Stephen Walley Groesbeck
Stephen Walley Groesbeck was born on November 26, 1840, in Albany, New York. By the early 1860s, he was living in Iowa and working as a teacher.
 
He enlisted in the Union army on October 28, 1861, and he mustered in as a quartermaster sergeant in the 4th Iowa Cavalry on November 26. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant in September 1862. He was wounded in the left foot during a skirmish on November 7, 1862. According to an early biographer, the wound left him “wholly disabled,” and he resigned on April 4, 1863.
 
He applied for a federal pension in May 1863 and eventually received one. He spent the ensuing months attending a military school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He rejoined the army in September 1864, mustering in as a 2nd lieutenant in Company B of the 15th Veteran Reserve Corps. In January 1866, he was assigned to duty with the Freedmen’s Bureau. He mustered out on January 14, 1867, and accepted a commission in the Regular Army.
 
He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1875, and he spent the early 1880s as acting judge-advocate of the Department of the Missouri. In 1886, he became acting judge-advocate of the Department of Dakota. He was promoted to captain in 1889, and in 1892, he became judge-advocate for the United States Army. He retired in 1903 at the rank of brigadier general. He died of pneumonia on May 8, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri.
 
Image: Stephen W. Groesbeck (Officers of the Army and Navy (Regular) who Served in the Civil War)
3778
DATABASE CONTENT
(3778)Groesbeck, Stephen Walley1840-11-261904-05-08
  • Conflict Side: Union
  • Role: Soldier
  • Rank in: Sergeant
  • Rank out: 2nd Lieutenant
  • Rank highest: 2nd Lieutenant
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White

Documents - Records: 5

  • (10682) [writer] ~ Stephen W. Groesbeck to James M. Tracy, 13 November 1866
  • (10722) [writer] ~ Stephen W. Groesbeck Special Order, 8 April 1867
  • (10723) [writer] ~ Stephen W. Groesbeck to James M. Tracy, 21 November 1866
  • (15414) [writer] ~ Stephen W. Groesbeck Special Order, 19 April 1867
  • (15415) [writer] ~ Stephen W. Groesbeck Special Order, 1 June 1867

Places - Records: 2

  • (572) [birth] ~ Albany, Albany County, New York
  • (64) [death] ~ St. Louis, Missouri

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Regiments - Records: 1

  • (1197) [enlisted] ~ 4th Iowa Cavalry
SOURCES

1880 United States Federal Census, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; Officers of the Army and Navy (Regular) who Served in the Civil War, eds. William H. Powell and Edward Shippen (L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1892)