Major George W. Corliss (1834-1903) Summit 214

Born In Connecticut in 1834, he was a Major of Company C 5th Connecticut Infantry in the Civil War. He was awarded a Medal of Honor for his bravery.

On August 9th, 1862 at Cedar Mountain, Virginia, he seized the fallen flag of his regiment, after the color bearer was killed, and carried it forward in the face of a severe fire, and though himself shot and permanently disabled, planted the staff in the earth and kept the flag flying.

Major Corliss became assistant Sub-Commissioner of the District of Vicksburg, B.F.R. & A.L. He left the Bureau in 1869 and returned to New Haven, Connecticut for a short time and then settled in Manhattan. In an 1870 census, he and his wife Catherine Bounce whom he married in 1862 lived in a boarding house. She died somewhere between 1870 and 1878. Major Corliss remarried on December 25,1878 to Mary Harriet Munson. They had two children, Grace Willoghby Corliss (born October 29,1886 and died December 26. 1886.), and a son, Reginald Bliss Corliss (born May 6, 1881- died August 1968).

George died in May of 1903 in New York City. His funeral was held in the Old Guard Armory at 49th and Broadway. The services were according to the Protestant Episcopal Church, followed by the Grand Army service, conducted by the John A. Dix Post, which Major Corliss was a member. The Masonic service, in charge of the St. Nicholas Lodge and the service according to the ritual of the Scottish Rite Masons, led by Charles Heyser.

He widow, Mary remarried in 1905 to James G. Warner. also a veteran of the Civil War. James died somewhere between 1910 and 1920 and Mary died sometime after 1930.