Leap, Samuel W.

Samuel Leap's headstone

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Company E, 22nd Indiana Infantry

Place of Birth:

Saluda, Jefferson County, Indiana

Date of Birth:

1843

Place of Death:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Date of Death:

December 31st, 1863

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

Samuel W. Leap (see also Samuel W. Lear) was born in Saluda, Indiana, in 1843. He was the fifth of John and Esther Leap’s ten children.

On August 15, 1861, Samuel enlisted as a private in Company E of the 22nd Indiana Infantry at Madison, Indiana. The 22nd Indiana mustered into service at Indianapolis, Indiana the same day. Then, Leap and the 22nd Indiana moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where they joined the army of General John C. Fremont.

Samuel and his comrades joined the siege of Corinth Mississippi in May 1862, then moved to Louisville Kentucky as Union forces converged to head off Confederate Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky. That campaign ended with the Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862. 

In late November, the 22nd Indiana joined the Army of the Cumberland at Nashville, Tennessee and began the campaign leading to the Battle of Stones River on December 26, 1862. On December 31, 1862, Samuel and the 22nd found themselves on their army’s right flank of Col. Sidney Post’s brigade. While there, General Jefferson C. Davis ordered Post to counterattack against Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s attacking troops. The Confederate advance was too powerful driving Post’s men back in disarray. It was during this time that Private Samuel W. Leap (Samuel W. Lear) was killed in action. 

Samuel W. Leap (Samuel W. Lear) is laid to rest in the Stones River National Cemetery in Plot D-1478. 

Tags: stones river national battlefield, stones river national cemetery, american civil war, civil war, american military