Civil War Union Brigadier General. Graduated from the United States Military Academy, Class of 1823. He served as an Engineer instructor at West Point for 19 year, leaving the service in l836. He helped build the Croton Reservoir in Central Park, New York. In l862, he reentered the service as Colonel and commander of the 60th New York Volunteer Infantry. Promoted to Brigadier General, US Volunteers on April 28, l862 as one of the oldest field officers in the army. At the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, his brigade occupied Culp's Hill when the attack started on the evening of July 2. His line was terribly thin and thinner when he stretched it out as far as it would go. He held off the attacks until reinforcements arrived, thus saving that vital hill from capture. In so doing he helped win the Battle of Gettysburg and turn the tide of the war. In October of 1863 he was severely wounded in the face at Wauhatchie and did not return to active duty until 1865. After the war he was mustered out and returned to engineering, serving as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers from 1875 to 1877, and was President for a time with the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He died in Morristown, New Jersey in 1899 and was buried in the family plot on a small hill south of Warwick, Rhode Island. His grave stone is a boulder from Culp's Hill, the scene of his greatest military achievement. Atop Culp's Hill in the Gettysburg National Military Park is a bronze statue depicting General Greene instructing his troops. His son, Union Naval Captain Samuel Dana Greene, was the Executive Officer of the "USS Monitor", and commanded the vessel on the second day of its March 1862 battle with the "CSS Virginia" at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Civil War Union Brigadier General. Graduated from the United States Military Academy, Class of 1823. He served as an Engineer instructor at West Point for 19 year, leaving the service in l836. He helped build the Croton Reservoir in Central Park, New York. In l862, he reentered the service as Colonel and commander of the 60th New York Volunteer Infantry. Promoted to Brigadier General, US Volunteers on April 28, l862 as one of the oldest field officers in the army. At the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, his brigade occupied Culp's Hill when the attack started on the evening of July 2. His line was terribly thin and thinner when he stretched it out as far as it would go. He held off the attacks until reinforcements arrived, thus saving that vital hill from capture. In so doing he helped win the Battle of Gettysburg and turn the tide of the war. In October of 1863 he was severely wounded in the face at Wauhatchie and did not return to active duty until 1865. After the war he was mustered out and returned to engineering, serving as president of the American Society of Civil Engineers from 1875 to 1877, and was President for a time with the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He died in Morristown, New Jersey in 1899 and was buried in the family plot on a small hill south of Warwick, Rhode Island. His grave stone is a boulder from Culp's Hill, the scene of his greatest military achievement. Atop Culp's Hill in the Gettysburg National Military Park is a bronze statue depicting General Greene instructing his troops. His son, Union Naval Captain Samuel Dana Greene, was the Executive Officer of the "USS Monitor", and commanded the vessel on the second day of its March 1862 battle with the "CSS Virginia" at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Bio by: EFB III
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