Richard Tippet Chesterfield
Richard Tippet Chesterfield was born on February 25, 1842, in St. Newlyn East, England, to John and Eliza Chesterfield. His father was a farmer who owned $800 of real estate and $400 of personal property by 1860. The family immigrated to America in the 1840s and settled in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The family moved to Willow Springs, Wisconsin, in the 1850s, but they returned to Mineral Point in the 1860s.
Chesterfield enlisted in the Union army on April 22, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry. The regiment took part in the First Battle of Bull Run. In February 1862, army officials transferred him to the Mississippi River Squadron. He served aboard the USS Mount City. On June 17, 1862, during the Battle of St. Charles, a Confederate shot struck one of the Mound City’s steam drums. Scalding-hot steam filled the ship, killing or wounding 85 percent of the ship’s crew. Chesterfield was among the dead.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (2812) | Chesterfield, Richard Tippet | 1842-02-25 | 1862-06 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 1
- (3671) [writer] ~ Richard T. Chesterfield to John Chesterfield and Eliza Chesterfield, 1 August 1861
People - Records: 2
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850 and 1860 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; England Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, available from Ancestry.com; Chicago (IL) Tribune, 3 July 1862
