Francis Winthrop Palfrey was an American historian, born in Boston, Massachusetts son of J. G. Palfrey. He graduated at Harvard in 1851 and at the Law School two years afterward. During the Civil War he rose to the rank of colonel. On May 4, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Palfrey for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, to rank from March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the war, The U.S. Senate confirmed the award on May 18, 1866. In 1872 he was appointed register in bankruptcy. He published A Memoir of William F. Bartlett; Antietam and Fredericksburg, in the "Campaigns of the Civil War Series"; and contributed to the first volume of Military Papers of the Historical Society of Massachusetts and to the North American Review. 

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