John Parke John Grubb Parke ( September 22 , 1827 – December 16 , 1900 ) was a United States Army engineer and a Union general in the American Civil War . Parke ' s Civil War service was closely associated with Ambrose E . Burnside often serving him as chief of staff in major engagements such as Antietam , Fredericksburg and the Overland Campaign . Parke also held significant field commands during Burnside ' s North Carolina Expedition , Vicksburg and the battle of Fort Stedman as well as brief stints in command of the Army of the Potomac . Early life . Parke was born in Coatesville , Chester County , Pennsylvania , to Francis G . and Sarah Parke . He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1849 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers . As an engineer , he determined the boundary lines between Iowa and the Little Colorado River , surveyed routes for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean , and was the chief surveyor of the party charged with the delineation of the boundary of the northwest United States and British North America , 1857 – 1861 . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Parke was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded a brigade in the operations on the North Carolina coast in early 1862 . He received a brevet promotion for the Battle of Fort Macon and was promoted to major general of volunteers on July 18 , 1862 . In the Army of the Potomac , Parke served briefly as commander of 3rd Division , IX Corps . Then he served as chief of staff to Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside during the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg . He assumed command of the IX Corps and was sent to the Western Theater for the Vicksburg Campaign . Parke then was Burnside ' s chief of staff in the Army of the Ohio in the defense of Knoxville . Parke served as chief of staff to Burnside during the Overland Campaign , in which the latter commanded IX Corps , as well as in the beginning stages of the Siege of Petersburg . After the Battle of the Crater , Burnside was relieved of command and Parke assumed command of the IX Corps . He led it at the Battle of Globe Tavern , the Battle of Peebles ' Farm , and the Battle of Boydton Plank Road . In 1865 , while Army of the Potomac commander Maj . Gen . George G . Meade was in a conference , Parke , being senior officer , was acting commander of the army during the Battle of Fort Stedman until Meade returned to the field . He led the IX Corps through the fall of Petersburg and the Appomattox Campaign . In 1865 he was appointed brevet major general in the regular army in recognition of his service at Fort Stedman . Postbellum career . After the Confederate surrender , Parke commanded IX Corps in the Department of Washington . He also briefly commanded XXII Corps . Parke was mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15 , 1866 . He served as an engineer , being promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on March 4 , 1879 . Parke attained the rank of colonel on March 17 , 1884 . He served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy from August 28 , 1887 , to June 24 , 1889 , and he retired from the Army on July 2 of that year . Parke died in Washington , D . C . , leaving a wife Ellen but no children . He is buried in the churchyard of Church of St . James the Less in Philadelphia . Parke wrote several reports on public improvements and exploration of the west . He also served as a cartographer , publishing maps of the New Mexico Territory and California .