Louis Henry Pelouze was born on May 30, 1831, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Louis and Ann Pelouze. His father was a “type founder” who owned $5,000 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Philadelphia, and he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1853. After graduation, he received a commission in the artillery. He served in the Third Seminole War, and he was stationed in Kansas during the political turmoil of the late 1850s. He married Ellen Doolittle, and they had at least five children: Mina, born around 1858; Catherine, born around 1862; Louis, born around 1864; William, born around 1866; and Frederick, born around 1869.

 

He remained in the army during the Civil War, and he was promoted to captain in the 15^th United States Infantry in May 1861. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862. He eventually recovered, and he served as an assistant adjutant general with the rank of lieutenant colonel. According to an early biographer, he was “in charge of the records of colored troops in the war department” from May 1864 until June 1868. Army officials assigned him to the Department of the Lakes from 1869 until 1873. By 1870, he and his family were stationed in Detroit, Michigan, and he owned $1,000 of personal property. He died of “Typho-malarial fever complicated with dysentery” in Washington, D.C., on June 2, 1878.

 

Image: Louis H. Pelouze (courtesy Library of Congress, Gen. L.H. Pelouze, U.S.A., None. [Between 1860 and 1875] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017893767)

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