DOB/DOD: June 29, 1834 (Montgomery, NY) – July 28, 1918 (New Haven, CT); 84 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married to Maria Eleanora Dickerson (1839-1927).
CHILDREN: Four sons, Ralph (1868-1943), Howard W. (1869-1943), Simon (1872-1918), and Marshall J. (1875-1940). Seven daughters, Mildred A. Embler Loomis (1866-1921), Harriet Embler Sanford (1871-?), Esther E. (1874-1963), Alice V. (1878-1961), Grace Embler Voight (1880-1912), Tennie Embler Merwin (1881-1950). and Jennie (1882-?).
ENLISTMENT: April 19, 1861.
DISCHARGE: March 21, 1865.
FAMILY: Born to Adam Embler (1788-1865) and Hannah Weller Embler (1795-1843).Eight sisters, Mary Ann Embler Puff (1808-1881), Letita Embler Moore (1813-1882), Catherine M. (1814-1852), Mary (1815-1835), Harriet W. (1818-1854), Martha T. (1823-1845), Sarah (1824-1851), and Catherine (1843-?). One brother, Adam H. (1820-1879).
After the Civil War, he returned to his home in Montgomery, Orange County, New York, but eventually moved to Connecticut. He was an officer and one of the founders of the Southern New England Telephone Company and was Adjutant General of Connecticut under Connecticut Governor Morgan C. Bulkeley. As a result, he was always referred to as “The General” or “General Embler.” He was also a Major in the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard of Connecticut. Around June of 1918, he attended a memorial service for the members of the Old New Haven Blues, who had fallen in France and contracted pneumonia, which later contributed to his weakening health, and he passed away in July of that year.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: Civil War
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Army
UNIT: Company D, 59th New York Infantry
DATE OF ISSUE AND PRESENTATION: October 19, 1893 (29 years later)
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 30
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Captain (Infantry) Andrew Henry Embler, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 27 October 1864, while serving with Company D, 59th New York Infantry, in action at Boydton Plank Road, Virginia. Captain Embler charged at the head of two regiments, which drove the enemy’s main body, gained the crest of the hill near the Burgess House, and forced a barricade on the Boydton road.
From The Meriden Daily Republic October 23, 1893
GENERAL EMBLER HONORED
A MEDAL FROM THE GOVERNMENT FOR GALLANTRY
General A.H. Embler, ex-adjutant general of the state, has received from the Secretary of War a medal for distinguished gallantry at Boydton Plank Road, Virginia, on October 27, 1864. The medal is made from the metal of an old cannon captured from the Confederates during the war and is one of the most valuable testimonials given by this government to its brave old soldiers. The lower or star part of the medallion upon one side is embellished with raised figures enclosed with a circle, depicting the symbol of Liberty putting down the rebellion, while upon the opposite side is engraved the following inscription:
The Congress to Brevet Colonel Andrew H. Embler, United States Volunteers, for distinguished gallantry in action at Boydton Plank Road, Virginia, October 27, 1864.
General Embler, upon receiving the medal, remembered that in 1863, Congress passed the law noted in the letter accompanying the medal, but as he had not expected to receive such a high testimonial, it had passed completely from his mind until its receipt. How it is that the War Department has been so long carrying out the act, General Embler himself is unable to explain.
From the Hartford Courant June 12, 1913
EMBLER TELLS VETS OF GETTYSBURG
GIVES GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF PICKETT’S CHARGE
General A.H. Embler Tellis his Recollections of the battle
Exchanges Reminiscences with Reverend J.H. Twichell
General A, H. Embler of New Haven, formerly a resident of this city and the second commander of Robert O. Tyler Post, G.A.R., addressed his comrades in Grand Army Hall, Brown, Thomson & Co. building, last evening on the battle of Gettysburg, with especial reference to the third day’s fight in which he was a participant, being at that time assistant adjutant in the Second Division, Second Corps, Hancock’s. The meeting was open, and the hall was well-filled.
A large map showing the field on the third day had been prepared, and this General Embler explained with a brief introduction covering the results of the three days’ fight, in which 50,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing. He spoke of the causes which made Gettysburg the scene of the greatest fight in the Civil War, saying that it was first brought about by the trivial fact that the Confederates under Heth wanted shoes and went to Gettysburg in the hope of finding them and, secondly because once an engagement had begun there, ‘it was found a suitable place at which to mass troops, as ten roads led into the town. Seven of which were held through the fight by Lee’s forces, and three, the Emmetsburg Road, Taneytown Road, and the Baltimore Turnpike, were in possession of the Union forces.
Reynolds, in common with the Union forces which first reached Gettysburg and passed beyond it for a matter of two miles early on July 1, the first day, saw the importance of the ground, and it was due largely to the report which he sent back to Meade that the great conflict was forced there. During the first day’s fighting, in which General Reynolds was killed, the Eleventh Corps was badly hammered and fell back so that the Confederates occupied the
city from that time until their retreat. The first day ended with the Confederates in possession of the field and with the Eleventh Corps in possession of a ridge south of the town, known as Cemetery Ridge, and of Culp’s Hill.
As Meade’s men arrived, they prolonged the line to the southward, taking in two rocky hills at the end of the Cemetery Ridge, known as Round Top and Little Round Top, which saw some of the fiercest of the fighting on the
second day. Before going on to the second day, General Embler spoke of certain features of the first day’s fight,
alluding to John Burns, the old farmer who put on his Sunday suit, took an old smooth-bore musket, and fought
with the Wisconsin Iron Brigade, being wounded three times in the course of the day. It was explained that his ire was aroused because some of Ewells’ Confederates had milked his cows. He added, to illustrate the fierceness of the first day’s contest, that Company C, Twentieth North Carolina, went into the battle with three officers and eighty-four men and came out of it with one private and no officers.
Coming to the second day, General Embler said that the morning was spent in correcting position by both armies, but that General Sickles, not satisfied with his position, went forward to the Emmetsburg Road and left both his flanks up in the air, an act which cost many lives. Longstreet attacked him at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, though the fight around the Round Top had begun much earlier, and these were safe at 4. Longstreet finally broke through, and Sickles lost a lot in this contest. During this fight, the First Minnesota Regiment charged three Mississippi regiments under Barksdale and lost 215 men out of 260.
The gap in the Union lines was finally closed, and both sides were fairly exhausted. At sunset, Johnson’s Confederates took Culp’s Hill, the Union forces having been drawn away from it, but Johnson was driven out the next morning.
Coming to the last day, July 3, General Embler said that the morning was perfectly quiet except for four
hours of fighting incident to the retaking of Culp’s Hill, and then a Sunday calm lasted until about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, by which time Lee had determined to send Pickett with his fifteen regiments of Virginians against the Union center. At 1 o’clock, the greatest artillery duel of the war began, with over 100 cannons on each side being worked. After two hours of this, it ceased and Pickett’s charge began, the men having a march of a little over a mile before they reached the crest of Cemetery Hill and the Union infantry. He said that neither tongue nor pen could do justice to the magnificent valor of that charge in the face of a direct two oblique and an enfilading fire from the Union guns. The point of contact was Webb’s Philadelphia brigade, which Armistead finally reached with his brigade of Virginians. The fight then, he said, became a melee in which the commands of the officers could not be heard and in which they were not needed. It lasted hut a short time, and then the men separated, the Confederates either raising their hands in token of surrender or falling back down the hill, leaving their dead and wounded and thirty-three battle flags on the field.
On July 4, General Embler said parties were going over the field, picking up the muskets, and sticking the bayonets in the ground. The guns standing up like trees in a nursery. The fight was over.
After the address, the request was made that veterans who had been in the fight might arise. And nine, including Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, stood up. Rev. Mr. Twichell. once General Embler’s pastor, was greatly interested in the address and the map and pointed out on the latter the site of the Trostle house, which he recalled. He spoke later briefly. as did Chaplain W. F. Hilton and William A. Willard, the latter a member of the Citizens’ Corps of Robert O. Tyler Post.
From the Hartford Courant July 29, 1918
GEN. A.H. EMBLER DIES IN NEW HAVEN
Many Years Treasurer of Southern New England Telephone Co.
VETERAN OF THE CIVIL WAR
Once Resident of Hartford and Major of First Company, Governor’s Foot Guard
(Special to The Courant.)
General Andrew Henry Embler of New Haven, adjutant general under Governor Morgan G. Bulkeley, once Major of the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard and former treasurer of the Southern New England Telephone Company, died in New Haven yesterday. He was 84 years old. General Embler’s death came after a severe attack of pneumonia contracted about six weeks ago as the result of a visit to a cemetery to attend a memorial service for
the members of the old New Haven Blues, now incorporated with the 102nd Infantry, who have fallen in France. General Embler apparently recovered from pneumonia but was not in vigorous health after his illness.
General Embler was born in New York City on June 29, 1834, and was educated in the public schools of that city. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted as a Private in the second corps of New York infantry and, during the war, was wounded three times at Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Appomattox. He received a medal for bravery in action and was present at the Appomattox Courthouse at Lee’s surrender. He was breveted Lieutenant Colonel by Secretary of War Stanton in 1865.
After the war, he came to Hartford. In 1871 he was a member of the firm of H. P. Blair & Embler, whose
place of business was at No. 178 Asylum Street. The firm became Embler & Bosworth, with N. A. Bosworth as the other member, in 1872 and later, in 1875, A. H. Embler & Co. Its store was then at No. 442 Asylum Street, while General Embler lived on Niles Street. He had previously lived in Windsor.
He was a major of the First Company, Governor’s Foot Guard, about forty years ago and later was connected with the Second Company in New Haven.
On his retirement from the Southern New England Telephone Company in 1913, General Embler was the only remaining member of the original executive officers of the company. When he first became connected with the Connecticut Telephone Company, which later became the Southern New England Telephone Company, the entire executive force was located in one room in the Palladium building on Orange Street, New Haven; the only other members of the force besides the officers being a bookkeeper and two young women clerks. The Southern New England Telephone Company had ninety-six stockholders in 1882. General Embler has seen two general superintendents and one general manager of the company in authority. He was a pioneer in the telephone business, being made treasurer of the Connecticut Telephone Company in 1882 and taking the same office with the Southern New England, a place he held for more than thirty years.
General Embler was long an enthusiastic member of the New Haven Blues, Company D. He served in the National Guard as a Private, Captain, and Major and had a record of forty-two years as a citizen-soldier. In 1890, he was appointed Adjutant General after the resignation of Adjutant General Lucius B. Barbour.
Besides his wife, General Embler leaves nine children: Mrs. Mildred Loomis, Ralph H. Embler, Howard W. Embler, Mrs. Harris M. Sanford, Simms Embler, Esther E. Embler, Marshall J. Embler, Olive V. Embler, and Mrs. A. D. Merwin. A daughter, Mrs. Grave Voight, died a number of years ago.
Buried in Evergreen Cemetery, 769 Ella T Grasso Boulevard, New Haven, Connecticut; Larch Avenue, Plot 13, Grave 3. Photos by Jeff DeWitt.
END