Robert Francis Catterson Robert Francis Catterson ( March 22 , 1835 – March 30 , 1914 ) was an American physician and soldier . He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War , enlisting at its beginning and rising to a general officer near the end . After the war , Catterson worked in the cotton market , law enforcement , politics , and farming . Early life . Catterson was born in 1835 on a farm near Beech Grove in Marion County , Indiana . He was the son of an Irish immigrant , but his father died in 1840 when Robert was only five years old . Catterson ' s education began at Adrian College in Michigan , and then he attended Cincinnati Medical College in Ohio , precursor to the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center . After completing his medical studies , Catterson established a medical practice in Rockville , Indiana , just prior to the start of the American Civil War . Civil War service . When the American Civil War began in 1861 , Catterson chose to follow the Union cause . He gave up his medical practice and volunteered to serve in the Union Army , enlisting in the 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment . On April 23 Catterson was mustered in as a private into Company A of the 14th , and on June 7 was promoted to first sergeant . Catterson was then elected as an officer , and he was commissioned a second lieutenant on July 5 . The following year he was promoted to first lieutenant on March 15 , 1862 . In 1862 Catterson saw his first battle during the Valley Campaign , participating in the First Battle of Kernstown on March 23 , and was promoted to captain on May 4 . Catterson next fought during the Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Antietam on September 17 , where he was wounded . Upon recovering , Catterson was appointed lieutenant colonel in the 97th Regiment Indiana Infantry on October 18 , and its commander as colonel on November 25 . Catterson and the 97th Indiana served the Battle of Memphis in Tennessee on June 6 , 1862 , and the subsequent occupation of the city , until late in 1862 . He then took part in the Siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863 and the Tullahoma Campaign that summer . Catterson and his command participated in the Third Battle of Chattanooga on November 23 – 25 , and the Atlanta Campaign throughout the summer of 1864 . During Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s March to the Sea in the winter of 1864 , Catterson was part of the Army of the Tennessee , heading a brigade in its XV Corps beginning on November 22 , 1864 . He fought in the Carolinas Campaign of 1865 , participating in the Battle of Bentonville in North Carolina on March 19 – 21 , the fight considered the last major engagement of the American Civil War . Also during the Carolinas Campaign , Catterson served very briefly as chief of staff to Maj . Gen . John A . Logan , the commander of the XV Corps . He then returned to his brigade , leading it for the rest of the campaign and to the end of the war . Catterson was brevetted to brigadier general in the Union Army on May 31 , 1865 , and was mustered out of the volunteer service on January 15 , 1866 . Postbellum . After the war , Catterson chose not to return to practicing medicine ; he moved to Arkansas , where he tried and failed at cotton speculation . He then became commander of the Arkansas Negro militia under Governor Powell Clayton , engaged in fighting against the Ku Klux Klan members operating there , and also as a United States Marshal . During Clayton ' s successful political run for the U . S . Senate , Catterson was removed as marshal when he lost the favor of Clayton , and replaced by Isaac Mills . He would later command the Brooks forces , during the Brooks – Baxter War . Catterson was the mayor of Little Rock , Arkansas , from 1872 to 1874 . After serving as mayor , he moved to Minnesota , where he was unsuccessful as both a farmer and a farm implement merchant . He died at the age of 79 at the Veterans ' Hospital in San Antonio , Texas , after suffering from a stroke . Catterson was buried in the San Antonio National Cemetery at Section A , Grave 176 / 177 .