• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 2 2020, 17:11:22 UTC

Note: born Brooke but went by Rawle (as in death cert.) He switched to the surname "Rawle", which was his mother's maiden name, when he passed the Pennsylvania State Bar in 1867. His father had died when he was but six years old.
no children surviving him at his death

Civil War Union Army Officer.

He served in Company C of the 3rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War, being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on May 16, 1863.

He fought at the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, and wrote about his experiences in the books "The Right Flank at Gettysburg" and "With Gregg in the Gettysburg Campaign". During the battle he served under Captain William E. Miller, who on the Third Day of the battle during the cavalry action against Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart's forces, disobeyed orders to keep his troopers hidden in the Lott Woods in what is now called the East Cavalry Field and charged into a Confederate Cavalry column attempted to get to the Union flank. This action, in which Lieutenant Rawle participated in, forced the Confederate to retreat. William Rawle's testimony years later helped Captain Miller receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery, and the action is commemorated today by a memorial Shaft in the East Cavalry Field in Gettysburg National Military Park. Rawle helped dedicate the memorial, which stands on Gregg Avenue and is known as the [https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=155419 "William Brooke Rawle Flagpole."

He served through the end of the war, being promoted to 1st Lieutenant on October 5, 1864, and to Captain on October 31, 1864. Brevetted Major, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for "services at Hatcher's Run, Virginia (December 9, 1864)" and Lieutenant Colonel, US Volunteers on April 9, 1865 for "services in the campaign terminating in Lee's surrender", he was proffered an officer's commission in the Regular Army, which he declined, and honorably mustered out on May 8, 1865.

He was originally born William Rawle Brooke, but to avoid confusion with others Williams in his family, he switched to the surname "Rawle", which was his mother's maiden name, when he passed the Pennsylvania State Bar in 1867.

Sources

• William Brooke-Rawle, et al., History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 (Philadelphia: Franklin Printing Company, 1905)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Pennsylvania_Cavalry
• https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/historyculture/east-cavalry-field.htm (as a park now isolated, to the East of Gettysburg)

  ---

  
  

Military, 1863-1865

Served as lieutenant and then captain of Third Pennsylvania Volunteer Calvary.

Getting "granular", Brevet Major Rawle is a direct descendant of both

Edward Lane, a Revolutionary War figure and also prominent figure prominent in Montgomery County history and https://www.geni.com/people/Major-Thomas-Church/6000000019585200193''