David B . Birney David Bell Birney ( May 29 , 1825 – October 18 , 1864 ) was a businessman , lawyer , and a Union General in the American Civil War . Early life . Birney was born in Huntsville , Alabama , the son of an abolitionist from Kentucky , James G . Birney . The Birney family returned to Kentucky in 1833 , and James Birney freed his slaves . In 1835 , the family moved to Cincinnati , where the father published an anti - slavery newspaper . Following numerous threats from pro - slavery mobs , the family moved again to Michigan , and finally to Philadelphia . Following his graduation from Phillips Academy , Andover , Massachusetts , David Birney entered business , studied law , and was admitted to the bar . He returned to Philadelphia , practicing law from 1856 until the outbreak of the Civil War . Civil War . Birney entered the Union army just after Fort Sumter as lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment , a unit he raised largely at his own expense . Just prior to the war he had been studying military texts in preparation for such a role . He was promoted to colonel on August 31 , 1861 , and to brigadier general on February 17 , 1862 , clearly benefiting from political influences , not military merit . He commanded a brigade in Brig . Gen . Philip Kearny ' s division of the III Corps , which he led through the Peninsula Campaign . At the Battle of Seven Pines he was accused of disobeying an order from his corps commander , Maj . Gen . Samuel P . Heintzelman , allegedly for " halting his command a mile from the enemy . " But this was simply a matter of orders misunderstood . Birney was court - martial ed , but with strong positive testimony from Kearny , he was acquitted and restored to command . Birney fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run in support of Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia . When Kearny was killed in that battle , Birney took over command of his division . Stationed in Washington , D . C . , he missed the Battle of Antietam , but his division returned to the Army of the Potomac to fight at Fredericksburg . There , he once again encountered military discipline problems , this time for allegedly refusing to support Maj . Gen . George G . Meade ' s division ' s attack on the left flank of the Union line . However , he was complimented in III Corps commander Maj . Gen . George Stoneman ' s official report for " the handsome manner in which he handled his division " on that same day and for a second time he escaped punishment . Birney led his division in heavy fighting at Chancellorsville , where they suffered more casualties ( 1 , 607 ) than any other division in the army . As a result of his distinguished service at Chancellorsville , he was promoted to major general on May 20 , 1863 . At the Battle of Gettysburg , the III Corps commander was the notorious Maj . Gen . Daniel Sickles . On July 2 , 1863 , Sickles insubordinately moved his corps from its assigned defensive position on Cemetery Ridge . Birney ' s new position was from the Devil ' s Den , to the Wheatfield , to the Peach Orchard , part of a salient directly in the path of the Confederate assault , and it was too long a front for a single division to defend . Assaulted by the divisions of Maj . Gens . John Bell Hood and Lafayette McLaws , Birney ' s division was demolished . Army commander Meade rushed in reinforcements , but the line could not hold . His division and the entire corps were finished as a fighting force . As Birney watched the few survivors of his division gather about him on Cemetery Ridge , he whispered to one of his officers , " I wish I were already dead . " Sickles was grievously wounded by a cannonball and Birney assumed temporary command of the corps , despite having received two minor wounds himself . He retained command until February 1864 . Birney started in the Overland Campaign as a division commander in the II Corps , his III Corps having been reorganized out of existence that spring . After good service in the Wilderness , Spotsylvania Court House ( where he was wounded by a shell fragment ) , and Cold Harbor , on July 23 , 1864 , Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant gave Birney command of the X Corps in the Army of the James . However , during the Siege of Petersburg , Birney fell ill with malaria ( some accounts say dysentery and typhoid fever ) . He was ordered home to Philadelphia , and died three months later . He is buried there in Woodlands Cemetery . Legacy . David Birney was one of the more successful " political general s " of the Civil War . Many of his colleagues resented his swift rise in the ranks and he was not a beloved figure with them or his soldiers . Theodore Lyman of Meade ' s staff wrote of Birney : The Gen . David B . Birney School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 .