A Civil War Biography

Henry Moses Judah

Judah was born 12 June 1821 in Snow Hill, Maryland. He entered West Point on 1 July 1839 and was graduated 35th in the class of 1843. He spent his early military career on garrison duty in Florida and then in Texas. He fought in the war with Mexico as a 2nd lieutenant in the 4th US Infantry. Remaining in the army Judah, promoted to captain on 29 September 1853, was assigned garrison duties at various locations including Pascagoula, Mississippi, Fort Ontario and the Plattsburg barracks in New York, Vancouver, Washington, and Fort Jones and Fort Yuma in California.

When the war erupted he helped raise the 4th California Volunteers and became its colonel on 6 September 1861. The 4th, arriving on 19 December 1861, served in the Washington defenses until 10 March 1862. Judah was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on 21 March 1862. He was named Acting Inspector General of the Army of Tennessee and commanded a division during the advance towards Corinth, Mississippi. He was assigned as Acting Inspector General of the Army of the Ohio on 10 October 1862. In May 1863 he was assigned to command the 3rd division of the XXIII Corps. The division, stationed in Cincinnati, Ohio was assigned to pursue John Hunt Morgan, a task at which with Judah in command, failed. Judah spent the remainder of the war assigned various administrative duties in the Department of the Cumberland. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel and colonel in the regular army on 13 March 1865.

He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 24 August 1865. He was assigned with the rank of major to garrison duty in Plattsburg, New York where he died 14 January 1866.

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