CIVIL WAR GETTYSBURG GENERAL BIRNEY COLONEL 23rd PA INFANTRY SIGNED DOCUMENT \'63 For Sale

(1825 – 1864)

CIVIL WAR BATTLE of GETTYSBURG UNION MAJORGENERAL,

COLONEL of the ‘HARD FIGHTING’ 23rd PENNSYLVANIA INFANTRY!

Birney was appointed byPresident Lincoln as a Brigadier General in Feb. 1862, and took part under KIA GeneralPhilip Kearny in the Peninsular Campaign.He was tried and acquitted of disobedience of an order at the Battle ofFair Oaks (Seven Pines), then fought at Chantilly. He was again charged with dereliction of dutyat the Battle of Fredericksburg, but again, the charge was not substantiatedand he was promoted to Major General for his able leadership at the Battle ofChancellorsville and commanding the III Corps at Gettysburg after Gen. Sickleswas wounded-in-action! He ultimatelycontracted Malaria and died in 1864.

HERE’s a VERY RARE CIVIL WAR DATE AUTOGRAPHENDORSEMENT DOCUMENT SIGNED BY BIRNEY APPROVING A SPECIAL REQUISITION FOR HEADQUARTERS OF THE 3RD CORPS. The Document is also signed by Lt. ColJohn B. Howard and Capt. James H. Tallman.The 1p. document is datelined at Warrenton Junction, Birginia, Aug. 10,1863 - - BEAUTIFULLY ENDORSED BY BIRNEY, “Approved,D.B. Birney, Maj. Genl”

Thedocument measures 8” x 10” and is in VERY GOOD CONDITION, with a lightspot of toning at the upper right margin.NOTE: The biography pictured in thelisting is included with the Autograph.

A RARE ADDITION TO YOURHISTORICAL CIVIL WAR GENERALS AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION!

BIOGRAPHY of GEN. BIRNEY

David Bell Birney (May 29, 1825 – October18, 1864) was a businessman, lawyer, and a Union General in the American Civil War.

Birney was born in Huntsville,Alabama, the son of an abolitionist from Kentucky, James G. Birney. The Birney familyreturned to Kentucky in 1833, and James Birney freed his slaves. In 1835, thefamily moved to Cincinnati, where thefather published an anti-slavery newspaper. Following numerous threats frompro-slavery mobs, the family moved again to Michigan, and finally to Philadelphia.

Following his graduation from Phillips Academy, Andover,Massachusetts,[1] David Birney entered business,studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He returned to Philadelphia,practicing law from 1856 until the outbreak of the Civil War.

Birney entered the Union army just after Fort Sumter as lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a unit he raised largely at hisown expense. Just prior to the war he had been studying military texts inpreparation for such a role. He was promoted to colonelon August 31, 1861, and to brigadier general on February 17, 1862, clearly benefitingfrom political influences, not military merit. He commanded a brigade in Brig.Gen. Philip Kearny\'s divisionof the III Corps,which he led through the Peninsula Campaign.At the Battle of SevenPines he was accused of disobeying an order from his corps commander, Maj. Gen. Samuel P.Heintzelman, allegedly for \"halting his command a mile from theenemy.\" But this was simply a matter of orders misunderstood. Birney was court-martialed, but with strong positivetestimony from Kearny, he was acquitted and restored to command.

Birney fought at the SecondBattle of Bull Run in support of Maj. Gen. John Pope\'sArmy of Virginia, and at the Battle ofChantilly immediately following. When Kearny was killed in thatbattle, Birney took over command of his division. Stationed in Washington, D.C., he missed the Battle of Antietam,but his division returned to the Army of thePotomac to fight at Fredericksburg.There, he once again encountered military discipline problems, this time forallegedly refusing to support Maj. Gen. George G. Meade\'s division\'s attack on theleft flank of the Union line. However, he was complimented in III Corpscommander Maj. Gen. George Stoneman\'sofficial report for \"the handsome manner in which he handled hisdivision\" on that same day and for a second time he escaped punishment.Birney led his division in heavy fighting at Chancellorsville,where they suffered more casualties (1,607) than any other division in the army.As a result of his distinguished service at Chancellorsville, he was promotedto major general on May 20, 1863.

At the Battle ofGettysburg, the III Corps commander was the notorious Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles. On July 2, 1863, Sicklesinsubordinately moved his corps from its assigned defensive position onCemetery Ridge. Birney\'s new position was from the Devil\'s Den, to the Wheatfield,to the PeachOrchard, part of a salient directly in the path of the Confederateassault, and it was too long a front for a single division to defend. Assaultedby the divisions of Maj. Gens. John Bell Hood and Lafayette McLaws, Birney\'s division wasdemolished. Army commander Meade rushed in reinforcements, but the line couldnot hold. His division and the entire corps were finished as a fighting force.As Birney watched the few survivors of his division gather about him onCemetery Ridge, he whispered to one of his officers, \"I wish I werealready dead.\"[2] Sickles was grievously woundedby a cannonball and Birney assumed temporary command of the corps, despitehaving received two minor wounds himself. He retained command until February1864.

Birney started in the Overland Campaign as a division commanderin the II Corps,his III Corps having been reorganized out of existence that spring. After goodservice in the Wilderness,Spotsylvania Court House (where he was wounded by a shellfragment), and Cold Harbor,on July 23, 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gave Birney command ofthe X Corpsin the Army of the James.However, during the Siege ofPetersburg, Birney fell ill with malaria (some accounts say dysentery and typhoid fever). He was ordered home toPhiladelphia, and died three months later. He is buried there in Woodlands Cemetery.

David Birney was one of the more successful \"political generals\" of the Civil War.Many of his colleagues resented his swift rise in the ranks and he was not abeloved figure with them or his soldiers. Theodore Lyman of Meade\'s staff wroteof Birney:[3]

He was a pale,Puritanical figure, with a demeanor of unmoveable coldness; only he would smilepolitely when you spoke to him. He was spare in person, with a thin face,light-blue eye, and sandy hair. As a General he took very good care of hisStaff and saw they got due promotion. He was a man, too, who looked out for hisown interests sharply and knew the mainspring of military advancement. Hisunpopularity among some persons arose partly from his own promotion, which,however, he deserved, and partly from his cold covert manner.

— Theodore Lyman

The Gen. DavidB. Birney School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[4]

1. Bates, p. 557.

2. Tagg, p. 67.

3. Tagg, p. 63.

4. \"National Register Information System\".National Register of Historic Places. National ParkService. 2010-07-09.

• Bates, Samuel P. Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: T. H. Davis & Co., 1876. OCLC2651010.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.

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