Julius Stahel Julius H . Stahel - Számwald ( November 5 , 1827 – December 4 , 1912 ) was a Hungarian soldier who emigrated to the United States and became a Union general in the American Civil War . After the war , he served as a U . S . diplomat , a mining engineer , and a life insurance company executive . He received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action at the Battle of Piedmont in 1864 . Birth and early years . Stahel was born in Szeged , Hungary , 200 km southeast of Budapest . After schooling in Szeged and Budapest , he entered the Austrian Army , rising to the rank of lieutenant . Stahel joined the movement for Hungarian independence led by Lajos Kossuth during the Revolution of 1848 . He served on the staffs of Gen . Artúr Görgey and Gen . Richard Debaufre Guyon . When the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburg dynasty was put down in 1849 , he fled to Prussia and then to England before migrating to the United States in 1859 . Until the outbreak of the American Civil War , he worked for " Deutsche illustrirte Familienblätter " , a German - language newspaper in New York City . Civil War service . In 1861 , with the outbreak of war , Stahel and Louis Blenker recruited the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment , the 1st German Rifles or Blenker ' s Rifles . Stahel , who had dropped the " Számwald " portion of his surname , became the regiment ' s lieutenant colonel , while Blenker served as colonel . Stahel first saw combat at the First Battle of Bull Run , leading the regiment in Blenker ' s first brigade of Dixon Miles ' s Fifth Division . The regiment covered the flight of the Union Army of Brig . Gen . Irvin McDowell . The 8th New York served in Blenker ' s division of the newborn Army of the Potomac until it was transferred to western Virginia . Stahel become a colonel on April 23 , 1862 . He commanded a brigade under Blenker in this period . Stahel led a brigade under Maj . Gen . John C . Fremont in the Mountain Department during an incursion into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia . His brigade was of Fremont ' s left at the Battle of Cross Keys in which Stonewall Jackson stopped the Union advance into the Valley . Stahel ' s position on the left exposed his command to a flank attack by Isaac Trimble ' s brigade as Fremont was attempting to turn the right of the Confederate line . By July 1862 , Stahel was commander of the first brigade of Robert C . Schenck ' s first division Army of Virginia in the corps led by Franz Sigel in Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia . At the Second Battle of Bull Run , Schenck was wounded and Stahel became acting commander of the division . ( Adolphus Buschbeck succeeded to command of the brigade . ) Stahel ' s brigade was one of two that covered Sigel ' s retreat when Pope ' s army was defeated . Stahel was appointed a brigadier general on November 12 , 1862 . He commanded the first division in Sigel ' s corps , which became XI Corps in the Army of the Potomac . He commanded the corps briefly in early 1863 . Stahel was named a major general on March 14 , 1863 . In March 1863 Stahel was assigned to command a Union cavalry division in the defenses of Washington , D . C . When the division joined the Army of the Potomac in June 1863 , Alfred Pleasonton had Stahel removed , promoting Judson Kilpatrick in his place . He then served as cavalry commander in the Department of the Susquehanna at the time of the Gettysburg Campaign . By the spring of 1864 , Stahel was commander of the 1st Cavalry Division under Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley . At the Battle of New Market , on May 15 , 1864 , his division was on the left of Sigel ' s line . It attacked the Confederate line but was repulsed by artillery fire . The division recoiled under attack by the Confederate forces of John C . Breckinridge when they counterattacked . At the Battle of Piedmont on June 5 , 1864 , serving as cavalry commander under Maj . Gen . David Hunter , Stahel distinguished himself under fire until he was hit in the shoulder . This led to Stahel ' s being received the Medal of Honor , on November 4 , 1893 , for leading his division until seriously wounded . Stahel served , after recovering from his wound , on court - martial duty until he resigned on February 8 , 1865 . Postbellum career . After the Civil War , Stahel served in the diplomatic corps as consul in Yokohama , ( 1866 – 1869 ) and Osaka , Japan ( 1877 – 1884 ) . After that he was consul general at Shanghai , China ( 1884 – 1885 ) . Between diplomatic assignments , he worked as a mining engineer . Upon returning to the United States for reasons of health , Stahel worked for the Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York City . Stahel died in a New York City at 87 years of age . After a funeral in Washington , he was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Major General , U . S . Volunteers . Place and date : At Piedmont , Va . , June 5 , 1864 . Entered service at : New York , N . Y . Born : November 5 , 1825 , Hungary . Date of issue : November 4 , 1893 . Citation : Led his division into action until he was severely wounded .