Milestones in the Life

11 July 1833	General Torbert born
1851-1855	Attended West Point
25 February 1861	Promoted 1st Lieutenant, of Infantry, US Army
16 March 1861	Promoted 1st Lieutenant of Artillery, CSA, refused, click HERE for story
September 1861	Made Colonel, 1st NJ Infantry
27 June 1862	Battle of Gaine's Mill, VA - left sick bed to rally his regiment
	Made commander of the New Jersey Brigade
30 August 1862	2nd Battle of Manassas - saved Federal army by rallying troops in the rear
14 September 1862	Battle of Crampton's Gap, South Mountain, MD - led brigade in assault of entrenched Confederates, causing them flee to the rear, capturing the Gap
1864	Appointed by General Philip Sheridan to the command of the 1^st Cavalry Division
17 January 1866	Married Miss Mary Elizabeth Currey at Christ Church in Milford, Delaware
1869	Became first Grand Secretary of the Grand Chapter, of Delaware’s Royal Arch Masons.
1869	Appointed US minister to San Salvador
1873-1878	Consul-General to Paris - hosted and accompanied President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife on their European tour.
25 August 1880	Traveled to Mexico aboard the SS Vera Cruz; ship struck by a hurricane and foundered off the coast of Florida. Torbert saved a young boy from drowning, but lost his own life in the process. His body washed ashore at Cape Canaveral, FL, a few days later.
29 September 1880	Torbert's body brought to New York City where he lay in state at City Hall for one day
30 September 1880	Transported to Wilmington, then Milford, Delaware, for funeral