Galusha Pen­ny­packer [1. I got most of the info for this piece from All Biogra­phies and the remain­ing info from Wikipedia.] came from a long line of mil­i­tary men. His father had fought in the Mexican-American War and his grand­fa­ther in the Rev­o­lu­tion. At the out­break of the Civil War, Galusha was sched­uled to attend West Point. Instead he enlisted as a quar­ter­mas­ter in the 9th Penn­syl­va­nia Infantry Reg­i­ment. It was 1861.

He refused an appoint­ment of first lieu­tenant in his com­pany on account of his age (he was 16 at the time) and instead was made a non-commissioned staff-officer. Upon entry of his unit into the war he was pro­moted to cap­tain of Com­pany A, 97th Penn­syl­va­nia Vol­un­teers on August 22, 1861. Roughly a month later he was pro­moted again, this time to major.

He remained with the 97th for many years, where he was well respected and liked by his men. By the time 1864 rolled around, and after see­ing much action and com­bat, he had been pro­moted to colonel.

Pennypacker’s great­est moment of the war came at the sec­ond bat­tle of Fort Fisher [2. Fort Fisher was a Con­fed­er­ate fort dur­ing the Amer­i­can Civil War. It pro­tected the vital trad­ing routes of the port at Wilm­ing­ton, North Car­olina, from 1861 until its cap­ture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear River’s two out­lets to the Atlantic Ocean on what is today known as Plea­sure Island.] on Jan­u­ary 15, 1865, where he was severely wounded while cross­ing enemy lines. Because of his brav­ery in lead­ing his men and his wound­ing in the bat­tle he was awarded Con­gres­sional Medal of Honor with a cita­tion reading -

“He gal­lantly led the charge over a tra­verse and planted the col­ors of one of his reg­i­ments thereon; was severely wounded.”

After the bat­tle Pen­ny­packer was given a brevet [3. A brevet pro­mo­tion is a tem­po­rary autho­riza­tion for a per­son to hold a higher rank. It hap­pened fre­quently in the Civil War.] pro­mo­tion to Brigadier Gen­eral on Jan­u­ary 15, 1865. After con­va­lesc­ing, he received a full pro­mo­tion to brigadier gen­eral at age 20, mak­ing him the youngest offi­cer to hold the rank of gen­eral in the United States Army to this day. He was brevet­ted, once again, to major gen­eral on March 13, 1865. He was not yet 21 years old.

§ One Response to “Galusha Pennypacker, the Youngest Brigadier General in U.S. Army History”

• Rich says:

  December 20, 2007 at 2:56 am

  After the war, Pen­ny­packer was appointed a FULL COLONEL OF INFANTRY in the reg­u­lar Army at the age of 22. In 1867, Colonel Pen­ny­packer received the BREVET RANK OF MAJOR GENERAL IN THE REGULAR ARMY. He retired from the Army in 1883 at the early age of 39 due to dis­abil­ity aris­ing from his Civil War wounds and died in 1916

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