Willard Dean Tripp had early war service as a Corporal in the 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, a 3-month unit, then helped form a new company and was commissioned their Captain in December 1861. They became Company F of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry, part of the famous Irish Brigade at Antietam. He led them for 3 years and was briefly the regiment’s Lieutenant Colonel near the end of his term in December 1864.
The fine photograph above is among the holdings of the US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) in Carlisle, PA.
The USAHEC has another picture of him, this one taken later in the war; he looks to have aged a bit. It’s from a page in Volume 117 of the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection.
Major George S. Worcester (c. 1864)
4 January 2024
Given the moniker George Samuel Franklin David Worcester at birth, he dropped the Franklin and David as a young man to be afterward known as George Samuel Worcester. He was a Sergeant in the 13th Massachusetts Infantry when he was wounded at Antietam in September 1862. After recovering, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery and was successively promoted to Major by the end of the war.
He’s pictured here at that rank in an Alexander Gardner photograph in the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection at the US Army Heritage and Education Center.
There’s another copy of this image, on a CDV, in the Boston Public Library.
This excellent CDV of Theodore Burr Gates is from the collection of descendant Piera Weiss who kindly provided us a scanned copy.
Then their Lieutenant Colonel, Gates commanded his regiment in battle on South Mountain on 14 September and at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was promoted to Colonel soon afterward, and was brevetted Brigadier General of Volunteers in March 1865.
He returned to his law practice after his term expired in late 1864, but also continued in state service and was commissioned Major General in the New York Militia in 1867.
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