Alameda County Biographies

CAPT. GEORGE ATKINSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Was born at Mountville, Waldo County, Maine, September 26, 1836, being left an orphan 
at eleven years of age.  On March 4, 1852, being then but sixteen years old, he went to 
Syracuse, New York, and there found employment in a drygoods store, where he continued five 
years, on the expiration of which time he moved to Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan, where he was 
engaged in a like business for two years.  He then proceeded to Fulton, Whitesides County, 
Illinois, and after a year to Lake City, Wabasha County, Minnesota; he there engaged in the 
commission business and resided until his coming to California.  When the Civil War broke out, 
Captain Atkinson on April 26, 1861, enlisted in Company I of the First Minnesota Regiment of 
Infantry, and leaving Red Wing on the 27th of May proceeded to Washington, where they were 
assigned to Franklin�s brigade, and took part in the first battle of Bull�s Run.  Subsequently 
he was attached to Sedgwick�s division of Simm�s corps of the army of the Potomac, and was 
present in all the engagements until August 8, 1862, when he mustered out for promotion at 
Harris Landing, Virginia.  He now returned home, and on August 26th of the same year took 
command of Company G, Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and with it proceeded to Fort 
Abercrombie, Dakota, where he was quartered for eighteen months under General Sibley in the 
first instance and afterwards under General Sully, their duty being the subjection of refractory 
Indians.  In the summer of 1864 Captain Atkinson was detailed with two hundred men to proceed 
to the relief of certain emigrants who were held in check by Indians about two hundred miles 
west from Fort Rice, which duty being successfully carried out, they marched back to Sioux 
City, Iowa, thence to Dubuque, and then followed his regiment, which he joined at 
Murfreesborough, Tennessee, and was appointed Brigade Inspector of the Third Brigade, First 
Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps, with which he remained until the close of the war, 
having been engaged in the great fights at Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesborough.  After 
the battle at  Nashville the corps to which Captain Atkinson was attached followed Hood to 
the Tennessee River, where the Captain sustained the well-earned reputation of Minnesota troops 
for bravery on the field of battle, whence they were transported to Washington, where they 
arrived February, 1865.  Here they embarked in transports for Fort Fisher and thence to 
Newburn, North Carolina, then following up the railroad to Kingston, and onward to Goldsboro� 
there joining Sherman�s army, with which they proceeded to Raleigh, North Carolina, and finally 
halted until August, 1865, at Charlotte, in that State.  On the 26th of the same month his 
regiment was mustered out of the service and returned home, he never having received a scratch, 
although being in the thickest of the fray in many a hot engagement.  Upon his return to 
Minnesota, as we have already said, Captain Atkinson engaged in the commission business in Lake 
City, where he resided until 1872, when he embarked in a grocery store in St. Paul, Minnesota, 
and there remained until November 1874, when, with his wife and family, he came to California 
and made his home in San Francisco.  His first employment there was for one year in the 
Assessor�s office, after which he entered upon his present position in the General Freight 
office of the Central Pacific Railroad Company.  In 1876 he transferred his residence to East 
Oakland, and for the last four years has been secretary of the Cosmopolitan Mutual Building and 
Loan Association.  Married in Lake City, June 7, 1866, Miss Maria Kellogg, a native of 
Pennsylvania, and has five children, viz.:  Frank, Sue, Blanche, Nellie, Hardy.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 840-841