Strong was born in
Stockbridge, Vermont, and attended
Williston Seminary but left after 1851. Strong's ancestors all came to America from
England, and they all arrived in early colonial
New England as part of the
Puritan migration to New England between 1620 and 1640. He attended
Union College, but left for the
U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1857. He served as an ordnance officer with the rank of
lieutenant on the staff of General
McDowell at the
First Battle of Bull Run. He later served on the staffs of Generals
George B. McClellan and
Benjamin Butler. "Cadet Life at West Point by an Officer of the United States Army" (Boston: T.O.H.P. Burnham, 1862), although published anonymously, is attributed to Strong. Strong commanded an expedition sent from
Ship Island against
Biloxi, Mississippi, in April 1862, and another sent against Ponchatoula, and was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers in November 1862. He was wounded on July 18, 1863, while leading the assault against
Fort Wagner on
Morris Island,
South Carolina, and died of
tetanus in
New York City. He posthumously received a commission as
major general, dated from the day of the battle. Strong is buried in
Green-Wood Cemetery in
Brooklyn,
New York, where there is a monument dedicated to his memory. His name is the first listed on a monument in
Easthampton, Massachusetts dedicated to those who were killed in the "Great Rebellion". Beneath his name are the names of all the other Easthampton natives who died during the Civil War. The memorial claims he graduated third in his class at West Point.
Fort Strong, a U.S. Coast Artillery fort at the northern end of Deer Island in Boston Harbor, was named after him in 1899. ==In popular culture==