William D'Alton Mann
William D’Alton Mann was born on September 27, 1839, in Sandusky, Ohio. By the early 1860s, he was living in Michigan.
 
In August 1861, he received a commission as a captain in Company K of the 1st Michigan Cavalry. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 5th Michigan Cavalry in August 1862 and then to colonel of the 7th Michigan Cavalry in February 1863. He fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, and he resigned on March 1, 1864.
 
He settled in Mobile, Alabama, after the war, and he published the Mobile Register. He also served as a revenue assessor. By 1870, he owned $150,000 of real estate and $70,000 of personal property. He supported the Democratic Party, and he ran for a seat in Congress in 1869. White southerners praised him as a “true friend” and an “able and fearless advocate of Democratic principles.”  
 
He traveled to Europe in 1872, and his passport described him as 5 feet, 9 ¾ inches tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He returned to America around 1883 and settled in New York. According to an early biographer, he invented a “boudoir car” that “became well known throughout the United States.” He published the Town Topics and Smart Set magazines. He married Sophie Hartog on August 6, 1902, and they apparently had no children. He died of influenza in Morristown, New Jersey, on May 17, 1920.
 
Image: William D. Mann (courtesy Wikicommons)
5363
DATABASE CONTENT
(5363)Mann, William D'Alton1839-09-271920-05-17
  • Conflict Side: Union
  • Role: Soldier
  • Rank in: Captain
  • Rank out: Colonel
  • Rank highest: Colonel
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White

Documents - Records: 1

  • (15328) [writer] ~ William D. Mann to DeWitt C. Gage, 26 December 1863

Places - Records: 2

  • (168) [birth] ~ Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio
  • (610) [death] ~ Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey

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Regiments - Records: 3

  • (484) [officer] ~ 1st Michigan Cavalry
  • (722) [officer] ~ 5th Michigan Cavalry
  • (791) [officer] ~ 7th Michigan Cavalry

Groups - Records: 1

  • (1) [member/supporter] ~ Democratic Party
SOURCES

1910 United States Federal Census, available from Ancestry.com; New York, New York, Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, available from Ancestry.com; The Clarke County (AL) Democrat, 3 June 1869; Alabama Beacon (Greensboro, AL), 1 May 1869; Men of the Century: An Historical Work, ed. Charles Morris (Philadelphia, PA: L. R. Hamersly, 1896)