Item contributed by Historic New England
Adjutant General John W. M. Appleton, Assistant Adjutant General Colonel D. T. E. Casteel, and First Lieutenant Douglas Settle sit in Appleton’s office in Charleston, West Virginia, in the late nineteenth century. Massachusetts-born Appleton enrolled as a private in the Massachusetts Independent Cadet Corps at the start of the Civil War, and by 1863, he was commissioned in the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. As a newly promoted captain, he fought with the regiment in July of that year at the Battle of Fort Wagner, one of the first major actions in which African American soldiers fought for the Union. After the war, he moved his family to West Virginia, where he engaged in various business enterprises. On March 4, 1897, West Virginia Governor George W. Atkinson appointed him to the post of adjutant general in Charleston, a position he served for four years.
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Photograph of Adjutant General John W. M. Appleton, Assistant Adjutant General Colonel D. T. E. Casteel, and First Lieutenant Douglas Settle. 6 x 8 inches.
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