He was stricken with yellow fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina in 1862

(1809-1862) Born in Union County, Kentucky, he grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated in the West Point class of 1829. In the next 7 years he served as an instructor at the United States Military Academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar, resigned from the army, and became a member of the faculty of Cincinnati College where he taught astronomy, philosophy and mathematics. It was as a dedicated student of astronomy that Mitchel gained his claim to fame. He was largely responsible for establishing the Naval Observatory, the Harvard Observatory, the Cincinnati Observatory, and the Dudley Observatory. On August 9, 1861, President Lincoln appointed him a brigadier general of volunteers and he was assigned as commander of the Department of the Ohio. He first organized the northern Kentucky defenses around Cincinnati. During this time, he conspired with espionage agent James J. Andrews on plans to steal a train in Georgia and disrupt a railroad vital to the Confederate States Army coincident with Mitchel's planned attack on Chattanooga, Tennessee. The raid failed, as did Mitchel's military operation. Andrews and a number of his men were captured. Andrews himself was among eight men who were tried in Chattanooga. They were hanged in Atlanta by Confederate forces, but were later buried in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga in 1887. Although a military failure, the story of Andrew's Raid became known to American history as the "Great Locomotive Chase." In March 1862, he seized the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Huntsville, Alabama, and sent raiding parties into Stevenson and Decatur to secure the tracks for the Union army. He was promoted to major general on April 11, 1862. He then commanded the Department of the South and was stricken with yellow fever and died at Beaufort, S.C., on October 30, 1862. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Full standing view wearing a double breasted frock coat with rank of brigadier general with sash and sword attached to his belt. He is holding his bummer's kepi with hat wreath insignia. Back mark: Early war E. Anthony [New York] imprint. Excellent image.