On a January day in 1850 at Litchfield, Conn., a throng of citizens gathered for a presentation ceremony to honor a hometown hero, Brevet Maj. Henry Walton Wessells. The state legislature had appropriated funds to purchase a magnificent jeweled sword in recognition of the West Pointer’s distinguished services with the 2nd U.S. Infantry during the recent war with Mexico. One act of heroism stood out: During the 1847 Battle of Contreras, a wounded Wessells seized the regimental flag after the color sergeant had been killed and led his men against the enemy.

Wessells could not be present to receive the gift from a grateful state, as he was on duty in California. He posed for this portrait about 1854 while between assignments.

Wessells might have spent the rest of his career in the West. The Civil War, however, changed his fortunes. He accepted the colonelcy of the 8th Kansas Infantry in 1861, and commanded his regiment in Missouri. In 1862, he received his brigadier’s star and moved back East for the remainder of the conflict. He suffered his second career combat wound during the Peninsula Campaign, and then served in southeast Virginia and the North Carolina coast. At the latter, he surrendered the 1,600-man garrison of Plymouth to an overwhelming rebel force in April 1864 and spent several months as a prisoner of war. This included a stint in Charleston, S.C., where he and other Union officers were intentionally placed in the line of federal fire in a tit-for-tat battle between Union and Confederate commanders.

After the war, Wessells rejoined the regular army with the 18th U.S. Infantry, and commanded several western posts. They included Fort Phil Kearney in Dakota Territory. Wessells commanded the fort in 1867 following the removal of Col. Henry B. Carrington for his complicity in the December 1866 Fetterman Massacre, a fight in which Native American warriors wiped out a company of 81 troopers led by Capt. William J. Fetterman.

Wessells remained in uniform until 1871, when he ended his 42 years of service as a lieutenant colonel. He returned to Connecticut, and died in 1889.