Name Samuel Spear | ||
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Years of service 1833 (1833)–1865 (1865) Rank Colonel
Brevet Brigadier General Commands held 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry
2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the James Battles/wars Seminole Wars
Mexican–American War
Battle of Cerro Gordo
American Civil War
Joint Expedition Against Franklin
Second Battle of Ream's Station
Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road
Battle of Five Forks Died May 4, 1875, New York City, New York, United States Place of burial Cypress Hills National Cemetery Battles and wars Seminole Wars, Mexican–American War People also search for James K. Marshall, Charles W. Flusser, Collett Leventhorpe, Edmund Colhoun Service/branch United States Army, Union Army Allegiance United States of America, Union | ||
Samuel Perkins Spear (1815 – May 4, 1875) was an American soldier who saw combat in the Seminole Wars, the Mexican–American War, and the Civil War. He enlisted in the army in 1833, and was assigned twice to the 2d Dragoons and once to the 2d Cavalry in which he was promoted from private to first sergeant each time.
Spear was discharged from the U.S. Regular Army on August 6, 1861. He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and was promoted to colonel on August 20, 1862. He commanded the brigade to which his regiment was assigned in the XVIII Corps of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina to which his regiment was assigned from August 1863 to April 28, 1864. For the rest of 1864, he commanded the brigade as part of the XVIII Corps, Army of the James. From January 1865 to April 1, 1865, he commanded the brigade as Brigade 2 of the Cavalry Division of the Army of the James.
He commanded his regiment at the Joint Expedition Against Franklin, October 3, 1862. He commanded his brigade at the Second Battle of Ream's Station, August 25, 1864, the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road, October 27–28, 1864 and the Battle of Five Forks, April 1, 1865, during the Siege of Petersburg. Spear was wounded at the Battle of Five Forks and resigned from the volunteers on May 9, 1865.
On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Spear for appointment to the grade of Brevet brigadier general of volunteers for his actions as a brigade commander at the Battle of Fair Oaks & Darbytown Road, to rank from April 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866.
After the Civil War, Spear became a Major-general in the Irish Republican Army within the Fenian Movement in America and lead the eastern wing of the Fenian Army from St Albans, Vermont into Canada during June 6-7, 1866. He also served as the Fenian Secretary of War within the Fenian Brotherhood during the late 1860s.