Godfrey Weitzel Godfrey ( Gottfried ) Weitzel ( November 1 , 1835 – March 19 , 1884 ) was a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War , as well as the acting Mayor of New Orleans during the Federal occupation of the city . Early life and career . Weitzel was born in Winzeln , near Pirmasens in the Palatinate , then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria within Germany . His parents , Ludwig and Susanna ( Krummel ) Weitzel , immigrated to the United States and settled in Cincinnati , Ohio , where he was educated in the city schools . He was appointed to the United States Military Academy ( then under the superintendency of Robert E . Lee ) . Weitzel demonstrated a strong proficiency for mathematics and engineering , and graduated 2nd out of 34 cadets in the Class of 1855 . He was initially assigned to help improve the defenses of New Orleans . In 1859 , he returned to West Point as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering . Weitzel married Louisa C . Moor of Cincinnati on November 3 , 1859 , but she was tragically burned to death only three weeks later . He was promoted to first lieutenant of engineers in 1860 . In 1861 , he was reassigned to Washington , D . C . in the Corps of Engineers . His company served as the bodyguard during the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War , he was assigned to various commands to construct defenses , including in Cincinnati and Washington , as well as for George McClellan in the Army of the Potomac in late 1861 . He was attached to the staff of Major General Benjamin F . Butler as chief engineer of the Department of the Gulf . When Federal troops captured New Orleans , Weitzel became assistant military commander and acting mayor . He was promoted to brigadier general in August 1862 and two months later routed a large force of the enemy at Labadieville , Louisiana , which earned him a brevet promotion to major in the Regular Army . He commanded the advance in Major General Nathaniel P . Banks ' s operations in western Louisiana in April and May 1863 and a division under Banks at the siege of Port Hudson . He was later brevetted lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army , " for gallant and meritorious services at the siege of Port Hudson . " Weitzel commanded a division in the XIX Corps in the Lafourche campaign . From May through September 1864 , he was chief engineer of the Army of the James , being engaged at Swift ' s Creek , the actions near Drury ' s Bluff , and in constructing the defenses of Bermuda Hundred , James River , and Deep Bottom . In August , he was brevetted major general of volunteers " for meritorious and distinguished services during the civil war . " He assumed command of the XVIII Corps from September 1864 through the end of the year , and was brevetted colonel in the regular army for the capture of Fort Harrison . On November 7 , 1864 , he became a full major general of volunteers and was assigned command of the XXV Corps , consisting of U . S . Colored Troops under white officers . He participated in the ill - fated attacks during the First Battle of Fort Fisher . He and his corps were reassigned to Virginia when his commander , General Butler , was relieved of duty . On January 6 , 1865 , while on furlough in Cincinnati , Weitzel married Louise Bogen , daughter of Peter Bogen , a prominent pork - packer and grower of Catawba grapes for winemaking . During the final months of the war , Ulysses S . Grant named Weitzel to command all Federal troops north of the Appomattox River during the final operations against Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Weitzel took possession of the Confederacy ' s capital , Richmond , on April 3 , 1865 , establishing his headquarters in the home of Jefferson Davis . His aide , Lieutenant Johnston de Peyster , is credited with raising the first Union flag over the city after its fall . Postbellum career . Weitzel was assigned to Texas in command of the District of Rio Grande until 1866 , when he was mustered out of the volunteer service on March 1 . He reverted to his regular Army rank , but was promoted to major of engineers later that year and to lieutenant colonel in 1882 . In August 1866 he began the design of an expanded canal around the Falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side . In 1875 he established the temporary light on a pole in the lake at Alpena , Michigan . In 1877 he built a crib for the second Alpena Light . He also designed it as a timber building in the form of a brown wooden pyramidal tower , complete with a Sixth Order Fresnel lens . In July 1888 it burned with much of the town . In 1881 he completed the building of a lock at the Soo Canal , at that time the largest canal lock in the world , and the next year the Stannard Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior . He also helped design and build the Spectacle Reef Light with Colonel Orlando M . Poe . Transferred to Philadelphia , he was in charge of engineering projects in the region , and Chairman of the Commission Advisatory to the Board of Harbor Commissioners . He died of typhoid fever in Philadelphia and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati . Weitzel was the father of three children by his second wife , only one of whom survived infancy . Their first child was a stillborn son named Godfrey Weitzel , delivered on September 26 , 1865 . Their second child , Blanche Celeste Weitzel , was born on February 16 , 1868 , but contracted measles and died on April 5 . Their third child was Irene Weitzel , born on April 11 , 1876 , who lived until 1936 and left descendants . His widow died on August 18 , 1927 .