Isaac Swartwood Catlin

Twice Wounded—He Returned Until He Lost a Leg

Isaac Swartwood Catlin was born on July 8, 1835, near Owego, New York. Before becoming a soldier, he prepared for a career in law, studying in New York and gaining admission to the bar while still a young man. He returned to Owego and entered legal practice, and by 1860 he had also become involved in local public life. Within months, however, the outbreak of the American Civil War redirected his life from law and civic service toward the battlefield.

When President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers in April 1861, Catlin helped raise a company of infantry in his home region and became its Captain. His company entered the 3rd New York Infantry as Company H. The regiment was mustered into federal service in May 1861, placing Catlin among the New York officers who entered the war during its earliest weeks. His first significant combat experience came at the Battle of Big Bethel in Virginia on June 10, 1861, one of the earliest land engagements of the Civil War. New York's official regimental history confirms Catlin's command of Company H in the 3rd New York Infantry.

Catlin eventually left the 3rd New York and returned to military service with the 109th New York Infantry. His responsibilities increased rapidly, and he rose into the regiment's senior leadership. By the summer of 1864 the 109th New York was serving in the hard-fought operations around Petersburg, Virginia. On July 29, 1864, Catlin was promoted to Colonel. The timing was extraordinary: the very next day he would lead his regiment into the battle that permanently defined his military career.

On July 30, 1864, Union forces attacked Confederate positions outside Petersburg in what became known as the Battle of the Crater. A massive mine had been detonated beneath the Confederate defenses, producing a huge explosion and initially opening a breach. But the Union assault soon descended into confusion. Units became disorganized in and around the crater, command and control deteriorated, and Confederate forces responded with increasingly effective resistance.

Colonel Catlin was commanding the 109th New York Infantry during this chaos. As troops became disorganized, he personally attempted to rally them and restore order under enemy fire. During that effort he was struck and severely wounded. His injury was serious enough that soldiers began carrying him away from the battlefield. For many officers, that would have ended the day's service.

Catlin refused to let it end there.

While being carried from the field, he recovered sufficiently to realize what was happening around him. Instead of continuing toward safety, he attempted to return to his command. He was trying to get back to the men he had been leading in the middle of an increasingly desperate battle. During that attempt, he was struck a second time.

The second wound was devastating. The injury ultimately required the amputation of his right leg. Catlin's Medal of Honor citation later centered precisely on this sequence: his effort to rally disorganized troops, his first severe wound, and his decision to return toward his command before being wounded again. The action was therefore not simply an example of an officer being injured in battle. It was recognition of a commander who, after already being disabled by enemy fire, deliberately tried to return to his soldiers rather than remain out of the fight.

Catlin survived both wounds and the amputation. His battlefield career, however, had been transformed permanently. He had entered the Battle of the Crater as the Colonel commanding the 109th New York Infantry and left it having sacrificed his right leg while attempting to return to that command.

His service received further military recognition as the Civil War approached its conclusion. Catlin received brevet advancement for gallant and meritorious service, ultimately attaining the wartime distinction of Brevet Major General of U.S. Volunteers, dated March 13, 1865. Official U.S. government records list him among the officers brevetted both Brigadier General and Major General of Volunteers for Civil War service. This Brevet Major General rank represents the highest verified rank associated with his wartime military career.

Catlin was mustered out of the volunteer service in June 1865, but his relationship with the Army did not completely end. He later entered the Regular Army as a Captain in 1867. At the same time he received Regular Army brevet recognition for his wartime service, including recognition associated with the Wilderness and Petersburg campaigns. His physical wounds had permanently altered his ability to serve in the conventional manner, and he eventually retired from active military service in 1870.

After the war, Catlin rebuilt his civilian career around the law and public service. He returned to legal practice and became District Attorney of Tioga County. He later moved his career to Brooklyn, where he developed a prominent legal practice. Contemporary city records identify him as both a lawyer and District Attorney, and he served as Kings County District Attorney after winning election in the late 1870s. His postwar life therefore extended far beyond the battlefield: the severely wounded Civil War officer went on to build a substantial second career in law and public affairs.

Catlin also remained connected to military memory and veterans' affairs. Decades after Petersburg, he continued speaking publicly about national and military subjects. A surviving Library of Congress publication preserves an address he delivered in Brooklyn in 1898 during a movement to raise funds for a monument honoring those lost aboard the battleship Maine. The record demonstrates that even more than thirty years after the Civil War, Catlin remained publicly associated with military remembrance and patriotic civic life.

The most important formal recognition of his Civil War heroism came more than thirty-four years after the Battle of the Crater. On January 13, 1899, Isaac Swartwood Catlin received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Petersburg on July 30, 1864. He was alive to receive the honor; it was not a posthumous award.

For this profile, his decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1896–1903 Army — 1899, with no additional device or clasp. The 1899 date represents the presentation of the Medal of Honor rather than the date of the heroic action. Catlin's valor belonged to 1864; the national recognition came decades later. No additional medal has been included in his verified profile without recipient-specific evidence.

The Army Medal of Honor itself had been established during the Civil War, when Congress created a national means of recognizing extraordinary military conduct. Catlin's award illustrates an important feature of Civil War Medal of Honor history: many deserving actions were reviewed and formally recognized years or even decades after the fighting had ended. In his case, the passage of time did not diminish the significance of what had happened at Petersburg.

What distinguished Catlin's action was his determination to return to command after already being severely wounded. He was not recognized simply because he had been injured twice. The central element was his conduct as a commander—his attempt to rally troops during a disorganized battle and his decision to turn back toward his men even after being carried away wounded.

Catlin lived for more than half a century after the Civil War. During those decades he became known not merely as a wounded veteran but as a lawyer, prosecutor, public figure, and senior former military officer. He witnessed the United States transform dramatically from the divided country of 1861 into a major twentieth-century power.

Isaac Swartwood Catlin died on January 19, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of eighty. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where official cemetery records identify him among the Civil War Medal of Honor recipients interred there.

His military legacy ultimately returns to July 30, 1864. Colonel Catlin entered the Battle of the Crater commanding the 109th New York Infantry. He tried to rally troops amid confusion, suffered a severe wound, and was carried toward safety. Yet when he recovered enough to understand what was happening, he turned back toward his command. A second enemy wound cost him his right leg, but his decision to return became the act remembered by the Medal of Honor.

More than three decades later, the United States formally recognized that moment. His Medal of Honor 1896–1903 Army — 1899 became the enduring decoration attached to a career in which leadership, sacrifice, and determination continued long after the battlefield had taken his leg.