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Civil War Soldiers - Vincent
| Vincent, Strong, brigadier-general,
U.S. Army, was born in Waterford, Pa., June 17, 1837. His early
education was obtained in the academy at Erie, where he spent two
years in his father's iron foundry. Recognizing the need of a wider
education, he took a course in the scientific department of Trinity
college at Hartford, Conn., and later entered Harvard, where he was
graduated in 1859. He studied law with such assiduity that the
following year he was admitted to the bar and opened practice in Erie.
Upon the breaking out of the Civil war he volunteered for three
months' service and was elected second lieutenant and later adjutant.
Upon the expiration of this term of service he reenlistd for three
years, was appointed major, and in Sept., 1861, was promoted to be
lieutenant-colonel of the 83d Pa. infantry. He took part in the siege
at Yorktown, but succumbed to an attack of swamp fever soon after the
battle of Hanover Court House. Upon his recovery he was made colonel
and temporarily commanded a brigade during the retreat at
Fredericksburg. In 1863 he was given command of a brigade as ranking
colonel and rendered efficient service to the cavalry under Gen.
Pleasonton at Aldie. At the battle of Gettysburg July 3, when Gen.
Warren sent word from the left to have Little Round Top occupied by a
brigade, Gen. Vincent, in the absence of the division commander
assumed the responsibility of sending his own brigade, and posted his
men on the left hand crest and in the hollow between it and Round Top,
at the point where the first attempt was made by the Confederates to
turn the left flank of the Federal army. As Col. O'Rourke's regiment
met the charge of the enemy it faltered for a moment and Gen. Vincent
sprang out in front and cheered it on, when he was shot, dying four
days later from the wound. He was commissioned brigadier-general of
volunteers for his gallantry on this occasion. Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
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