Joseph J . Bartlett Joseph Jackson Bartlett ( November 21 , 1834 – January 14 , 1893 ) was a New York attorney , brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War , and postbellum international diplomat and pensions administrator for the United States Government . He was chosen to receive the stacked arms of General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House . Early life and career . Barlett was born in Binghamton , New York , to gunmaker Joseph Bartlett . He was educated in at a local academy , and then studied law in Utica . He passed his bar examination in 1858 and initially established his practice in Binghamton before moving it to Elmira shortly before the Civil War erupted in 1861 . Civil War . On May 21 , 1861 , Barlett enlisted in the volunteer army in the 27th New York Infantry at Elmira . He was initially elected as a captain of one of the newly raised companies , and was soon elevated to major , serving under the regiment ' s first colonel , Henry W . Slocum . After only a few weeks of training , Barlett and the regiment saw their first combat the First Battle of Bull Run in Virginia . When Slocum was briefly incapacitated by a wound , Bartlett assumed command of the 27th New York for the rest of the fight . His aggressive actions to guard the rear during the subsequent retreat were rewarded on September 21 when army commander Maj . Gen . Irvin McDowell promoted Bartlett to colonel replacing Slocum , who was elevated to brigadier general . In 1862 , as part of the Army of the Potomac ' s VI Corps , Barlett led his regiment throughout the Peninsular Campaign and the Maryland Campaign . He led a determined attack up the steep mountainside towards Crampton ' s Cap during the Battle of South Mountain . On October 4 , 1862 , Bartlett was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and assigned command of an infantry brigade in the VI Corps , which he led at the Battle of Fredericksburg . His appointment as a general expired in March 1863 without Congressional approval , but he was soon reappointed to the rank . Barlett ' s next significant combat came in May 1863 at the Battle of Salem Church , where he lost more than a third of his 1 , 500 men , yet managed to keep order . His men were primarily in reserve at the Battle of Gettysburg . Bartlett was transferred to V Corps in time for the Mine Run Campaign later that year . He led first division V Corps in that campaign in the absence of BG Charles Griffin . In 1864 Bartlett led a brigade in Griffin ' s division of the V Corps , which was active in the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg . During the final year of the war , he led a division during the Appomattox Campaign . When MG Philip Sheridan removed Major General Gouverneur K . Warren from corps command after the Battle of Five Forks , Griffin became corps commander ; and Bartlett was his successor at division level . Bartlett was awarded a brevet promotion to major general in the postwar promotions . Immediately after the war , he briefly commanded a division of IX Corps . Postbellum career . Barlett remained in the army on occupation duty in the South during the early days of Reconstruction . He resigned his commission on January 15 , 1866 , and returned to his New York law practice . In 1867 , President Andrew Johnson appointed him as United States Ambassador to Sweden and Norway . He served for two years , and then returned home in 1869 . Bartlett resumed his legal career , which was briefly interrupted from March 1885 through July 1889 , when he served as Deputy Commissioner of Pensions under President Grover Cleveland . He suffered for much of his life with rheumatism caused by exposure during the war . Bartlett died in Baltimore , Maryland , in 1893 . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington , Virginia . The Grand Army of the Republic ' s post in Binghamton , New York , was named in honor of General Bartlett .