Solomon Meredith Solomon Meredith ( May 29 , 1810 – October 2 , 1875 ) was a prominent Indiana farmer , politician , and lawman who was a controversial Union Army general in the American Civil War . He gained fame as one of the commanders of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac , leading the brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg . Early life . Solomon Meredith was born in Guilford County , North Carolina , to David and Mary Farrington Meredith . The Merediths were Quaker and educated young Solomon at home . Meredith ' s grandfather , James Meredith , fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the American Revolutionary War . In 1829 , Solomon traveled to Wayne County , Indiana , where he found work chopping wood and working on a farm . He later clerked in a general store in Centerville . Political career . In 1834 , he became the Sheriff of Wayne County , serving for two years . He was subsequently elected to the Indiana House of Representatives for four terms . In the mid - 1850s , he was the U . S . Marshal for Indiana . He owned a sprawling farm , " Oakland , " near Cambridge City . He was nicknamed " Long Sol " for his towering 6 ' 7 " body . Civil War . When the Civil War erupted in early 1861 , Meredith recruited hundreds of men from his county and organized them into a volunteer regiment of infantry . Governor Oliver P . Morton appointed Meredith as the first colonel of the newly named 19th Indiana , despite his lack of previous military experience . The regiment traveled by train to Washington , D . C . , where it would eventually join the Army of the Potomac and be brigade d with three Wisconsin regiments in what became famous as the Iron Brigade . Meredith and his Hoosiers fought their first engagement during the Northern Virginia Campaign at Brawner ' s Farm , where his horse was shot from under him , crushing him and breaking several ribs . During the Maryland Campaign , Meredith took part in the Battle of South Mountain , but then abruptly reported himself unfit for duty due to the lingering effects of his injuries at Brawner ' s Farm and fatigue resulting from to the long march up from Virginia . He went to Washington to rest and recuperate while his replacement , Lt . Col . Alois O . Bachman , was killed while leading a charge near the Cornfield at Antietam . As far as Brig . Gen . John Gibbon was concerned , he deserved to be stripped of his command for this . A month later , Gibbon was promoted to Maj . Gen . and given the 2nd Division , I Corps to command , then recommending either Colonel Lysander Cutler of the 6th Wisconsin or Colonel Lucius Fairchild of the 2nd Wisconsin to take over the Iron Brigade . However , Major General Joseph Hooker ( who had commanded the I Corps at Antietam and was recovering from a wound sustained in that battle ) was visited by Meredith requesting promotion to brigadier general . Regardless of the Antietam fiasco and Gibbon ' s disdain for him , he had powerful political connections in the form of Indiana Governor Oliver Morton . This was enough to convince Hooker , who submitted his request to Washington . In November , Meredith thus took the field wearing the stars of a brigadier general while John Gibbon fumed and cursed Hooker as a man who had sacrificed his principles for political gain . Meredith led the brigade in combat for the first time at Fredericksburg , where he drew the ire of division commander Maj . Gen . Abner Doubleday , who temporarily replaced Meredith with Col . Lysander Cutler . In the spring of 1863 , Meredith ' s brigade participated in the Chancellorsville Campaign , but saw relatively little combat . That would change in July , when the Iron Brigade suffered significant casualties during the first day ' s fighting at Gettysburg in Herbst ' s Woods and on Seminary Ridge . They were one of the first infantry brigades to reach the field and in the morning they routed the shocked brigade of Brig . Gen . James J . Archer and captured Archer . However , in the afternoon the brigade was ravaged by a flanking maneuver by the 11th North Carolina and a frontal assault by the 26th North Carolina , of Confederate Brig . Gen . J . Johnston Pettigrew ' s brigade . Meredith was wounded when he was struck in the head by shrapnel , fracturing his skull and giving him a severe concussion . The blow killed his horse , which then fell on him , breaking his ribs and injuring his right leg . He was disabled and unfit for any further field command . Meredith performed administrative duty for the rest of the war , commanding garrisons protecting Union river ports along the Mississippi at Cairo , Illinois , and Paducah , Kentucky . While still on Army duty in mid - 1864 , Meredith unsuccessfully ran against George Julian for the United States House of Representatives . Openly feuding with his opponent , Meredith beat Julian unconscious with a whip , but used his political influence to have charges of assault and battery dropped . Postbellum life . With the war over in 1865 , Meredith mustered out from the volunteer army with the brevet rank of major general and returned home to Indiana , where he resumed farming . From 1867 to 1869 , he was the surveyor general of the Montana Territory . He retired to his farm and raised prize - winning long - horn cattle , sheep , and horses . Death and legacy . Solomon Meredith died on his farm in 1875 . He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Cambridge City , Indiana . The Grand Army of the Republic Post in Richmond , Indiana , was later named in his honor .