Emory Upton Emory Upton ( August 27 , 1839 – March 15 , 1881 ) was a United States Army General and military strategist , prominent for his role in leading infantry to attack entrenched positions successfully at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the American Civil War , but he also excelled at artillery and cavalry assignments . His work , " The Military Policy of the United States " , which analyzed American military policies and practices and presented the first systematic examination of the nation ' s military history , had a tremendous effect on the U . S . Army when it was published posthumously in 1904 . Early life . Upton was born on a farm near Batavia , New York , the tenth child and sixth son of Daniel and Electra Randall Upton . He would become the brother - in - law of Andrew J . Alexander and of Frank P . Blair , Jr . He studied under famous evangelist Charles G . Finney at Oberlin College for two years before being admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1856 . While at West Point Upton fought a duel with fellow Cadet Wade Hampton Gibbes of South Carolina over some offensive remarks about Upton ' s alleged relationships with African - American girls at Oberlin College . The two men fought with swords in a darkened room of the cadet barracks . Upton suffered a cut on his face . He graduated eighth in his class of 45 cadets on May 6 , 1861 , just in time for the outbreak of the Civil War . Civil War . Upton was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 4th U . S . Artillery , transferring to the 5th U . S . Artillery as a first lieutenant on May 14 , assigned to Brig . Gen . Irvin McDowell ' s Army of Northeastern Virginia , as an aide - de - camp to Brig . Gen . Daniel Tyler . In the First Battle of Bull Run , July 21 , 1861 , he was wounded in the arm and left side during the action at Blackburn ' s Ford , although he did not leave the field . He commanded his battery in the VI Corps Artillery Reserve through the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles . In the Maryland Campaign , including the battles at Crampton ' s Gap at South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam , he commanded the artillery brigade for the 1st Division , VI Corps . Upton was appointed colonel of the 121st New York on October 23 , 1862 . He led the regiment at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December and commanded the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division , of the VI Corps , starting at the Battle of Gettysburg , to where the corps marched 35 miles in a single night from Manchester , Maryland , and was then kept in reserve . In the Bristoe Campaign , Upton was cited for gallant service at Rappahannock Station in November 1863 and was given a brevet promotion to major in the regular army . In the 1864 Overland Campaign , Upton led his brigade in the Wilderness , but his greatest contribution was at Spotsylvania Court House , where he developed a new tactic to attack the Confederate breastworks , one that would foreshadow tactics used in the trench warfare of World War I . Upton devised a tactic wherein columns of massed infantry would swiftly assault a small part of the enemy line , without pausing to trade fire , and in doing so attempt to overwhelm the defenders and achieve a breakthrough . The standard infantry assault employed a wide battle line advancing more slowly , firing at the enemy as it moved forward . On May 10 , 1864 , Upton led twelve regiments in such an assault against the Confederate ' s " Mule Shoe " salient . His tactics worked and his command penetrated to the center of the Mule Shoe , but they were left unsupported and forced to withdraw in the face of enemy artillery and mounting reinforcements . Upton was wounded in the attack , but was promoted to brigadier general on May 12 . On that same day , Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock adapted Upton ' s columnar assault tactic to the entire II Corps to break through the Mule Shoe . Due to his wounds , Upton was forced to retire to Washington , D . C . , but was back in command to participate in the early stages of the Siege of Petersburg . The VI Corps , of which Upton ' s brigade was part , was detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent to deal with Confederate Lt . Gen . Jubal A . Early ' s threat to Washington and in the subsequent Valley Campaigns of 1864 . At the Third Battle of Winchester , Upton assumed command of the 1st Division , VI Corps , when its commander fell mortally wounded . Upton himself was severely wounded in the thigh soon after , but refused to be removed from the field until the battle was over . He was carried on a stretcher for the duration of the battle , directing his troops . He received two brevet promotions for Winchester : colonel in the regular army ( September 19 , 1864 ) and major general of volunteers ( October 19 ) . After returning from medical leave , Upton finished the war as a cavalry commander , completing his mastery of all three combat arms . Under the command of Maj . Gen . James H . Wilson , he led the 4th Division of the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi . The division saw action during Wilson ' s Raid and the Battle of Selma . On April 16 , 1865 , the division made a night assault upon the Confederate works in the Battle of Columbus , Georgia , capturing a large amount of arms , ammunition , stores , and 1 , 500 prisoners , and burning the " cottonclad " ramming ship , CSS Muscogee . This occurred a week after the surrender of Robert E . Lee ' s army in Virginia , and was the last large - scale engagement during the war . A few weeks later , in May 1865 , Upton was ordered to arrest Alexander Stephens , the vice president of the Confederacy , and a little later Jefferson Davis was placed in his custody . He was given a brevet promotion to brigadier general in the regular army for his actions at Selma and major general in the regular army , both on March 13 , 1865 . Robert Hoffsommer wrote that , by the end of the war , the 25 year - old Upton " had commanded outstandingly in all three branches of the army . " Postbellum career . After the war , Upton commanded a cavalry brigade in the Department of the Cumberland from July through September 1865 and served in the District of Colorado until April 1866 . He was mustered out of the volunteer service on April 30 , 1866 . He was assigned to a board at West Point that considered a new system of infantry tactics , which was approved in 1867 . In July 1866 he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 25th U . S . Infantry and transferred to the 18th U . S . Infantry in March 1869 . From 1870 to 1875 he was the commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy , where he also taught infantry , artillery , and cavalry tactics . Impressed with the lessons of the Franco - Prussian War , U . S . Army Commanding General William T . Sherman sent Upton on a tour of Europe and Asia to study military organizations , but with a special emphasis on the German Army . Upon his return , Upton wrote " The Armies of Europe and Asia " , which warned that European armies had developed soldiering as a profession to a more advanced state than the U . S . Army . Upton presented 54 pages of recommendations for changes in the Army , including that it establish advanced military schools , a general staff , a system of personnel evaluation reports , and promotion by examination . The U . S . interest in French military organizations and tactics , which dominated fighting in the Civil War , went into decline . He was appointed superintendent of theoretical instruction at the Artillery School of Practice located at Fort Monroe , Virginia , where he emphasized combined arms tactics . In 1881 , Upton , having returned to the rank of colonel in 1880 , was in command of 4th U . S . Artillery at the Presidio of San Francisco . He suffered greatly from headaches , possibly caused by a brain tumor , and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head . He is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery , Auburn , New York . Army reform . Upton is considered one of the most influential young reformers of the United States Army in the 19th century , arguably in U . S . history . He has been called the U . S . Army ' s counterpart to United States Navy reformer and strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan . Although his books on tactics and on Asian and European armies were considered influential , his greatest impact was a work he called " The Military Policy of the United States from 1775 " . He worked for years on the paper , but it was incomplete at the time of his death in 1881 . " Military Policy " was a controversial work in which Upton outlined U . S . military history and argued that the armed forces were imprudent and weak and " that all the defects of the American military system rested upon a fundamental , underlying flaw , excessive civilian control of the military . " He denigrated the influence of the Secretary of War and promoted the idea that all military decisions in the field should be made by professional officers , although the president should retain the role of commander - in - chief . He argued for a strong , standing regular army that would be supplemented by volunteers or conscripts in time of war , a general staff system based on the Prussian model , examinations to determine promotions , compulsory retirement of officers who reach a certain age , advanced military education , and combat maneuvering by groups of four three - battalion infantry regiments . Upton ' s work had a profound influence on discussions of military and civilian strategy for years . After Upton ' s death , Henry A . DuPont , Upton ' s West Point classmate and a close friend , acquired a copy of the uncompleted manuscript . It circulated widely throughout the Army ' s officer corps and helped to foment much discussion . After the Spanish - American War , Secretary of War Elihu Root read the manuscript and ordered that the War Department publish it under the title " The Military Policy of the United States " . Many of the Army ' s so - called Root Reforms of the early twentieth century were inspired by Upton and his works . In memoriam . In 1895 , Maj . Gen . James H . Wilson wrote an introductory article for a book by Peter Michie , " The Life and Letters of Emory Upton " . Wilson ' s tribute to his former subordinate demonstrates the significance of Emory Upton ' s accomplishments and characteristics : Upton was commemorated at a site in central Suffolk County , New York , presently occupied by Brookhaven National Laboratory . The U . S . Army ' s Camp Upton was active from 1917 until 1920 , and again from 1940 until 1946 . During World War II , the camp was rebuilt primarily as an induction center for draftees . The Army later used the site as a convalescent and rehabilitation hospital for returning wounded . A statue of Upton stands before the Genesee County Courthouse in his native Batavia .