Henry L . Eustis Henry Lawrence Eustis ( February 1 , 1819 – January 11 , 1885 ) was a civil engineer , college professor , and soldier who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Henry Eustis was born at Fort Independence near Boston , Massachusetts . His father Abraham Eustis , a career army officer , was stationed there at the time . Henry graduated from Harvard University in 1838 and then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . After graduating first in his class , Eustis was assigned to engineering roles , including working on several improvements to the unfinished Fort Warren in Boston Harbor . Eustis taught engineering at West Point from 1847 to 1849 . He resigned on November 30 , 1849 , and took an appointment teaching engineering at Harvard . Civil War . After the Civil War broke out , Eustis joined the volunteer infantry being raised in Massachusetts . He was commissioned as the new colonel of the 10th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on August 21 , 1862 . ( The regiment had been mustered into the service on June 21 , 1861 . ) He joined the division of Brig . Gen . Darius Couch in the IV Corps , Army of the Potomac . Couch ’ s division served in the Maryland Campaign , but it was not present at the Battle of Antietam . After the battle , the division became 3rd Division of the VI Corps under Brig . Gen . John Newton . Eustis participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg in the brigade of Brig . Gen . Charles Devens . He then served under Col . William H . Browne in the Chancellorsville campaign . When Browne was wounded at the Battle of Salem Church , Eustis succeeded to command of the brigade . He led the brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg , where his units were in reserve . Eustis became a brigadier general on September 12 , 1863 . He served in the autumn campaigns of 1863 under Brig . Gen . Henry Dwight Terry , who had taken over after Newton became commander of I corps . In the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac preceding Ulysses S . Grant ’ s Overland Campaign in 1864 , Eustis ’ s brigade was moved to the 2nd Division of VI Corps under Brig . Gen . George Getty . Eustis commanded his brigade in the Battle of the Wilderness . After Maj . Gen . John Sedgwick was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania , Brig . Gen . Horatio Wright became the corps commander . Brig . Gen . David Allen Russell took over Wright ’ s 1st Division and Eustis was moved to the command of Russell ’ s former brigade . He led this brigade at Spotsylvania and the subsequent actions of the army through the Battle of Cold Harbor . Eustis resigned his commission on June 27 , 1864 , for reasons of “ health . ” It is reported that he was compelled to resign because of his addiction to opium , which caused neglect of military duties . Post - war . Eustis returned to teaching at Harvard and wrote several technical articles , as well as a genealogy of his family in 1878 . He became the dean of the Lawrence Scientific School , later the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences . He was holding that post when he died in Cambridge , Massachusetts , on January 11 , 1885 . General Eustis was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge .