Julius Peter Garesché

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Julius Peter Garesché (26 April 1821 – 31 December 1862) was an American professional soldier. He was killed at the Battle of Stones River, Tennessee. The Union Army's Battery Garesché was named for him.

[edit] Life

Garesché was born near Havana, Cuba. He was sent to Georgetown College, Washington, in 1833, and remained there four years. There he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and graduated with the class of 1841, receiving his commission as a second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery. The five subsequent years were spent on the frontier and in garrison duty. During the Mexican-American War he served with distinction, and was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain in 1855.

A Catholic, in Washington he organized the first local conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and during his residence at the capital acted as its president. He contributed frequently on Catholic, social and political questions, to the New York "Freeman's Journal" and "Brownson's Quarterly Review", and in September, 1851, in recognition of his services to the Church, received from Pope Pius IX the decoration of a Knight of St. Sylvester.

When the American Civil War broke out, he declined a commission as brigadier general of volunteers, and was made chief of staff, with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the regular army, to Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans. In this capacity he participated in the operations of the Army of the Cumberland. At the Battle of Stones River, he was killed by a cannonball, while accompanying Rosecrans.

[edit] References

Garesché, Louis, Biography of Lieut.-Col. Julius P. Garesché (Philadelphia, 1887);
Shea, History of Georgetown College (New York, 1891);
Cyclopaedia of American Biography