Eli Long

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Eli Long

Eli Long (June 16, 1837 – January 5, 1903) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Long was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, and graduated from the Frankfort, Kentucky, military school (the Kentucky Military Institute) in 1855. In 1856, he was appointed second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Cavalry. He was later promoted successively to first lieutenant and captain, serving in a variety of frontier outposts and occasionally battling hostile Indians.

He served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War as the colonel of the 4th Ohio Cavalry, a regiment he organized in early 1861. He saw action in the Tullahoma Campaign, as well as at the battles of Stones River and Chickamauga, where he commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Cavalry Corps. He was distinguished in the Atlanta Campaign He was brevetted major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel in the Regular Army for "gallant and meritorious services" at Farmington and Knoxville in Tennessee and Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, respectively. He was commissioned as a brigadier general in the volunteer army and promoted to command of a division under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson.

On March 13, 1865, Long was brevetted brigadier general in the Regular Army for gallantry during Wilson's Raid on Selma, Alabama, where he led the 2nd Division in a charge upon the entrenchments that resulted in the capture of that place. He was severely wounded in the head in the action. For his services during the war, he was later brevetted a major general in the Regular Army and major general of volunteers. During the Civil War, Long was wounded five times and also cited for gallantry five times.

He mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15, 1866, and was retired with the full rank of major general in August 1867.^[1] He then lived in Plainfield, New Jersey, earning a living as a lawyer and borough recorder. He is buried there in Hillside Cemetery.