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Class of 1825

Vol. I
p360 418

(Born Pa.)

Joseph Bonnell

(Ap'd Pa.)

Born Aug. 4, 1802.

Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1821, to July 1, 1825, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to

Bvt. Second Lieut., 5th Infantry, July 1, 1825.

Second Lieut., 3d Infantry, July 1, 1825.

Served: on Recruiting service, 1825‑26; in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, p361 Mo., 1826‑27; on frontier duty at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1827‑28;a on Recruiting service, 1828‑29; on frontier duty at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1829‑30, — Des Moines Rapids, Io., 1830, — Jefferson Barracks,

(First Lieut., 3d Infantry, July 15, 1831)

Mo., 1830‑31, — Ft. Jesup, La., 1831‑36, — Camp Sabine, La., 1836, —

(Captain, 8th Infantry, July 7, 1838)

and Ft. Jesup, La., 1836‑38; on Northern Frontier during Canada Border Disturbances, at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., 1838‑39, — Morristown, N. Y., 1839, — Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., 1839, — and Ogdensburg, N. Y., 1839‑40; and on Recruiting service, 1840.

Died, Sep. 27, 1840, at Philadelphia, Pa.: Aged 37.

Buried, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA.

Thayer's Note:

a Reading Cullum's bland bare-bones summary of his post assignments, we can be forgiven for thinking, "Well, this fellow didn't do anything extraordinary, just another arduous life of shifting around on the frontier." Joseph Bonnell, however, is credited today as one of the heroes of the Texas Revolution, and in the finest tradition of honor and decency, which alone achieves the much-talked-about "winning of hearts and minds" still needed today: we see this elsewhere with George Rogers Clark and Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class. John C. Casey.

Among many other pages online, including the burial-place link already given above, these two stand out — for the first, more extensive, link I am indebted to Fred Bothwell, USMA Class of 1962 — and provide complementary information:

West Point.Org • Handbook of Texas Online.

How many other such personal stories lie hidden under these summaries in the Register? I wonder.

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