Isaac P . Rodman Isaac Peace Rodman ( August 18 , 1822 – September 30 , 1862 ) was a Rhode Island banker and politician , and a Union Army brigadier general in the American Civil War , mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam . Early life and career . Rodman was born in South Kingstown , Rhode Island the son of Samuel Rodman and Mary Peckham . He was married to Sally Lyman Arnold , daughter of Rhode Island Governor Lemuel Hastings Arnold . His brother - in - law was future Civil War general Richard Arnold . He entered into a partnership with his brother Rowland Gibson Rodman and his father Samuel Rodman , under the name S . Rodman & Sons . Isaac Rodman was for many years president of the town council of South Kingstown , a representative for several terms in the Rhode Island General Assembly , in the Rhode Island Senate . He was also a director in the Wakefield Bank and the Institution for Savings . As well as being a politician , businessman , and banker , Isaac Rodman was a devoted Christian , a teacher of a Bible study class , and a superintendent of a Sunday school . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Rodman was torn between the precepts of his religion and his loyalty to the Union , but unhesitatingly raised a group of local residents for the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry regiment and was given the rank of captain . The regiment fought in the First Battle of Bull Run in the brigade of Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside and suffered heavy losses , including the regiment ' s colonel . Rodman was appointed as colonel of the new 4th Rhode Island by Rhode Island Governor William Sprague on October 3 , 1861 . He fought under Burnside in North Carolina in the Battle of Roanoke Island , and then at the Battle of New Bern e , where he distinguished himself for his gallantry and was made a brigadier general on April 28 , 1862 . After the Battle of Fort Macon , he contracted typhoid fever and returned to South Kingstown . General Burnside wrote to Rodman , convalescing at home , to inform him of a need for officers for an upcoming battle in the Maryland Campaign , opposing Confederate General Robert E . Lee ' s first invasion of the North . Still ailing and against the advice of his physician , he returned to the Army after only a few weeks . In the Battle of South Mountain he led the 3rd Division of the IX Corps to take Turner ' s Gap . During that assault , IX Corps commander Maj . Gen . Jesse L . Reno was killed and he was replaced by Jacob D . Cox . Three days later , in the Battle of Antietam , on September 17 , 1862 , Burnside ' s corps was ordered to strike the right flank of the Confederate army , on the heights to the south of Sharpsburg . The corps was held up attempting to cross the single , heavily defended , bridge across Antietam Creek in that sector ( now known as Burnside Bridge ) and Burnside sent Rodman ' s 3rd Division downstream to find a fording spot and flank the enemy defending the bridge . No one in the army had reconnoitered the proposed ford , two - thirds of a mile south of the bridge , and they found out too late that it was unusable due to its steep banks . Rodman ' s men spent three hours before finally finding and crossing Snavely ' s Ford two miles farther downstream at 1 p . m . , by which time Burnside Bridge had finally been taken . The corps made good progress from that point in driving west towards Sharpsburg , but at 4 : 00 p . m . A . P . Hill ' s Light Division joined the battle , launching a spirited counterattack after a rapid forced march from Harpers Ferry . Sighting the approaching Confederates , Rodman knew his division , on the Union army ' s left flank , would take the brunt of their assault . Galloping across a cornfield to warn his brigade commanders , he was shot through the left lung , mortally wounded . He died thirteen days later in a field hospital at Sharpsburg . In a funeral oration , Senator Henry B . Anthony said of Rodman : Isaac Rodman is buried in the Rodman family cemetery , Peace Dale , Rhode Island . Rodman ' s house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County , Rhode Island on April 23 , 1990 .