William R . Terrill William Rufus Terrill ( April 21 , 1834 – October 8 , 1862 ) was a United States Army soldier and general who was killed in action at the Battle of Perryville during the American Civil War . His Confederate brother was also killed during the same war , making the Terrills one of the few sets of American brothers killed in action while commanding brigade s . Early life . Terrill was born in Covington , Virginia , and grew up at Warm Springs , in Bath County , Virginia . His father , Colonel William Henry Terrill , was a Virginia lawyer and congressman . He became a cadet at U . S . Military Academy in 1849 and graduated in 1853 . While a cadet , he was involved in a fist - fight with classmate Philip H . Sheridan . The encounter caused a one - year suspension for Sheridan from the academy . Terrill graduated 16th in his class of 1853 . After graduation , he was assigned to the 3rd U . S . Artillery and served on various garrisons . He then fought the Seminole Indians in Florida until being reassigned as a recruiter . He returned to West Point as an assistant professor of mathematics during 1853 – 54 , before being assigned to duty in " Bleeding Kansas " during 1854 – 55 . Terrill became an assistant in the United States coast survey from 1855 until 1861 . In 1856 he was promoted to first lieutenant . On May 14 , 1861 , he was appointed captain of the 5th Regular Artillery in Washington , D . C . Civil War . Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln ' s subsequent call for volunteers caused many southern - born officers to resign their commissions , but Terrill left no doubt about where his loyalties lay telegraphing the War Department and General Winfield Scott from Poughkeepsie , New York , on April 29 , 1861 that “ I am now and ever will be true to my oath and my country . No one has any authority to tender my resignation . I will be in Washington as soon as possible . ” Terrill was commissioned a captain in the 5th Regiment of Artillery in August 1861 . His younger brother James B . Terrill was commissioned a major of Virginia Infantry and served in the Confederate States Army . Their father served the Confederate States as the provost marshal of Bath County , Virginia . William Terrill served as assistant inspector general in Washington , D . C . , and then commanded a brigade of artillery in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh . On September 9 , 1862 he was appointed as a brigadier general of U . S . volunteers and took command of the 33rd Brigade in the Army of the Ohio . He led his inexperienced fresh troops into their first combat action at the Battle of Perryville . There , he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment while trying to rally his brigade in the face of a Confederate attack , and died later that day . The previous night , Generals Terrill and James S . Jackson and Colonel George Webster were discussing the improbability of being killed in action . All three would be killed in the following battle . In 1864 during the Overland Campaign , Terrill ' s brother James , by then commanding a brigade , was killed in action at the Battle of Bethesda Church and buried on the battlefield . He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general . Another younger brother , Philip Mallory Terrill of the 12th Virginia Cavalry , was killed near Winchester , Virginia , in November 1864 . The fourth brother , Dr . George P . Terrill , a Confederate militia commander , survived the Civil War . An unscrupulous war correspondent from " Harper ' s Weekly " manufactured a fitting legend that their grieving father later erected a memorial stone for both brothers , which reads " This monument erected by their father . God alone knows which was right . " William R . Terrill was interred at West Point National Cemetery . Further reading . " God Alone Knows Which Was Right " : The Blue and Gray Terrill Family of Virginia in the Civil War