John W . Geary John White Geary ( December 30 , 1819February 8 , 1873 ) was an American lawyer , politician , Freemason , and a Union general in the American Civil War . He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco , a governor of the Kansas Territory , and the 16th governor of Pennsylvania . Early years . Geary was born near Mount Pleasant , Pennsylvania , in Westmoreland County — in what is today the Pittsburgh metropolitan area . He was the son of Richard Geary , an ironmaster and schoolmaster , and Margaret White , a native of Maryland . Starting at the age of 14 , he attended nearby Jefferson College in Canonsburg , Pennsylvania , studying civil engineering and law , but was forced to leave before graduation due to the death of his father , whose debts he assumed . He worked at a variety of jobs , including as a surveyor and land speculator in Kentucky , earning enough to return to college and graduate in 1841 . He worked as a construction engineer for the Allegheny Portage Railroad . In 1843 , he married Margaret Ann Logan , with whom he had several sons , but she died in 1853 . Geary then married the widowed Mary Church Henderson in 1858 in Carlisle , Pennsylvania . Geary was active in the state militia as a teenager and when the Mexican - American War started , he enlisted in the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry , serving as lieutenant colonel . He led the regiment heroically at Chapultepec , and was wounded five times in the process . Geary was an excellent target for enemy fire : a huge man for that era , he stood six feet six inches tall , 260 pounds ( 118 kg ) and solidly built . Altogether , he was wounded at least ten times in his military career . Geary ' s exploits at Belén Gate earned him the rank of colonel and he returned home a war hero . California politics . Moving west , Geary was appointed postmaster of San Francisco by President James K . Polk on January 22 , 1849 , and in 1850 , he became the city ' s alcalde , before California became a state , and then the first mayor of the city . He holds the record as the youngest mayor in San Francisco history . Geary returned to Pennsylvania in 1852 because of his wife ' s failing health . After her death , President Franklin Pierce wanted to appoint him governor of the Utah Territory , but Geary declined . Territorial Governor of Kansas . Geary accepted Pierce ' s appointment as governor of the Kansas Territory on July 31 , 1856 . Proslavery forces opposed Geary , favoring instead either acting governor Daniel Woodson or Surveyor General John Calhoun ( an Illinois politician ) . Geary spent a month preparing for his new position and then left for the territory . While traveling up the Missouri River , his boat docked at Glasgow , Missouri , where he happened upon recently fired governor Wilson Shannon . They briefly discussed the " Bleeding Kansas " crisis and Geary had previously met with Missouri governor Sterling Price , who promised Geary that Free - staters would be allowed safe passage through Missouri . Geary arrived at Fort Leavenworth on September 9 and went to the territorial capital at Lecompton the following day , becoming the youngest territorial governor of Kansas . He believed that his previous administrative experience in government would help bring peace to the territory , but he was unable to stop the violence . He told his first audience , " I desire to know no party , no section , no North , no South , no East , no West ; nothing but Kansas and my county . " Geary disbanded the existing Kansas militia , organized a new state militia , and relied heavily on federal troops to help keep order . On October 17 , he started a twenty - day tour of the territory and spoke to groups everywhere he stopped to gain their opinions . Despite his efforts to be a neutral peacemaker , Geary and the proslavery legislature clashed . Geary stopped a large force of Missouri border ruffians who were heading to Lawrence to once again burn the town . Additionally , he vetoed a bill which would provide for an election of delegates to the Lecompton constitutional convention . This bill would have bypassed any referendum on a constitution before being submitted to the U . S . Congress for ratification . The legislature , however , overrode the veto . Geary also angered Free - staters when he turned away $ 20 , 000 from the Vermont legislature that was intended to help the suffering from the harsh winter of 1856 – 57 . Geary wrote in his response , " [ there is ] doubtless some suffering . . . consequent upon the past disturbances and the present extremely cold weather ; but probably no more than exists in other territories or in either of the states of the Union . " Initially , Geary solidly abhorred the proposals he received from Kansas abolitionists . By the time of the 1856 presidential election , however , he had completely reversed his position and had become intimate friends with Charles Robinson and Samuel Pomeroy . Additionally , he totally distrusted the proslavery forces and in letters to President Pierce , he blamed them for the deprivations in the territory . Geary even went so far as to reject his candidacy from the Democratic party of Kansas for the U . S . Senate . Instead he worked with the Free - staters to create a plan for Kansas to be admitted to the Union under the Topeka constitution as a free state , with himself as governor of a Democratic administration . Support for this plan in Congress was lacking . Geary soon began to fear for his personal safety after his private secretary , Dr . John Gihon , was assaulted by proslavery ruffians . Geary submitted his resignation to incoming president James Buchanan , expecting that he would be reappointed . Instead , Buchanan fired Geary on March 12 with an effective date of March 20 . In his farewell message to the territory , Geary stated that he had not sought the office and " [ that it ] was by no means desirable . " He added , " most of the troubles which lately agitated the territory , were occasioned by men who had no especial interest in its welfare . . . The great body of the actual citizens are conservative , law - abiding and peace - loving men , disposed rather to make sacrifices for conciliation and consequent peace , than to insist for their entire rights should the general body thereby be caused to suffer . " Armed with two guns , Geary left the territory during the night and returned to Washington , D . C . , on March 21 . Afterward , he spoke at many public meetings about the dangers in Kansas . Although he did not bring peace to the territory , Geary ' s administration did leave the territory more peaceful than it had been prior to his arrival . Geary returned to his Pennsylvania farm and remarried . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Geary raised the 147th and 28th Pennsylvania Infantry regiments and became colonel of the latter . Commanding the district of the upper Potomac River , he was wounded and captured near Leesburg , Virginia , on March 8 , 1862 , but was immediately exchanged and returned to duty . He was promoted to brigadier general and the command of a brigade in Maj . Gen . Nathaniel Banks ' s corps , which he led in the Shenandoah Valley against Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson . His brigade joined Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia in late June . He led it at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 9 , 1862 , where he was seriously wounded in the arm and leg . He returned to duty on October 15 as the division commander ; the corps was now part of the Army of the Potomac , designated the XII Corps , under the command of Maj . Gen . Henry W . Slocum . Geary ' s division was heavily engaged at Chancellorsville , where he was knocked unconscious as a cannonball shot past his head on May 3 , 1863 . ( Some accounts state that he was hit in the chest with a cannonball , which seems unlikely . ) At the Battle of Gettysburg , Slocum ' s corps arrived after the first day ' s ( July 1 , 1863 ) fighting subsided and took up a defensive position on Culp ' s Hill , the extreme right of the Union line . On the second day , heavy fighting on the Union left demanded reinforcements and Geary was ordered to leave a single brigade , under Brig . Gen . George S . Greene , on Culp ' s Hill and follow another division , which was just departing . Geary lost track of the division he was supposed to follow south on the Baltimore Pike and inexplicably marched completely off the battlefield , eventually reaching Rock Creek . His two brigades finally returned to Culp ' s Hill by 9 : 00 pm that night , arriving in the midst of a fierce fire fight between a Confederate division and Greene ' s lone brigade . This embarrassing incident might have damaged his reputation except for two factors : the part of the battle he was supposed to march to join had ended , so he wasn ' t really needed ; and , because of a dispute between army commander Maj . Gen . George G . Meade and Slocum over the filing of their official reports , little public notice ensued . The XII Corps was transferred west to join the besieged Union army at Chattanooga . Geary ' s son Edward died in his arms at the Battle of Wauhatchie , enraging him sufficiently to prevail in a battle in which his division was greatly outnumbered . He distinguished himself in command during the Battle of Lookout Mountain , the entire Atlanta Campaign , Sherman ' s March to the Sea , and the Carolinas Campaign . He oversaw the surrender of Savannah , Georgia , and briefly served as the city ' s military governor , where he was brevet ed to major general . Governor of Pennsylvania and death . After the war , Geary served two terms as the Republican governor of Pennsylvania , from 1867 to 1873 . He established a reputation as a political independent , attacking the political influence of the railroads and vetoing many special interest bills . On February 8 , 1873 , less than three weeks after leaving the governor ' s post , Geary was fatally stricken with a heart attack while preparing breakfast for his infant son in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania . He was 53 years old . He was buried in Harrisburg with state honors in Mount Kalmia Cemetery , now , the Harrisburg Cemetery . Freemasonry . Geary was made a Mason at Sight on January 4 , 1847 , in Pennsylvania ( Philanthropy Lodge # 255 ) , just before he left with his troops to fight in the Mexican War . During the Civil War , he was the commanding Union general at the fall of Savannah , Georgia . He placed Federal troops about the quarters of Solomon ′ s Lodge No . 1 to save it from looting and damage . Later , while Geary was governor of Pennsylvania , the Lodge sent him a resolution of thanks . He answered by claiming it was the principles and tenets of Freemasonry that helped Reconstruction to be as successful as it finally turned out to be . In this reply , he said : " . . . I feel again justified in referring to our beloved institution , by saying that to Freemasonry the people of the country are indebted for many mitigations of the suffering caused by the direful passions of war . " In memoriam . Geary County , Kansas , was renamed in honor of John W . Geary in 1889 ( previously named Davis County for Jefferson Davis , it was renamed at the insistence of its citizens ; in 1893 , the county electorate rejected an attempt to restore the Davis County name ) , as is Geary Boulevard in San Francisco , a major artery in that city , Geary Avenue on the field at Gettysburg , Geary Street in New Cumberland , Pennsylvania ( where Geary owned a home ) , Geary Street in Harrisburg , the capital of Pennsylvania , and Geary Hall , an undergraduate dorm building in East Halls at Pennsylvania State University . There is a monument to Geary in the town center of Mount Pleasant , Pennsylvania . Geary , Kansas ( in Doniphan County ) was also named in his honor , but the town ceased to exist in 1905 . In 1914 , a monument to Geary was erected on Culp ' s Hill at Gettysburg , but it was not formally dedicated until August 11 , 2007 .