James Edward Carpenter

James Edward Carpenter (March 6, 1841 – August 16, 1901) served in the Union Army in 1861 as a private in the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. In 1862 he became a second lieutenant and progressed in rank to first lieutenant, captain, then a brevet major of volunteers due to gallantry. He later served his community and Philadelphia with honor as a business lawyer of high respect.

Early life James Carpenter was the second eldest son of eight children born to Edward Carpenter 2nd and Anna Maria (Mary) Howey. He was born in Chesterfield, Kent County, Maryland and in 1843 his family moved to Philadelphia where they attended Trinity Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia.

Civil War In 1861, he enlisted as a private the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and in 1862 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

During the night of September 17/18, 1862, he was wounded seriously inside the elbow in the engagement at Philomont, Virginia, on the advance at the end of the fighting at the Battle of Antietam.

On June 29, 1863, he was selected and served on the staff of Brigadier General D. McMurtrie Gregg, who was just given the command of the Second Cavalry Division, Cavalry Corps, under the reorganization by Major General George G. Meade. Brevet Major Carpenter for the next eighteen months excelled in this position, providing good documentation and order.

As a lawyer he assisted in helping to establish the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in Philadelphia during May 1865. Later he became a companion of that order when the concern of conflict of interest was lifted. Edward Carpenter IV, born August 27, 1872. He was a private in the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry during the Spanish–American War of 1898. He was commissioned a second lieutenant, 2nd Artillery U.S.Army on July 9, 1898. Promoted to first lieutenant on February 2, 1901, and captain on August 14, 1903. He attended Graduate Artillery school in 1903, In 1908 he was one of the first graduates of the School of Submarine Defense and assigned to Coast Artillery Corps. He was later promoted to Major and became an assistant to the Chief of Artillery in Washington, D.C. He married Janet FitzGerald Lee. Later he was rector's warden of the Church of Ascension in Pittsburgh. He was delegate to the Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church.

He encouraged and financially assisted his brother, Brigadier General Louis H. Carpenter in the updating of their father's genealogical family history. This valuable work was published after his death in 1912 as "Samuel Carpenter and his Descendants."

James Edward Carpenter died suddenly while visiting his daughter Mrs. Helen Mosley on August 16, 1901, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.