William W . Averell William Woods Averell ( November 5 , 1832 – February 3 , 1900 ) was a career United States Army officer and a cavalry general in the American Civil War . After the war he was a diplomat and became wealthy by inventing American asphalt pavement . Early years . Averell was born in Cameron , New York . As a boy he worked as a drugstore clerk in the nearby town of Bath , New York . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1855 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U . S . Army Mounted Rifles . His early assignments included garrison duty at Jefferson Barracks , Missouri , and the U . S . Army Cavalry School in Carlisle , Pennsylvania . During two years of service in the southwestern United States , he was wounded in action against the Indians in 1859 and was placed on the disabled list until the outbreak of the Civil War . Civil War . After the capture of Fort Sumter , Lt . Averell made a risky solo journey across the country to the New Mexico Territory with a message to summon his old mounted rifle regiment back east to join the fighting . Averell first saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run while acting as assistant adjutant general to Brig . Gen . Andrew Porter . In August 1861 , he was appointed colonel of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry regiment , which he led through the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles . Immediately after that campaign , on July 6 , 1862 , he was given command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the Army of the Potomac . He missed the Battle of Antietam and most of the Maryland Campaign as he recovered from a bout of malaria that was known at the time as " Chickahominy Fever " . As Confederate Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart ' s cavalry rode around the Union Army and raided Chambersburg , Pennsylvania , Averell returned in time to lead his brigade in pursuit . President Abraham Lincoln appointed Averell a brigadier general of volunteers on September 26 , 1862 to rank from that date . Lincoln had to nominate Averell three times before the U . S . Senate confirmed the appointment on March 11 , 1863 . During the Battle of Fredericksburg , Averell commanded the Cavalry Brigade of the Center Grand Division of the Army of the Potomac . He ascended to division command — the 2nd division of the Cavalry Corps — on February 12 , 1863 . His division fought the first engagement in which Union cavalrymen claimed victory against their Confederate counterparts , the Battle of Kelly ' s Ford on March 17 , 1863 . But the 2nd Division ' s reputation was diminished as it participated in Maj . Gen . George Stoneman ' s fruitless cavalry raid in the Battle of Chancellorsville six weeks later . On May 2 , 1863 , army commander Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker relieved Averell of his command due to his slow performance during the raid . Hooker sent an angry telegram to the War Department informing them that Averell " seems to have contented himself between April 29 and May 4 with having marched . . . 28 miles , meeting no enemy deserving of the name , and from that point reporting to me for instructions . " Averell left the Army of the Potomac after his relief at Chancellorsville and fought a series of minor engagements in the Department of West Virginia at the brigade and division level . In November 1863 , he conducted what is called Averell ' s West Virginia Raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad . He received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for the Battle of Droop Mountain in West Virginia on November 6 , 1863 , and to colonel for actions at Salem , Virginia , on December 15 , 1863 . In the spring of 1864 , he led another cavalry raid toward Saltville but was stopped by Generals John Hunt Morgan and William E . " Grumble " Jones at Cove Gap . Returning to West Virginia , he later commanded a cavalry division under Maj . Gen . David Hunter in his failed raid on Lynchburg . At a time when Lt . Gen . Jubal Early had invaded Maryland and defeated a series of Union commanders , Averell proved to be the only Union commander to achieve victory against the Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley . He routed Confederate Maj . Gen . Stephen D . Ramseur at the Battle of Rutherford ' s ( Carter ' s ) Farm on July 20 , inflicting 400 casualties and capturing a four - gun battery , in spite of Averell ' s being significantly outnumbered . When Brig . Gen . John McCausland burned Chambersburg , Pennsylvania , to the ground on July 30 , Averell tracked him down at Moorefield , West Virginia . Using intelligence gathered from his scouts , Averell routed McCausland in a sunrise attack upon the Confederate camp capturing hundreds of prisoners and another four - gun battery . During the Valley Campaigns of 1864 against Early , Averell fought under Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan . He was relieved of command a second time in his career on September 23 , 1864 , following a dispute with Sheridan about Averell ' s actions at the Battle of Fisher ' s Hill . This incident truly devastated him and he could not hide his misery . A staff officer wrote " I saw General Averell sitting in front of his tent . . . He was dreadfully depressed and broken . I believe he started for the rear within a few moments after we left him , and never was employed again during the war . " Averell resigned from the Union Army volunteers and from the U . S . regular army on May 18 , 1865 . On July 17 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson nominated Averell for appointment to the grades of brevet brigadier general and brevet major general in the regular army , to rank from March 13 , 1865 , and the U . S . Senate confirmed the appointments on July 23 , 1866 . The latter appointment was in recognition of Averell ' s actions at the Battle of Kelly ' s Ford . Postbellum career . Following the Civil War , President Johnson appointed Averell as U . S . consul general to British North America ( 1866 – 1869 ) . In later life , his skill as an inventor of practical devices provided him with a handsome income . Among his inventions were methods for manufacturing steel castings and insulated electrical cable . He is most famous as the inventor of American asphalt pavement . He was the author of " Ten Years in the Saddle " ( 1978 ) and co - author of " History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry , 60th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers " ( 1905 ) , both published posthumously . General Averell died in Bath , New York , and is buried there .