Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath, General
Serving in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and American Indian Wars, Gilbreath is remembered by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath was born on May 13, 1840, in Gernsey County, Ohio. He was the eldest of the three children of Fortunatus Syndor Gilbreath and Rachael Moore Gilbreath. After some movement in his childhood, the Gilbreath family settled in Valparaiso, Indiana. Gilbreath finished school in 1853, the same year his father died. He worked to support his family, studied law, and when the time came, began his military career.
In the spring of 1861 when Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the militia for three months, J.W. Lyttle, a friend of Gilbreath’s, visited him and convinced him to join the army. On June 5th Gilbreath and Lyttle held a meeting in Valparaiso to set up a regiment. Gilbreath rose to his elected duty of 1st Lieutenant of the 20th Indiana Volunteer Regiment and quickly learned the art of soldiering.
The regiment left Lafayette on the 24th of July for Indianapolis, where they would be outfitted with U.S. Army uniforms and equipped for battle, and from there they were transferred to Baltimore to assist in anti-war riot protection.
Erasmus fought in many notable Civil War battles, his first being the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries. He also fought in the Seven Days Battle, Second Battle of Bull Run, Gettysburg, and the Battle of Fredericksburg, in which he was seriously wounded by a Confederate bullet and was forced to lie on the battlefield for seven hours before help came.
After three years of service in the 20th Indiana Volunteer Regiment, his term was up, and Gilbreath decided to re-enlist, joining the Army of the Potomac in May 1864. The following year (1865), upon discharge from the 20th Indiana Volunteers, Gilbreath accepted a commission as a Captain and Assistant Quartermaster of Volunteers, and one year later (1866) he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant of the United States Regular Army in the 15th Infantry Regiment. That same year he was married to Susan Coale Corse. In his postwar service he was attached to Company C where his duties ranged from recommending suitable men for civil office in the southern counties, to serving as a judge to assist the recently freed slaves in suits and complaints against their former owners. Between 1866 and 1869, Gilbreath’s 15th Infantry Regiment was reorganized into the 24th infantry and then finally the 29th infantry, relocating and serving in Texas, North and South Dakota, and Arizona.
In Texas, 1874, Gilbreath took command of Company H, 11th Infantry, which he led for invasion during the Spanish-American War. Shortly after the 11th Infantry departed for Puerto Rico, Gilbreath had taken ill, and passed away on August 22, 1898. He left behind his wife, and two children, his eldest son, William Sydnor Gilbreath, and his daughter Nan Gilbreath.
Gilbreath documented his war experiences in incredibly detailed journals, unique in the sense that they come directly from the perspective of a soldier behind the rifle who participated in many of the great battles that shaped the United States. These forgotten journals were held for the better part of a century at the Detroit Public Library, and rediscovered by Gilbreath’s great-granddaughter. The Pritzker Military Museum & Library helped publish these journals and created an immersive exhibit based on them titled Dignity of Duty.
Book Dedicated: Dignity of Duty: The Journals of Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath, 1861 - 1898: A Personal Odyssey of Service from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War by Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath
