1862 Civil War Appointment & Commission of Melville D. Topping, Lieutenant Colonel in the Indiana 71st Regiment. Dated: August 18, 1862. Hand Signed by Governor Oliver P. Morton, Secretary of State William A. Peelle, and Adjutant General Indiana Militia. Framed under glass.Lieutenant Colonel Melville Douglas Topping (1825-1862) commanded the 71st Indiana Infantry Regiment. He died in the infamous Battle of Richmond, Kentucky on or about Aug 29 - 30, 1862, roughly 10 days after his commission as Lieutenant Colonel. See Topping was the son of Dayton Topping. Service Record: Enlisted as a Captain on 19 July 1862 at the age of 37 and commissioned in Company I, 76th Infantry Regiment Indiana on 21 July 1862. Promoted to Full Captain on 14 August 1862 (As of Co. E 71st Indiana Infantry). Transferred on 18 August 1862 from Company E to Company S. Promoted to Full Lieutenant Colonel on 18 August 1862 effective 18 August 1862 and commissioned in Company E, 71st Infantry Regiment Indiana on 18 August 1862. Mustered out Company I, 76th Infantry Regiment Indiana on 20 August 1862 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Killed in Company E, 71st Infantry Regiment Indiana during the Battle of Richmond. He was in Co. F & S, 6th Indiana Cavalry. His wife was Cedelia Madison of Terre Haute, Vigo, IN. He is the father of Anna (born abt 1857) and Jessie (born abt 1862).References: “Col. Topping,” Daily Wabash Express (Indiana), September 17, 1862, pg. 2.NotesIn the middle of August 1862, the 71st Indiana Volunteer Infantry mustered into service and was immediately dispatched to Kentucky to guard that state against a rumored Confederate invasion. Two weeks later, the regiment took part in a disastrous battle outside the town of Richmond, Kentucky and suffered heavily. The initial reports from Kentucky were frightening: “According to the statements of the letters which we have, the regiment is almost entirely destroyed and captured,” reported the Daily Wabash Express of Terre Haute, Indiana. “It is painful to contemplate the misfortune of the gallant men composing that regiment. It has cast a general gloom over this whole community. The regiment is almost a total loss, but we hope, however, that the loss in killed may not prove so great as the circumstances lead us to suppose at present.”As news slowly trickled in, Terre Haute residents mourned to learn that their fellow townsman, Colonel Melville D. Topping, numbered among the slain of Richmond. “Much against his wishes and with sad forebodings, Colonel Topping obeyed the order to lead his undisciplined and scarcely armed men to find and fight three times their number of Rebels under General Kirby Smith. By a forced march they were hurried with blistered feet and weary into the battlefield at Richmond. Manfully they contested that field for two days. He was pierced through a body by a musket ball. Knowing his wound to be mortal, he refused to have any other soldier quit his post to care for him- his only anxiety was for the cause he loved. His orderly, however, procured a wagon and brought him off from the field and received his parting messages. He asked his officers if he had done his duty. The reply was “You have done nobly.” Said he, “Then I am satisfied to die. Tell my wife my last thoughts are of her and my children.” On the way to town, he expired.”Orderly Sergeant Isaac M. Brown of Co. H of the 71st Indiana wrote the following account of the battle in an article published in 1885. "Colonel Topping was killed near the brick church about one mile from Richmond. I passed him during a heavy fire from the enemy. He was lying on his back with his hands folded across his breast a little below where the fatal ball entered."