Full length image of Lieutenant Lemuel R. Pettingill and wife. The officer is seated wearing a frock coat with a black felt collar and 2^nd Lieutenant shoulder straps. His coat is buttoned only at the throat. He also wears matching dark trousers and in his lap he is holding his forage cap. There is an insignia of some kind on the top of the forage cap but it cannot be determined what it is. Next to the Lieutenant is his wife. She has one arm resting on the officer’s shoulder while the other hangs by her side holding a straw hat with a checked plaid band. She wears a short length Zouave style jacket with a checkered pattern over a matching blouse and solid colored dress. Image is clear. Contrast is a bit light. Mount has some light dirt around edges. Reverse has no photographers imprint. There is a somewhat modern inscription that reads “GEORGE PETTENGILL AND WIFE SHE WAS A SIMONS. GEORGES MOTHER SISTER TO CARMI WELLS.”

It has been determined that the image does NOT show George Pettingill but his brother Lemuel. It is known that Lemuel served in the Army and married Cornelia Ellen Simons which matches the name in the above mentioned inscription. Whoever wrote the information on the reverse of the image simply confused Lemuel with his brother George.

Lemuel R. Pettingill was born in Stowe, Vermont on January 30, 1839. At some point he moved to Illinois and was there when the Civil War started. He enlisted at Marengo, Illinois as a Private in Company A, 95^th Illinois Infantry on September 4, 1862. While with the 95^th Pettingill was engaged at Champions Hill and in an assault on Vicksburg. He was discharged to accept promotion on December 30, 1863. He was assigned to Company B, 6^th Mississippi Infantry (whose designation was later changed to the 58^th US Colored Infantry) on October 1, 1863. Lieutenant Pettingill served with the 58th in Natchez, Mississippi. On May 9^th, 1865 he married Cornelia Simons in Marengo, Illinois. Pettingill resigned due to poor health on November 25, 1865. After the war he lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where he was active in GAR Post #10 and worked in the lumber business. He died at Oshkosh in 1907.

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