Civil War Union Brigadier General. Born in the District of Columbia, he would, at the age of 18, serve as a messenger in Congress. He so impressed Indiana Congressman Ratliff Boon that Boon raised a petition among other Representatives to have him admitted to West Point; therefore his appointment reads "from Indiana." He graduated 23rd in the class of 1841 and went into a lifelong artillery career. He won citations for his fighting in the Mexican War and rose to the rank of Captain in the Regular Army before 1861. On September 28, 1861, he was made Brigadier General of Volunteers and sent to the tropical outpost of Key West, Florida, the next spring. He distinguished himself on the Florida mainland in a combat sometimes called the Battle of Jacksonville, which began as an assault on heavy gun emplacements on Florida's St. John's River. It was his first real combat experience leading infantry and, in a time of few Federal successes, it brought him notice and a brevet to Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular service. Later, in Port Royal, South Carolina, he won attention in expeditions against Confederates at Pocotaligo. He was next assigned to the Army of the Ohio and commanded an infantry division under Major General William S. Rosecrans. He served through the Tullahoma Campaign to Chickamauga, and in the latter battle saw the fiercest combat of his life. On the morning of September 19, 1863, he was dispatched on an aggressive reconnaissance of the Confederate right, which started an intense shoving match with Confederates in his front. The afternoon of the following day found him along the last Union defense line at Horseshoe Ridge with Major General George H. Thomas, and with most of his army routed behind him. He survived the fight and went on to Chattanooga. In the repercussions following the Chickamauga debacle, and despite another Regular Army brevet for bravery, he was relieved from infantry command and appointed chief of artillery for the Army of the Cumberland. In that post he fought through the Georgia battles to Atlanta and oversaw the construction of the Union defenses there. He spent the rest of the war in administrative work, and on January 23, 1865, he was brevetted Major General of Volunteers. As an acknowledgment of his gallantry in the fighting to Atlanta and for all services rendered during the war, he was brevetted Major General in the Regulars on March 13, 1865. He served on in the artillery until he was retired at the mandatory age of 62 to New York City. Here, he would later died and be buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Brooklyn; later he was reinterred to his alma mater, West Point.