This is the kind of thing that can eat up a whole day. But in this case, we are lucky that Henry C. Symonds was a graduate of USMA, #12 in the class of 1853, born in and appointed from Mass. He’s Cullum #1590. According to Cullum, he was a Staff Captain – Comm. of Subsistence, in the defenses of Washington from May 11, 1861 to Spt. 1, 1861. He went out west to Louisville in a similar capacity, earned brevets to Lt. Col. and Col., and resigned on Nov. 17, 1865. He was then a merchant in New Orleans unitl 1870, and up until the publication of Cullum he was an educator in Sing Sing, NY.

A google search turned up a geneaology site for Symonds’ that you might want to check out:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~walkersj/symonds.htm

If you scroll down to entry #221, you’ll find a William C. who was born Feb. 10, 1832, which would make him 21 in June 1853, so that fits for age. Place of birth is not listed, but it says he had a son Nathaniel born in Ossining, NY (known as Sing Sing) on Sept. 19, 1878. So, I think this is our guy. According to this, he died in Los Gatos, Calif., but lists no date. If I knew the year he died, I could find the USMA necrology.

It looks like there are Putnams in his lineage as well, but I think everyone in New England had a Putnam in the closet.

According to this article:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(196202)28%3A1%3C59%3ATGKHSO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M

it appears Symonds was involved in something called “The Great Hog Swindle” in Louisville in 1864. (The parentheses in the address screw up the hyperlink…copy and paste the whole thing into your browser to get to the article.)

And this NYT article:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A04EFDA1F3EEF33A25754C2A9669D94689FD7CF

is about the marriage of a daughter of Colonel Symonds in Sing Sing in 1889.

Do you see what happens when you start pulling threads? I could be at this all day. But I’m not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.

I mean it.

Richard, please let me know if this is YOUR Henry C. Symonds.

Richard Symonds