Richard A. Bachia was born around 1823 in New York, reportedly the “son of an Italian gentleman” and an “American lady.” He married a woman named Mary around 1851, and they had at least three children: Mary, born around 1852; Cecilia, born around 1854; and Richard, born around 1858.

 

He was a prominent printer in New York City, and he produced large patriotic engravings of George Washington and Henry Clay in 1852. He belonged to the Mercantile Library Association, and by 1859, he was serving as the organization’s president. By 1860, he owned $1,000 of personal property, and he employed at least white servant. According to one observer, he was an art “connoisseur of fine discrimination,” and he had an “extraordinary” love of books.

 

When the Civil War erupted, he reportedly “felt his patriotism appealed to,” and he received a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the 87^th New York Infantry in November 1861. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with brown hair and gray eyes. The regiment took part in the Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of Williamsburg, the Battle of Seven Pines, the Seven Days Battles, and the Second Battle of Bull Run. Confederate forces captured him in the Second Battle of Bull Run, but he received a parole soon afterward, and he reached Annapolis, Maryland, on September 16, 1862.

 

By that fall, however, he was suffering from “blood poisoning & chronic diarrhea,” and Union officials discharged him on October 13, 1862. He returned to New York City after leaving the army, and in 1869, he became commander of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He fell ill with an “affection of the brain” in September 1869, and he died that December.

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