Ethan A . Hitchcock ( general ) Ethan Allen Hitchcock ( May 18 , 1798 – August 5 , 1870 ) was a career United States Army officer and author who had War Department assignments in Washington , D . C . , during the American Civil War , in which he served as a major general . Early life . Hitchcock was born in Vergennes , Vermont , grandson of American Revolutionary War hero General Ethan Allen . He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1817 ( 17th out of 19 ) and was commissioned a third lieutenant in the U . S . Artillery . He was promoted to captain in 1824 . From 1829 to 1833 , he served as commandant of cadets at West Point and was promoted to major in 1838 . By 1842 he achieved the rank of the lieutenant colonel in the 3rd U . S . Infantry in command of Fort Stansbury . He served in the Seminole War in Florida , in the Pacific Northwest , and in the Mexican - American War , where he served as Gen . Winfield Scott ' s inspector general in the march on Mexico City . He received a brevet promotion to colonel for Contreras and Churubusco and to brigadier general for Molino del Rey . In 1851 became the colonel of the 2nd U . S . Infantry . From 1851 to 1854 he commanded the Pacific Division and then the Department of the Pacific . In October , 1855 , he resigned from the Army following a refusal by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to extend a four - month leave of absence that he had requested for reasons of health . He moved to St . Louis , Missouri , and a presumed retirement , occupying himself with writing and studies of general literature and philosophy . Mexican American War . Hitchcock served as a colonel in the Mexican - American War . His journal entries from this time have served as a crucial source of evidence for Howard Zinn ' s reinterpretation of United States history , " A People ' s History of the United States " . Civil War . After the start of the Civil War , Hitchcock applied to return to the service , but was rejected . It was only after the intervention of his former general , Winfield Scott , that he was commissioned a major general in the U . S . Army and became special adviser to the Secretary of War from February 17 , 1862 . From March 17 to July 23 , 1862 , he served as the chairman of the War Board , the organization that assisted President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton in the management of the War Department and the command of the Union armies during the period in which there was no general - in - chief . ( Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan had been relieved of his responsibilities as general - in - chief and Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck had not yet replaced him . ) He sat on the court - martial of Maj . Gen . Fitz John Porter which convicted the general of disobedience and cowardice . From November 1862 through the end of the war , he served as Commissioner for Prisoner of War Exchange , and then Commissary - General of Prisoners until 1867 . Postbellum life . Hitchcock was mustered out of the volunteer service in 1867 and moved to Charleston , South Carolina , then to Sparta , Georgia . He died at Glen Mary Plantation in Sparta in 1870 and is buried in West Point National Cemetery , New York . Contributions to alchemy studies and Jungian psychology . Known as the " Pen of the Army , " Ethan Allen Hitchcock was recognized by his contemporaries as an avid reader of philosophy and a published scholar . By the time of his death , Hitchcock had amassed a large private library of philosophical texts , including over 250 volumes on the subject of alchemy . This collection was widely regarded as one of the finest private holdings of rare alchemical works and is preserved by St . Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St . Louis . Through " Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists " and other writings , Hitchcock argued that the alchemists were actually religious philosophers writing in symbolism . In " Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism " , the Viennese psychologist Herbert Silberer credited Hitchcock with helping to open the way for his explorations of the psychological content of alchemy . Hitchcock was a Rosicrucian and a member in Washington D . C . club along with Lincoln . Musical collection . The Major - General also played the flute and amassed a sizable collection of flute music . In the 1960s , almost one hundred years after his death , part of Hitchcock ' s personal music collection was discovered in Sparta , Georgia . This collection , which consists of 73 bound volumes and approximately 200 loose manuscripts , currently resides in the Warren D . Allen Music Library at Florida State University . Included in this collection are works by some of the general ' s contemporaries , music manuscripts handwritten by Hitchcock himself , and items of personal correspondence . The library ' s acquisition of these materials was celebrated in 1989 by a recital given by F . S . U . flute students and attended by several of Hitchcock ' s descendants .