Item No. 5105932

A fine CDV portrait of Colonel John Ross Mendenhall, from the family album of U.S. Army surgeon and Medal of Honor recipient Bernard J. D. Irwin. The photograph bears the imprint of G. Grelling, Detroit, Michigan, and is accompanied by a matching portrait of Mendenhall’s wife, Sophia Elizabeth Mix Mendenhall. Irwin and Mendenhall both served at Detroit’s Fort Wayne around 1867, Mendenhall with the 4th US Artillery and Irwin as post surgeon. The two also likely were acquainted during the Civil War, serving the divisional command circles of the Army of the Ohio and Army of the Cumberland in 1862 and 1863.

Mendenhall graduated from West Point in 1851 and served as a Regular Army artillery officer on the frontier before the Civil War. He married Sophia Elizabeth Mix in 1858. As captain of the 4th Artillery, Mendenhall distinguished himself at Shiloh and was brevetted major for his service there. His most notable moment came at the Battle of Stones River, where, as chief of artillery of the Union left wing, he rapidly concentrated more than fifty guns at McFadden’s Ford and used their massed fire to shatter John C. Breckinridge’s Confederate assault. He again distinguished himself at Chickamauga and received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel. Mendenhall remained in the Regular Army after the war, eventually commanding the Department of Alaska in 1876-77 and rising to colonel of the 2nd US Artillery. He died in 1892 and was buried at West Point.