Erasmus D . Keyes Erasmus Darwin Keyes ( May 29 , 1810 – October 14 , 1895 ) was a businessman , banker , and military general , noted for leading the IV Corps of the Union Army of the Potomac during the first half of the American Civil War . Early life and career . Keyes was born in Brimfield , Massachusetts . While still a youth , he moved with his family to Kennebec County , Maine . Although his father , Justus , was renowned as a physician and surgeon , Erasmus decided to pursue a military career and enrolled in the United States Military Academy . He graduated 10th out of a class of 45 in 1832 , and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd U . S . Artillery . Keyes served in Charleston Harbor during the nullification crisis of 1832 – 33 , and served as an aide to General Winfield Scott from 1837 to 1841 . Keyes was promoted to captain on November 30 , 1841 . He served in various garrisons until 1844 and then functioned as an artillery and cavalry instructor at West Point . During 1844 , he was a member of the Academy ' s Board of Visitors . After his service at West Point , he was then sent with the U . S . 3rd Artillery Regiment in 1854 around Cape Horn to California and served on the Pacific frontier in garrison duty and campaigns until 1860 . While there Keyes served in the Pacific Northwest from the winter of 1855 in the Puget Sound War . Keyes ' s artillery Company M was sent to Fort Steilacoom . While there , in January 1856 , he made two attempts to capture Chief Leschi but without success . March 4 , 1856 , he and 100 Regulars fought a skirmish at the White River and Muckleshoot Prairie . During the Spokane – Coeur d ' Alene – Paloos War Captain Keyes was sent ahead with a detachment of dragoons to establish Fort Taylor and a ferry crossing the Snake River for Colonel George Wright ' s army . In the following campaign he commanded four companies of rifle armed artillerymen against the allied tribes at the Battle of Four Lakes . Shortly after this battle , Keyes received his commission of major on October 12 , 1858 . General Scott appointed Keyes his military secretary on January 1 , 1860 , a position Keyes filled until April 1861 . Civil War . At the outbreak of the Civil War , Keyes was promoted to colonel of the 11th U . S . Infantry on May 14 , 1861 . He then served briefly on the staff of New York Governor Edwin D . Morgan until June 25 , 1861 , overseeing that state ' s raising of militia . At the First Battle of Bull Run , Keyes commanded the 1st Brigade , 1st Division ( Tyler ) , and then led Keyes ' s Brigade , before assuming command of a division from November 9 , 1861 , to March 13 , 1862 . In August 1861 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers with date of rank of May 17 , 1861 , the third - ranking brigadier general in the Army . He was then given command of IV Corps , leading it from its inception on March 3 , 1862 , until its discontinuation on August 1 , 1863 . When Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s Peninsula Campaign against Richmond was organized in the spring of 1862 , Keyes led in unexceptionable fashion . Keyes saw action at Lee ' s Mill , Yorktown , Bottom ' s Bridge , Savage ' s Station , Seven Pines ( Fair Oaks ) , Charles City Cross Roads , Malvern Hill , and Harrison ' s Landing . For gallantry at Fair Oaks , Keyes received the brevet of brigadier general in the regular army . After the Army of the Potomac left the Peninsula , the IV Corps remained behind as a part of Maj . Gen . John Adams Dix ' s Department of Virginia . On March 12 , 1863 , President Abraham Lincoln nominated Keyes for promotion to the grade of major general , U . S . Volunteers , to rank from May 5 , 1862 and the U . S . Senate confirmed the award on March 13 , 1862 . In addition to the IV Corps , he commanded the Yorktown District , VII Corps , and the division at Suffolk . Among Keyes ' s other actions were the raid to White House , Virginia , on January 7 , 1863 , and the expedition to West Point , Virginia , on May 7 , 1863 . During the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863 , Keyes fell afoul of General John Adams Dix ' s strategic plan to demonstrate heavily against Richmond in order to divert Confederate reinforcements from General Robert E . Lee ' s army in Pennsylvania . Keyes retreated from a position near what is now Tallysville , Virginia , in the face of what Dix deemed to be inferior forces , so Dix had Keyes removed from command . Although Keyes asked for an investigation of the charges that led to his removal , the request was never granted . He then served on various boards and commissions , including the board for retiring disabled officers from July 15 , 1863 , until his resignation and retirement from the army on May 6 , 1864 . Postbellum activities . Following his war service , Keyes moved to San Francisco , where he soon became financially successful and prominent . He converted to Catholicism in San Francisco in 1866 . He was president of a Mexican gold mining company in 1867 – 1869 , and vice president of the California vine - culture society from 1868 to 1872 . He also was engaged in the savings and loan business . Keyes was the author of " The Rear Guard at Malvern Hill " as part of The Century Company ' s " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War " series , as well as " Fifty Years ' Observation of Men and Events " ( New York , 1884 ) . This was later reprinted as " Fighting Indians in Washington Territory " ( Fairfax , Washington , 1988 ) . His work " From West Point to California " was published posthumously in 1950 . While on a trip to Europe with his wife , Keyes died in Nice , France , at age 85 . He is buried in West Point Cemetery .