Edgar Frederick Koehler – First Lieutenant, United States Army

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Edgar Frederick Koehler of Illinois
Served in the Army as Private and Corporal, Company C, 8th U. S. Infantry, 8November 1891 to 1 November 1894
Secon Lieutenant, 11th U. S. Infantry, 31 October 1894
Transferred to the 9th U. S. Infantry, 27 September 1897
First Lieutenant, 14th U. S. Infantry, 12 May 1898
Transferred to the 9th U. S. Infantry, 16 September 1898
Killed 4 March 1900 in action at Tinuba, Philippine Islands

OFFICER KILLED INAMBUSH
Treacherous Filipino Led Lieutenant Koehler Away From His Command – Soldiers Kill In Revenge

MANILA, March 6, 1900 – Lieutenant Edgar F. Koehler of the Ninth Infantry was shot in the abdomen and killed at a village six miles north of Tarlac, where he went in search of some hidden rifles. A Filipino, promising to produce the rifles, led him into an ambush away from his command.  The soldiers in revenge burned the village and killed twenty-four of the enemy.

First Lieutenant Edgar F. Koehler, Ninth United States Infantry, was a native of Illinois and was born July 9, 1868.  He was appointed from a Corporalcy in the Eighth Infantry to be Second Lieutenant  of the  Eleventh Infantry October 31, 1894, and was transferred to the Ninth Infantry in September 1897.  At the outbreak of the Spanish War, he was promoted to be First Lieutenant of the Fourteenth Infantry, serving with gallantry through the Santiago Campaign.

He was recommend for a Medal of Honor for conscipuous gallantry and fearless intrepidity in the battle of San Juan Hill, he being the only officer who ascended the hill mounted in that famous charge.  He was again transferred to the Ninth Infantry in September 1896 and served with his regiment in the Philippines fromJune 1899 up to the time of his death.

KOEHLER, EDGAR F

  • 1ST LT 2ND BN 9TH REGT US INF
  • DATE OF DEATH: 03/04/1900
  • BURIED AT:   SITE 24 NW CO
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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