American Historical Ephemera & Photography

 

BIRNEY, Fitzhugh (1842-1864). Letter signed ("F. Birney") as Major and Assistant Adjutant General. Headquarters, 1st Division, 3rd Corps, Fairfax Station, Virginia, 15 October 1863. Addressed to Colonel C.A. Craig, Commanding the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. 2pp, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (light soil, creases at folds).

 

Briney writes: “Colonel, the Major General commanding directs me to say that he expects you to preserve the strictest order at the station. You will place outposts on all the roads leading to the station and compel all trains approaching it to halt until the officer in charge of it reports at the station and gets permission from the proper officer t load. Those trains not having business at the station, intending merely to cross the railroad will be obliged to cross above or below the station. No teams will be allowed to halt 400 yards of the depot, except for the purpose of loading in its turn. All persons without passes will be arrested and put in the corral. Officers will be not be permitted to approach the station without business in the quartermaster or commissary departments. Patrols will be sent out frequently to collect all stragglers. This order will be strictly and immediately enforced.”

 

DAVID BELL BIRNEY (1825-1864) was commissioned as Lt. Colonel of the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry and promoted to Colonel on August 2, 1861. He was commissioned Brigadier General US Volunteers on February 17, 1862. Birney then led his brigade in the Seven Days Battles and at the Second Battle of Bull Run. At the Battle of Chantilly Birney took over command of his division when Kearny was killed. His division fought at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville. He was promoted to Major General on May 23, 1863. Birney started in Grant’s Overland Campaign as a division commander in the II Corps, his III Corps having been reorganized out of existence that spring. After service in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House (where he was wounded by a shell fragment), and Cold Harbor, Grant gave Birney command of the X Corps in the Army of the James. At Petersburg he took ill and died a few weeks later on October 18, 1864. FITZHUGH BIRNEY was General David Birney’s half-brother and was commissioned into Company "A" of the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry. He transferred to the US Volunteers Signal Corps on January 1, 1862. He was commissioned Captain of US Volunteers in the Adjutant General’s Department on August 1, 1862. He died of disease on June 17, 1864. CALVIN A. CRAIG was commissioned as Captain of Company "C" 105th Pennsylvania Infantry on August 28, 1861. He was wounded on August 29, 1862 at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to Lt Colonel on April 20, 1863 and to Colonel on May 4, 1863. He was wounded on July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg. He was wounded May 4, 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness, and wounded June 15, 1864 at Petersburg. He was wounded again on August 8, at Deep Bottom Run and died of wounds on August 17, 1864.