Joseph K. Mansfield

Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (December 22, 1803 – September 18, 1862) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer. He served as a Union general in the American Civil War and was fatally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.

Early life Mansfield's house in Middletown, Connecticut, built by his father-in-law in 1810. Now the home of the Middlesex County Historical Society. Mansfield was born to Henry and Mary Fenno Mansfield in New Haven, Connecticut, a cousin of Joseph G. Totten. He entered the United States Military Academy when he was fourteen and graduated second in a class of forty in 1822. He then became a resident of Middletown, Connecticut, before and during his military career. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Advancement came slowly in the peacetime army and he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1832 and captain in 1838. During the Mexican–American War, he received a brevet promotion to major for the action at Fort Brown, Texas, on May 9, 1846. He was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Monterrey, and he received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel for his actions there. He was appointed a brevet colonel for the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847. After the war he was promoted to colonel and Inspector General of the U.S. Army on May 28, 1853.

Civil War At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield commanded the Department of Washington (April 27 – August 17, 1861), and was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1861. General-in-chief Winfield Scott recommended Mansfield for command of the volunteer army being raised in Washington D.C. that spring, but the command went to Irvin McDowell instead. Mansfield was not considered the best choice due to his relatively advanced age and skepticism of volunteer troops and the administration's push for a quick drive on Richmond that would end the war in a few months, and he also lacked a political sponsor in Washington.

After the Union rout at Bull Run, George McClellan was put in command of the war effort in the Eastern Theater and Mansfield's hopes of army command were again dashed. McClellan also did not offer him a command in the newly created Army of the Potomac. Mansfield was stationed at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, in October, following the battle fought there by Benjamin Butler in August. He was a brigade commander in the Department of Virginia from March to June 1862. His only combat activity during this period was the firing of coastal batteries from Hampton Roads against the ironclad CSS Virginia in its naval battle against the USS Monitor on March 9, 1862. Until the fall of 1862, Mansfield commanded the Suffolk Division of the VII Corps of the Department of Virginia in the vicinity of Suffolk.

The general, tottering in his saddle, goaded the bleeding horse north along the Smoketown Road, away from the 10th Maine, until he came upon the right company of the 125th Pennsylvania. Captain Gardner (K Co.), who noticed that the general seemed ill, immediately called for some men to help the general dismount; Sergeant John Caho (K Co.) and Privates Sam Edmunson (K Co.) and E.S. Rudy (H Co.), with two stragglers, gently eased the bleeding officer from his horse. Forming a chair with their muskets, the five men picked up Mansfield and carried him to a lone tree in the rear of their line, where they left him to await the arrival of a surgeon.

He was taken to a field hospital at the George Line farm in Sharpsburg, where he died the next morning. He was interred in Mortimer Cemetery and re-interred in Indian Hill Cemetery, Middletown, Connecticut, on May 30, 1867. He received a posthumous promotion to major general, backdated from July 18, 1862, for his gallantry at Antietam.