Isaac Swartwood Catlin

from The New York Times, January 20, 1916:

       GEN. I. S. CATLIN DIES.
        HAD BEEN ILL A WEEK
   Partner and Brother-in-Law of
       Gen. Tracy Was Noted as
        a Lawyer and Soldier.
       WON PRAISE IN CIVIL WAR
  Raised the First Field Company of
    Volunteers and Was Brevetted
      Three Times for Bravery.
 General Isaac S. Catlin, a civil war
veteran and lawyer, died last night in
his apartments in the Hotel St. George,
Brooklyn, after a week's illness follow-
ing and apopletic stroke. He was 80
years old.
 For nearly sixty years General Catlin
had been active in political and military
life. He was born in Owego, N. Y., and
was educated at Owego Academy. At
the age of 17 he began the study of law
in this city and became associated with
General Benjamin F. Tracy, who later
married his sister. When Gilbert Walk-
er, afterward Governor of Virginia, re-
tired from the firm of Tracy, Warner &
Walker Mr. Catlin became a member of
the firm.
 In 1860 General Catlin was elected
Mayor of Owego. When President
Lincoln issued his proclamation for
troops the next year, he raised a com-
pany of volunteers, of which he be-
came Captain, and it was said that his
was the first full company which en-
listed in the North. The company
joined General Frederick Townsend's
Third Regiment of New York volun-
teers. General Townsend said of Gen-
eral Catlin's conduct at the battle of
Big Bethel:
 "There was no braver officer on that
field than Captain Catlin."
 He became Lieutenant Colonel in 1862
and Colonel in 1864 and commanded the
109th Regiment of New York Volun-
teers in most of the battles from the
Wilderness to the Fall of Petersburg,
when he became President of a general
court-martial in Washington.
 Several times in the war General Cat-
lin received tokens of approval from his
superiors and also three brevet commis-
sions for bravery in the field, and a
medal of honor for distinguished gal-
lantry in the battle of Petersburg,
where he lost his right leg. On the day
before the engagement at Petersburg,
which was fought on July 30, 1864, he
had been appointed Colonel of the 109th
Regiment. At 3 o'clock in the morning
he was awakened by an orderly from
General Hartranft, who requested him
to visit him in his tent. The General
and he proceeded to study the map and
outline the plan of action for the next
day. Colonel Catlin was to push on
over the mines, and, if possible, capture
the men in charge of them. When day
dawned he led his men in the face of a 
heavy fire and was wounded. He in-
sisted on being carried to the front, and
while there an explosion of a shell shat-
tered his right leg. Notwithstanding his
two wounds he was carried at the head
of his troops over the unexploded mines,
which he captured.
 When the army disbanded, General
Catlin returned to his home in Owego,
and in 1865 he was elected District At-
torney of Tioga County. In 1871 he
moved to Brooklyn and formed a law 
partnership with General Benjamin F.
Tracy, and in that year he became As-
sistant United States District Attorney
for the Eastern New York District. In
1877 he was elected District Attorney
for Kings County, and three years later
he was re-elected for a second term.
 In 1885 General Catlin was nominated
for Mayor of Brooklyn, but there was a
three-cornered fight, which resulted in
his defeat. In 1893 he was nominated
for Congress, and refused the place.
Three years later he declined a nomina-
tion for Lieutenant Governor on the
Democratic ticket. General Catlin, dur-
ing his legal career in Brooklyn, de-
fended many persons accused of crime.
He was counsel for the Kings County
Sheriff for nine years. In 1870 he was
put upon the retired list of the United
States Army as a Colonel of Infantry.
 At the outbreak of the Spanish-
American War, General Catlin volun-
teered, but President McKinley said
that there were younger men who
should take his place. President Mc-
Kinley appointed his son, George De G.
Catlin, a Lieutenant in the regular
army and he has since become a
Captain. During the Spanish-American
War, General Catlin visited Cuba and
the Phillippines and wrote many articles
on the situation in both of those places,
which were widely published. General
Catlin was originally a Republican, but
in 1888 he became a Cleveland Demo-
crat. After President McKinley's elec-
tion he became a Republican again.
Several years ago he wrote his memoirs
which were not to be published until
after his death.
 In his school days he was an athlete,
and up to the time he was stricken
had suffered little from illness. He
weighed more than 200 pounds and
measured 40 inches across his chest.
In his later years he divided his time
between his home in Owego and Brook-
lyn. He is survived by his son and a
daughter.