Howard Mather Burnham

Howard Mather Burnham (March 17, 1842 – September 19, 1863), was a Union Army artillery officer in the American Civil War who was killed in action at the Battle of Chickamauga.

Early life Burnham attended a military school in Hamden, Connecticut, and upon graduation he attended Sanborn's school in Concord, Massachusetts and Lawrence Scientific School (now known as Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Soon after the Massachusetts Volunteers were attacked in Baltimore, Maryland, he enlisted in the Springfield City Guards on April 19, 1861.

Military career Burnham was sent to the 10th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 5th Regiment, United States Artillery in the Union Army. He served impatiently for several months as a Union Army recruiting officer in Towanda and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York City, and Dubuque, Iowa, until he was ordered to Fort Hamilton on garrison duty.

In April 1863, Burnham was promoted to first lieutenant and joined the Battery H, 5th U.S, Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland under General William Rosecrans. Following the departure of First Lieutenant Francis Guenther (promoted), as senior lieutenant present, Burnham assumed command in August 1863 in absence of the battery's captain (George A. Kensel); shortly after assuming command of Battery H, as the senior Regular Army artillery officer in the division, he was appointed Chief of Artillery of the 1st Division, XIV Corps, on the staff of Gen. Absalom Baird.

Fessenden had been shot in the hip, but he assumed command when Burnham and Ludlow fell.

Gen. John King dispatched the following in his report: I take this occasion to speak in the highest terms of the officers of Battery H, 5th Artillery, 1st Lieut. H. M. Burnham and 2d Lieutenants Israel Ludlow and J. A. Fessenden. The officers of this battery, finding it impossible to retire, remained with their pieces, firing, until they were forcibly taken from them by the enemy. The descendants of Thomas Burnham have been noted in every American war, including the French and Indian War.

Roderick Henry Burnham, Esq. (February 27, 1816 – April 1, 1893) of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature from (1861–1862) and Justice of the Peace, father Katharine Livingstone Burnham (May 8, 1820 –July 13, 1885), daughter of Samuel Mather of Connecticut, a descendant of Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, Massachusetts Emily Livingston Burnham (May 17, 1849 – November 10, 1871), sister. Mather Howard Burnham (1870–1917), who became a spy for France in World War I, and Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, (1861–1947) were his second cousins.