  21. ^ Maine Farmer 1861-07-04: Vol 29 Iss 29. Internet Archive. Open Court Publishing Co. 1861-07-04.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  22. ^ Whitman, William E. S.; True, Charles H. (1865). Maine in the War for the Union: A History of the Part Borne by Maine Troops in the Supression of The American Rebellion (PDF). Lewiston: Nelson Dingley Jr. & Co.
  23. ^ United States. Adjutant-General's Office, War Department (June 10, 1862). General orders. No. 63. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Adjutant General's Office. p. 32.
  24. ^ Campaigns of the civil war. New York Public Library. New York, Scribner. 1881–83.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  25. ^ Forbush, Brad (2021-02-06). "No. 19. Brig. Gen. Henry Prince". Cedar Mountain Battlefield Foundation. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  26. ^ Chase, Philip Stephen (1892). Battery F, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Providence, Snow & Farnham, printers.
  27. ^ a b Armed Forces Journal 1866-08-11: Vol 3 Iss 51. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1866-08-11.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  28. ^ Larke, J. K. (Julian K. ) (1864). General Grant and his campaigns. Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection. New York : J.C. Derby & N.C. Miller.
  29. ^ "Battle of Manassas Gap (Wapping Heights) (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  30. ^ Berry, Jennifer (2018-01-30). "Too Good To Be True: At Manassas Gap". HistoryNet. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  31. ^ Shreve, William Price (1910). The story of the Third Army Corps Union. The Library of Congress. Boston, Privately printed.
  32. ^ a b c d Warner, Ezra J. (1964). Generals in blue : lives of the Union commanders. Internet Archive. [Baton Rouge, La.] : Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-0822-2.
  33. ^ The army in the civil war. Cornell University Library. New York, C. Scribner's Sons. 1885.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  34. ^ Armed Forces Journal 1869-09-18: Vol 7 Iss 5. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1869-09-18.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  35. ^ Armed Forces Journal 1873-03-01: Vol 10 Iss 29. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1873-03-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  36. ^ Armed Forces Journal 1875-07-17: Vol 12 Iss 49. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1875-07-17.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  37. ^ "Image 3 of The New York herald (New York [N.Y.]), April 10, 1875". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  38. ^ Armed Forces Journal 1877-04-07: Vol 14 Iss 35. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1877-04-07.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  39. ^ Armed Forces Journal 1879-12-20: Vol 17 Iss 20. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. (published December 20, 1879). 1879-12-20. p. 380.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  40. ^ Army, Navy Journal 1886-12-11: Vol 24 Iss 20. Internet Archive. Gannett Co., Inc. 1886-12-11.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  41. ^ "Image 8 of The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), August 23, 1892". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  42. ^ a b "Image 4 of The Republican journal (Belfast, Me.), August 25, 1892". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  43. ^ Spencer, James (1986). Civil War generals : categorical listings and a biographical directory. Internet Archive. New York : Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-25423-9.
  44. ^ a b "Suicide of an American Officer". London Evening Standard. August 23, 1892.
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