Orlando Metcalfe Poe Orlando Metcalfe Poe ( March 7 , 1832 – October 2 , 1895 ) was an United States Army officer and engineer in the American Civil War . After helping General William Tecumseh Sherman ' s March to the Sea , he was responsible for much of the early lighthouse construction on the Great Lakes . Early life . Poe was born in Navarre , Ohio . He attended the United States Military Academy , graduating sixth in his class in 1856 . From then until 1861 he served as assistant topographical engineer on the survey of the northern Great Lakes ; during this time he was promoted to first lieutenant . Famed ancestors . Poe ’ s great - great - grandfather was named George Jacob Pfau and his wife Catharine . Pfau was of German extraction and his sons were the first to Anglicize their surname to Poe . Pfau ’ s sons Adam and Andrew were famed for their skirmishes with Native Americans in southern Beaver County . Both men were known as fearless fighters , and the first Andrew Poe is reputed to have slain the Wyandot Indian Chief Bigfoot in 1781 . The brothers ’ exploits were detailed in volume II of Theodore Roosevelt ’ s book , " The Winning of the West from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi , 1777 - 1783 " . Poe is a second cousin of the painter Andrew Jackson Poe . Civil War service . At the start of the American Civil War , Poe assisted in organizing the volunteers from Ohio ; later , he was made a member of Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ' s staff in western Virginia and took part in the Rich Mountain campaign . He went with McClellan to Washington and assisted by organizing the defense of Washington , D . C . , and was promoted to colonel of volunteers that September , when he was placed in charge of the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry . He commanded them successfully from Yorktown through the Battle of Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign and was then given field command of a brigade prior to the Northern Virginia Campaign of 1862 . His brigade anchored the far right of the Union line at the August 29 – 30 battle of Second Bull Run but was only lightly engaged . Several days later on September 1 , Poe and his men participated in the Battle of Chantilly . His brigade was present , but not active during the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg . Poe was appointed brigadier general of volunteers effective November 29 , 1862 , however the appointment was rejected by Congress in the spring of 1863 . Poe reverted to his old rank of lieutenant in the regular army but was soon promoted to captain and then transferred to the Western Theater , where , in his capacity as chief engineer of the XXIII Corps , he was a key factor in the defense of Knoxville , Tennessee . This city was successfully defended against a siege led by Confederate Lt . Gen . James Longstreet , which culminated in the November 29 , 1863 , Battle of Fort Sanders . For essentially this action , Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman selected Poe as his chief engineer in 1864 . Poe oversaw the burning of Atlanta , for which action he was honored by Sherman . He continued to serve as chief engineer during Sherman ' s March to the Sea as well as in the war ' s concluding Carolinas Campaign . Postbellum career . In Summer 1865 Poe became the Lighthouse Board ' s chief engineer ; in 1870 he was promoted to the position of Chief Engineer of the Upper Great Lakes 11th Lighthouse District . In this capacity he designed eight " Poe style lighthouses " and oversaw construction of several . Poe was named District Engineer for the Eleventh Lighthouse District , Those lights are New Presque Isle Light ( 1870 ) on Lake Huron , Lake Michigan ' s South Manitou Island Light ( 1872 ) , Grosse Point Light ( 1873 ) in Evanston , Illinois , Lake Superior ' s Au Sable Light ( 1874 ) , Racine , Wisconsin ' s Wind Point Light ( 1880 ) ; Outer Island Light ( 1874 ) in the Apostle Islands , Little Sable Point Light ( 1874 ) on Lake Michigan , Manistique , Michigan ' s Seul Choix Light ( 1895 ) and Spectacle Reef Light . As Superintending Engineer , he designed a unique lighthouse — in terms of location , construction materials , methods , hardships and costs — at the Spectacle Reef Light on Lake Huron . That light has been described as " the best specimen of monolithic stone masonry in the United States . " , and " one of the greatest engineering feats on the Great Lakes . " Poe solved the logistics problem of building a lighthouse on the remote Stannard Rock in Lake Superior with the proposal to use all the costly apparatus and machinery used to build the Spectacle Reef Light . The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated in the top ten engineering feats in the United States . Many of these lights were of Italianate architecture , a chief example being that of the Gross Point Light . From 1873 through 1883 Poe served as engineering Aide - de - camp on the staff of William T . Sherman , who was then commanding general of the U . S . Army . In 1883 he was made Superintending Engineer of improvement of rivers and harbors on Lakes Superior and Huron , where he helped to develop the St . Marys Falls Canal . Many consider his crowning achievement to be the design and implementation of the first Poe Lock in the American Soo Locks in Sault Ste . Marie , as it was instrumental in making possible the shipping industry , including steel craft freighters , in the upper Great Lakes . Consequently , it was pivotal to the creation of the basic steel industry in the United States . Poe ' s creation was dismantled in the early 1960s with a larger , more modern lock being built on the same site . This new passageway was renamed the Poe Lock and serves the largest of the Great Lakes freighters to this day . Poe died in Detroit on October 2 , 1895 of an infection following an on - duty accident at the " Soo Locks , " and was subsequently buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Poe Reef and the Poe Reef Light in Lake Huron bear his name . General Poe ' s personal " Carte de visite " was recently auctioned off , and contained many unique civil war pictures and memorabilia .