Richard Holland (March 15, 1842 - January 12, 1906) was an Irish American soldier and artist. Born in Ireland, he arrived in the United States at the age of twelve. He became an apprentice painter to Captain Lucius Richmond and was practicing that trade at the beginning of the American Civil War. He joined the Union Army on July 29, 1862, as a Private and became a member of the 9th Massachusetts Light Infantry. Holland first saw combat at Gettysburg (where the battery had eleven killed or mortally wounded, another sixteen wounded, and two taken prisoner). Then he fought at and survived Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Bethesda Church, Weldon Railroad, Hatcher's Run, the Capture of Petersburg, and Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was mustered out on June 6, 1865, and returned home with his sketchbook full of drawings of people and places associated with his time in the army. Holland was a member of the fourth gun detachment and was one of three artists in the battery, along with C. W. Reed and I. F. Eaton. In 1884, Holland was part of a group of 9th Massachusetts Battery veterans organized to go back to Gettysburg and mark the true position of their harrowing engagement at the Trostle Farm. Holland continued as a painter after the war and became known for his paintings and later for frescoes. Holland married twice. His first marriage to Cecilia Pray occurred in May 1866, with whom he had two children. Cecilia died in April 1880 of heart disease. Holland married Marietta M. Monk on July 1, 1882, with whom he had no children. He died of pneumonia.



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