Adolph von Steinwehr Baron Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr ( September 25 , 1822 – February 25 , 1877 ) was a German - Brunswick army officer who emigrated to the United States , became a geographer , cartographer , and author , and served as a Union general in the American Civil War . Early life . Steinwehr was born in Blankenburg , in the Duchy of Brunswick , Germany , the son of a military family . ( His grandfather fought in the Prussian Army against Napoleon . ) He attended the Brunswick Military Academy and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Brunswick Army in 1841 . In 1847 he resigned his commission and emigrated to the United States , settling in Alabama . He served as an engineer in the U . S . Coastal Survey , surveying the U . S . - Mexico border and Mobile Bay , Alabama , but his desire to serve in a combat position in the Mexican - American War was denied and he returned to Brunswick in 1849 , but not before marrying 19 year old Florence Mary of Mobile , Alabama . He returned to the United States in 1854 and purchased a farm near Wallingford , Connecticut . He later moved to New York state . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Steinwehr raised a regiment , consisting primarily of German immigrants , the 29th New York Infantry , which he commanded at the First Battle of Bull Run . The regiment was in reserve during the battle , but served an important screening role during the Union retreat . He was promoted to brigadier general on October 12 , 1861 , and commanded the 2nd Brigade of Louis Blenker ' s division of the Army of the Potomac . This brigade was moved into Maj . Gen . John C . Frémont ' s Mountain Department on April 1 , 1862 , and it fought in the Valley Campaign against Maj . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson . Fremont ' s command was expanded into an army corps , which was soon commanded by Maj . Gen . Franz Sigel , another German immigrant . Steinwehr was given the 2nd Division in that corps . It was assigned to the Army of Virginia , under Maj . Gen . John Pope , and participated in the Northern Virginia Campaign , but had little role in the Second Battle of Bull Run . Although the corps joined the Army of the Potomac , the division did not fight at the Battle of Antietam or the Battle of Fredericksburg . The command of what was now called the XI Corps changed to Maj . Gen . Oliver O . Howard in 1863 , and Steinwehr continued to command the division in the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg . The corps was the victim of the surprise flanking attack by Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville on May 2 , 1863 , and the overwhelming attack by Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell ' s Second Corps on the first day of Gettysburg , July 1 , 1863 . At Chancellorsville , Steinwehr ' s division had one brigade , that of Col Adolphus Buschbeck involved in resisting Jackson ' s attack . At Gettysburg , when the corps was forced to retreat back through the town to Cemetery Hill , Col Charles Coster took a brigade of Steinwehr ' s division out to the edge of the town , where it sacrificed itself buying time for the retreating soldiers of the other two divisions . These two defeats seriously degraded the combat effectiveness of the XI Corps and humiliated many of the German immigrant soldiers in the corps . Nevertheless , Steinwehr was well thought of by his superiors . After Chancellorsville , General Howard wrote that Steinwehr ' s bearing during the battle was " cool , collected and judicious . " Brig . Gen . Alpheus Williams , a fellow division commander , described him as a " remarkably intelligent and agreeable person . " In September 1863 , two divisions of the XI Corps , those of Steinwehr and MG Carl Schurz , were transferred to the Western Theater to help relieve the besieged Union army in Chattanooga , becoming part of the Army of the Cumberland . They served under Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker in the Battle of Wauhatchie , where the brigade of Col Orland Smith from Steinwehr ' s division distinguished itself . Buschbeck ' s brigade was engaged alongside Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s command at the Third Battle of Chattanooga . After that battle the XI Corps was combined with the equally depleted XII Corps to form the new XX Corps . That corps fought under Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea , but Steinwehr was essentially reorganized out of his job and he commanded no more combat units during the war . He resigned his commission on July 3 , 1865 . Postbellum life . After the war , Steinwehr was employed as a geographer and cartographer . He returned to Connecticut to accept a professorship at Yale University . He moved to Washington , D . C . , then to Ohio , and returned to New York . He died in Buffalo , New York , and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery , Menands , New York . Steinwehr was a prolific author , including " A School Geography : Embracing a Mathematical , Physical , and Political Descriptions of the Earth " ( published in 1870 ) ; co - author of " Primary Geography " ( 1870 ) and " An Elementary Treatise on Physical Geography " ( 1873 ) ; editor of " The Centennial Gazetteer of the United States " ( 1874 ) . He is memorialized by the prominent Steinwehr Avenue in the city of Gettysburg , Pennsylvania .