John Calvin Fiser John Calvin Fiser ( May 4 , 1838 – June 4 , 14 , or 15 , 1876 ) was an American merchant and soldier . He served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War , fighting in both the Eastern as well as the Western theaters . Fiser was seriously wounded five times in the conflict , losing an arm in 1863 ' s Battle of Fort Sanders , and he was appointed a general officer late in the war . Afterward he returned to his business interests and was active in Confederate veterans organizations . Early life and career . John Fiser was born in 1838 in the city of Dyersburg located in Dyer County , Tennessee . His father was Matthew Day Fiser ( died 1852 ) and his mother ' s identity ( died 1849 ) is not known . In 1848 Fiser ' s family moved to Batesville in Panola County , Mississippi . After his father died Fiser was raised by his uncle , John B . Fiser , a politician and merchant also living in Panola County . In 1853 he began working in Lafayette County , clerking in a country store near the shore of the Tallahatchie River . In 1855 Fiser moved to Memphis , Tennessee , and found work as a cotton merchant and later in the mercantile business . Civil War service . When the American Civil War began in 1861 Fiser returned to Mississippi to follow the Confederate cause . On May 27 he was elected a first lieutenant in the 17th Mississippi Infantry , assigned to Company H ( styled the " Panola Vindicators " ) in the regiment he had helped create in Panola County . On June 4 he was made the regiment ' s adjutant , and he participated with the 17th Mississippi in the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21 . That autumn he fought with distinction during the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff , where he was praised for his " most important and effective service . " On October 12 , 1861 , Fiser was appointed the assistant adjutant general of his regiment , and during the reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia early the following year he was elected lieutenant colonel of the 17th Mississippi as of April 26 , 1862 . He fought during the Peninsula Campaign , replacing the regiment ' s colonel when that officer became a casualty in the Battle of Malvern Hill . The 17th ' s attack that day has been described as : Fiser continued to command the regiment during the Maryland Campaign in the fall of 1862 , leading it in the Battle of Antietam on September 17 . Later that year he was appointed adjutant of his brigade . He fought during the Fredericksburg Campaign that winter , part of Brig . Gen . William Barksdale ' s brigade that defended the Rappahannock River crossing at the town on December 11 . Fiser was wounded during the main battle two days later . He then fought during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign , and was wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg that July . Fiser was first shot in the cheek and then hit in the same leg twice . Fort Sanders . In the fall of 1863 Fiser and his regiment were sent west with Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s First Corps units . He participated in the Battle of Chickamauga and then fought during the Knoxville Campaign . On November 29 Fiser was hit in his right arm as he reached the top of the Union defensive position during the Battle of Fort Sanders , a wound requiring the amputation of the limb . An account of his actions in the attack follows : While recovering from losing his arm , Fiser was assigned to recruiting duties . On February 26 , 1864 , he was promoted to the rank of colonel , but the wound was slow to heal and he resigned his commission on June 12 and returned home . That winter Maj . Gen . Lafayette McLaws asked for Fiser for service in South Carolina , and he rejoined the Confederate Army . In 1865 Fiser was given command of a brigade of reservists from Georgia , part of the scattered forces that opposed the Union soldiers of Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman during the Carolinas Campaign . On April 9 his small 800 - man brigade was merged with that of Col . George P . Harrison , his senior , reducing Fiser to regimental command . Also in 1865 Fiser was appointed a brigadier general , however the Confederate Congress never confirmed his commission as such . Postbellum . When the Civil War ended in 1865 he returned to Memphis , Tennessee , where he resumed his pre - war business affairs . In 1866 he married Hayes Dunn , with whom he would have three daughters , and shortly thereafter changed the spelling of his name to Fizer , reasoning that was the way it had sounded all his life . Three streets in Memphis were later named after him , all using this spelling . He also became a partner in a large and successful cotton brokerage firms and actively participated in local Democratic politics . In 1871 Fiser was elected president of the Confederate Historical and Relief Association based in Memphis , and at the time of his death he was serving as president of the Office Security Building and Loan Association . Fiser died of dysentery in 1876 , and his remains were buried in the Chapel Hill section of the Elmwood Cemetery located in Memphis .