Thomas L . Kane Thomas Leiper Kane ( January 27 , 1822 – December 26 , 1883 ) was an American attorney , abolitionist , and military officer who was influential in the western migration of the Latter - day Saint movement and served as a Union Army colonel and general of volunteers in the American Civil War . He received a brevet promotion to major general for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg . Biography . Kane was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , to John Kintzing Kane , a U . S . district judge , and Jane Duval Leiper . His brother was naval officer , physician , and explorer Elisha Kent Kane . Kane was described as being of small stature , or " jockey - like , " and food was always marginal . In correspondence , he referred to himself as an invalid . After receiving an American education , he went abroad to both study in Great Britain and France and to build up his constitution . During several years in Paris , he became proficient in the language and contributed articles to several French magazines . Upon returning home , the younger Kane decided to study law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1846 . As a young man , he expressed interest in a political career and made an effort to obtain an appointment in the government of California when it came into U . S . possession . However , he was disappointed . He briefly clerked for his father , and then obtained a position as a Clerk of the District Court in eastern Pennsylvania . An abolitionist , Kane was distressed at the passage of the Compromise of 1850 , which increased his legal responsibility to return fleeing slaves to southern territories under the Fugitive Slave Act . He almost immediately tendered his resignation to his father , who had the younger Kane jailed for contempt of court . The U . S . Supreme Court overruled this arrest . After his release , Kane became increasingly active in the abolitionist movement . He maintained a correspondence with Horace Greeley and Ralph Waldo Emerson , and wrote newspaper articles on abolition and social issues . After the Civil War , General Kane and his wife moved to the frontier in western Pennsylvania , eventually owning over of timberland on which oil and gas were later discovered . Kane , whose father had been the attorney who incorporated the Pennsylvania Railroad , laid out railroad routes in that area and located the low summit over which the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad crosses the Alleghenies . Kane married his British born cousin Elizabeth Dennistown ( or Dennistoun ) Wood on April 21 , 1853 . Elizabeth Wood Kane completed a medical degree from the Women ' s Medical College in Philadelphia in 1883 and practiced until May 25 , 1909 . Two of the Kanes ' sons , Evan and William ( later known as Thomas L . , Jr . ) , and their daughter Harriet , became physicians , while their older son Elisha became a civil engineer . After his death , she built the home Anoatok at Kane . After his Civil War service , Kane was involved in founding the community of Kane , Pennsylvania . Kane acted as a director of the Sunbury and Erie Railroad . He had served as secretary at the United States legation in Paris in 1842 - 3 . He was the first president of the Board of State Charities , and a member of the American Philosophical , American Geographical and Pennsylvania Historical Societies . He was a Free - Mason . His later years were spent in charitable work and writing . He died of pneumonia in Philadelphia and is buried in Kane , Pennsylvania . " Friend of the Mormons " . Mormon Battalion . Kane came in contact with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints during a Philadelphia conference in May 1846 . Perhaps because most " Mormons " stood strongly against slavery , Kane offered them his advice and help in their conflicts with the U . S . government and in their efforts to emigrate to western territories . Jesse C . Little , presiding LDS elder in the East , was soliciting support for the Latter - day Saints ' westward migration . Politically well connected through his father , Kane provided letters of recommendation and later joined Little in Washington , D . C . The two called on the secretary of state , secretary of war , and President James K . Polk . As a result of their negotiations , the United States agreed to enlist up to 500 LDS men , in five companies of 75 to 100 men each , as the Mormon Battalion , to serve in the Mexican - American War . With the help of his father , Kane obtained U . S . government permission for the refugee Mormons to occupy Pottawattamie and Omaha Indian lands along the Missouri . After carrying dispatches relating to the land agreements and battalion criteria to Fort Leavenworth , Kane sought out Little in the Latter - day Saint encampments on the Missouri River . On July 17 , 1846 , a meeting was held with Kane , LDS leaders and Army Captain James Allen to create the Mormon Battalion . Kane met many leaders of the church , and became a popular figure among Mormon emigrants . Miller ' s Hollow , the principal Iowa settlement of the LDS group at the site of present - day Council Bluffs , was renamed Kanesville in recognition of his service . During this stay , Kane became seriously ill with a fever , probably caused by pulmonary tuberculosis . Although good care from both an army physician from Fort Leavenworth and church members helped him recover , his health was severely impaired for the rest of his life . Utah territory and statehood . In March 1850 , in the midst of debate over establishing Utah territory , Kane delivered an important lecture before the Philadelphia Historical Society . He described the religion of the Latter - day Saints , their conflicts with other settlers , and the desolation he witnessed during a visit to the recently abandoned Nauvoo , Illinois . He also described the Saint ' s westward trek . One thousand copies of the lecture , with associated notes and materials , were printed and distributed , primarily to members of the U . S . Congress and influential men in the Executive Branch . The lecture was reprinted in several Mormon publications : the Frontier Guardian ( August 7 , 1850 ) , and in the " Millennial Star " ( April 15 to July 15 , 1851 ) where it reached an even larger audience . Six months later , he defended Brigham Young in the eastern newspapers . Kane was asked to provide recommendations and information about the Mormons to President Millard Fillmore . When Utah was granted a territorial government by Congress on September 9 , 1850 , Fillmore asked Kane to be the first governor . He declined and recommended Young . Throughout the 1850s , he promoted Utah statehood and defended the Church ' s interests at every opportunity . In a work produced in 1902 , historian William Alexander Linn , evidently believing that no non - Mormon would serve as an advocate for the group , asserted that Kane was a secret member of the LDS church and dated his baptism to his 1846 stay on the Missouri River . Kane , his family , and LDS Church leaders all stated that , despite his interest in Mormons and Mormon doctrine and practices , Kane never joined the LDS church . His wife ' s letters and journals indicate that , to her distress , her husband was unable to state unequivocally that he was a Christian , but that he remained affiliated with his childhood Presbyterian faith . Utah War . In the winter of 1857 - 1858 Kane made a strenuous 3 , 000 + trip from the East coast to Salt Lake City Utah . Kane helped prevent bloodshed by mediating a dispute between the Mormons and the federal government , known as the Utah War . Mormonism , the practice of plural marriage and the governance of the Utah territory were issues in the federal election of 1856 . Responding to rumors and reports of Mormon misrule in Utah shortly after his inauguration in March 1857 , President James Buchanan appointed a new Utah Territorial governor Alfred Cumming of Georgia , replacing Brigham Young . Responding to rumors ( later proved false ) that the Mormons were in rebellion against the U . S . government , Buchanan sent a 2 , 500 man army escort with orders to place the Governor in his office by force if necessary . Unfortunately , Buchanan did not officially notify Young about the change in appointment , and rumors of planned U . S . army attacks on Utah communities flew just ahead of the troops . The Mormons , who had already been driven out of several states , were prepared to burn their settlements to the ground and resist yet another forced removal . The Mormons prepared to fight — activating the Nauvoo Legion ( essentially all able bodied men aged 15 to 60 ) and began preparing for a scorched earth fighting withdrawal to southern Utah . Mormon patrols located three Army supply trains following the army troops on the Oregon / California / Mormon trail which were attacked and burned by Nauvoo Legion members led by Lot Smith . This stalled the U . S . Army advance at Fort Bridger in Wyoming for the winter of 1857 - 1858 . Earlier in the year , hearing of the " misunderstanding " , Kane offered to mediate . As it was a heavy winter , he traveled under an alias to Utah by way of Panama , crossing the isthmus by the newly completed ( 1855 ) Panama Railroad and taking a ship north to southern California . He then went overland through San Bernardino to Salt Lake City over the strenuous southern branch of the California Trail ( now interstate 15 ) , arriving in Salt Lake City in February 1858 . Kane persuaded Young to accept Buchanan ' s appointment of Cumming as Territorial governor , and to present no opposition to the federal troops , called Johnston ' s Army , acting as escort . Kane then traveled to the army ' s winter base at Fort Bridger , Wyoming , and persuaded Governor Cumming to travel to Salt Lake City without his military escort . Cumming was courteously received by Young and Utah residents , and was shortly installed in his new office . The army came into Utah some weeks later and was bivouacked on the then vacant land that became Camp Floyd , over southwest of Salt Lake City . The army left the territory in 1860 as the American Civil War pulled in nearly all frontier troops . While in Salt Lake City , Kane received news that his father had died on April 24 , 1858 . He remained in Utah until May 13 , when he and an LDS escort returned east across the continent to make his report to President Buchanan . Friendship with Young . Kane became a personal friend of Brigham Young , and stayed in contact with the church leader for many years . Kane later visited Utah several times , advising Young and the Latter - day Saints in interactions with the federal government . In 1871 , after the completion of railway lines to Utah , Young urged Kane and his family to visit : Kane , his wife , Elizabeth , and their two younger sons spent the winter of 1872 in Utah . They traveled throughout the territory and stayed as guests of Young at his winter home in St . George , partially in an effort to recoup Kane ' s failing health . During the winter , Kane and Young laid out plans for the Mormon settlement of sections of Arizona and the Sonora Valley in Mexico . Kane also interviewed Young , gathering information for a planned biography which he never completed . In turn , Young consulted Kane as an attorney on dealing with federal charges pending against him . Elizabeth Kane corresponded with her family during her visit to Utah . Her father , William Wood , later published selected letters as a book titled " Twelve Mormon Homes " , since issued in several editions . The journal Elizabeth Kane kept during her winter in St . George was edited and published in 1992 as " Elizabeth Kane ' s St . George Journal " . Kane returned to Utah upon Young ' s death in 1877 , attending his funeral and offering condolences to Young ' s family and church leaders . He also oversaw the execution of Young ' s will , which he had prepared , ensuring an appropriate separation of church and personal property . Young had held a number of church properties in his own name due to the Morrill Anti - Bigamy Act of 1862 which made it illegal for the LDS church to own property valued at more than $ 50 , 000 . Ownership of these properties were transferred to his successor in the presidency , John Taylor . Kane County , Utah was named for Thomas L . Kane , as was the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs , Iowa . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints maintains as a historic site the Thomas L . Kane Memorial Chapel , in Kane , Pennsylvania , in recognition of Kane ' s friendship and assistance . Kane was a founder of the Borough and is buried at the chapel . In addition , a bronze statue of Thomas L . Kane is displayed in Utah ' s Capitol Building , identified as a " Friend of the Mormons " . Civil War service . As the Civil War began , Kane raised a mounted rifle regiment , the 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry , also referred to as the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves . He recruited woodsmen and lumbermen from western Pennsylvania , men who were experienced in the woods , could forage for themselves , and could shoot rifles . As the regiment was forming , one of his recruits ornamented his hat with a tail from a deer ' s carcass that he found in a butcher shop . Other men in the regiment liked this decoration and copied him , causing the regiment to be known as the " Bucktails . " The men in the regiment built four large log rafts and floated down the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg , where they were mustered in . On June 21 , 1861 , veteran Charles J . Biddle was named the Union regiment ' s colonel with Kane as lieutenant colonel . Kane has been described as a " visionary " of infantry tactics . He taught his men what would become known as " skirmisher tactics . " They learned to scatter under fire and to make use of whatever cover the ground offered , and to fire only when they could see their targets . He stressed individual responsibility in his soldiers , a contradiction to the military thinking of the time . He held target practice , which was also an innovative idea , and drilled them in long - range firing , developing his men into fine sharpshooters . The Bucktails were assigned to the Pennsylvania Reserves division of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac . When Colonel Biddle resigned to enter United States Congress , Lt . Col . Kane took command . On December 20 , 1861 , Kane was wounded while leading a patrol at the Battle of Dranesville . A bullet struck the right side at his face , knocking out some teeth and producing long - term difficulties with his vision . By the spring of 1862 , Kane had partially recovered from his wound and returned to the Bucktails . They served as part of Brig . Gen . George Dashiell Bayard ' s cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley , fighting against Stonewall Jackson ' s Valley Campaign . At Harrisonburg , he and 104 picked riflemen were sent to the rescue of a regiment that had fallen into an ambush . Kane encountered three Confederate regiments on June 6 , 1862 . He was struck by a bullet that split the bone below his right knee and his men left him on the field . When he tried to rise after the fighting was over , a Confederate soldier broke his breastbone with a blow from the butt of his rifle and Kane , unconscious , was captured . He was exchanged , for Williams C . Wickham , in mid - August . He returned to duty in time for the Northern Virginia Campaign , but was so weakened that another officer led his regiment . He had to be helped onto his horse and was forced to walk using crutches ; his Harrisonburg wound would reopen repeatedly for the next two years . Kane was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on September 7 , 1862 , and given command of the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division , XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac . This brigade was mustered out in March 1863 before Kane could lead it in combat . Kane was assigned a new brigade ( now in the 2nd Division of the XII Corps ) and saw action at Chancellorsville . After his horse stumbled in the Rapidan River and dumped him into the water on April 28 , 1863 , Kane developed a case of pneumonia . He was sent to a Baltimore , Maryland , hospital , where he remained through June . Upon hearing of General Robert E . Lee ' s second invasion of the North , the Gettysburg Campaign , Kane volunteered to convey intelligence to the commander of the Army of the Potomac , George Gordon Meade and rose from his sickbed to join his men . On a long and difficult ride by railroad and buggy , he avoided capture by Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart ' s cavalry by disguising himself as a civilian . He arrived at Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , on the morning of July 2 , 1863 . Kane resumed command of his brigade , occupying a position on Culp ' s Hill , the right of the Union line . His men did not participate in the bloody fighting of July 2 because his division , commanded by Maj . Gen . John W . Geary , was pulled out of the line and sent to defend against Confederate attacks on the Union left . ( Due to bad navigation by Geary , the column took a wrong turn and never did reach the fighting that day . ) However , when his men returned to their hastily constructed breastworks on Culp ' s Hill that night , they found Confederate soldiers occupying them and Kane ' s corps commander ordered an assault for early the next morning to regain the position . Before the Union attack could be launched on July 3 , the Confederates struck first , and Kane and his men met and repulsed them . During the action Kane fell ill and the brigade ' s second - in - command , Colonel George A . Cobham , Jr . , actively assisted in command . Although his brigade was victorious , Kane was a broken man and never recovered his health . He suffered from his festering facial wound , lingering chest problems , and impaired vision . He formally relinquished command the next day . He was then posted to Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , where he supervised the draft depot . As he failed to recover his health , Kane resigned his commission in November 1863 . For his service at Gettysburg , he was named Brevet major general on March 13 , 1865 .