Civil War Union Army Brigadier General, Medal of Honor Recipient. He was born in Oswego, New York, and graduated 17th in the West Point class of 1845; he was then assigned to the Mounted Rifles. He served meritoriously as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Mexican War, thereafter drawing garrison duty in Oregon, Texas, and New Mexico Territory until the Civil War began. In April 1861 he was ordered east from his post as commissary chief in the Department of New Mexico and given command of a cavalry brigade under Major General George B. McClellan. Promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and named chief of cavalry for Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, he fought in the Shenandoah Valley through spring and summer 1862. He was noted for determination and bravery in battle, in fact, Confederate Colonel Thomas T. Munford singled him out for his boldness around Strasburg, Virginia, in May 1862. He however lacked the ability to carry out successfully a cavalry raid that depended on swiftness and surprise. Twice he was ordered to destroy a strech of the Virginia Central Railroad between Gordonsville and Lynchburg in preparation for Major General John Pope's Second Bull Run Campaign, and twice he failed, encumbered in the first attempt by taking along an infantry force and a supply train, in the second by roads he claimed were impassable because of heavy rains. In anger Pope demoted him to an infantry brigade, which he led at Second Bull Run and Chantilly. Following Pope's defeat, he was assigned to Major General Joseph Hooker's I Corps and given command of the 1st Division, which he was leading when severely wounded at Turner's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain, on September 14, 1862. Thereafter he held a series of administrative posts in the Southeast, directed a supply depot, and sat on courtsmartial. He commanded the District of Florida, from March 24 to April 25, 1864; the Department of Florida, May 1 to 26, the District of Hilton Head, June 2 to August 1, the District of Florida again, August 4 to October 26, and the Morris Island, November 14 to 30 and January 23 to February 26, 1865. On occasion he held temporary command of the Department of the South. From November 1864 to March 1865 he commanded the Coast Division, and at the end of the war in April he headed the District of Charleston. Mustered out of the volunteers, he rejoined the Regular Army as Major of the 4th Cavalry, on duty against Indians in the West. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1873 and to Colonel, in 1881; at that time he transferred to the 2nd Cavalry. He had been retired for a decade when on October 28, 1893, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery at South Mountain. He lived in New York City from 1883 until his death there. His Medal of Honor citation states: Was severely wounded while leading one of his brigades in the attack under a heavy fire from the enemy.