"Rounders" Abraham Lincoln General John Reynolds Gen. George Gordon Meade Gen. George Brinton McClellan |
Born in upstate New York of a family outstanding in military and civil life, he graduated from West Point in 1842, 25th in a class of 56, and was assigned to the Artillery-Infantry.
He is popularly credited with inventing the modern game of baseball in 1835.
Before entering West Point, he had been a civil engineer for two years. He served in the Mexican and Seminole Indian Wars and was at Fort Sumter when it was attacked, signaling the beginning of the Civil War. He aimed the first Union gun that was fired in defense of the fort.
He served under General Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley, June-August 1861. He was appointed Brigadier General, United States Volunteers, February 3, 1862 and led the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, III Corps at Second Bul Run and took command of the Division on August 30 when General Hatch was wounded. He again led the Division at South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was promoted to Major General, USV, November 9, 1862 and commanded 3rd Division, I Corps, at Chancellorsville, and headed that Corps when General John Reynolds was killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.
He then had administrative duties for the remainder of the war, except when he took command of portions of the Washington, D. C. defenses against Early's raids in 1864. He retired from the Army in 1873 and he moved to San Francisco, where he established the first cable car company in that city. He later moved to Mendham, New Jersey, where he died on January 26, 1893. He was buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery.
He was the author of "Reminiscences of Fort Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-61," (1876); and "Chancellorsville and Gettysburg," (1882). A statue of him stands on the Battlefield at Gettysburg.
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