Joseph F . Knipe Joseph Farmer Knipe ( March 30 , 1823 – August 18 , 1901 ) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . His troops won a decisive victory in late 1864 that helped clear Tennessee of Confederates during the Franklin - Nashville Campaign . Biography . Joseph F . Knipe was born to a blacksmith and his wife in Mount Joy , Pennsylvania . As a youth , he was apprenticed to a cobbler in Philadelphia . In 1842 , he left his employment and enlisted in the United States Army in the 2nd U . S . Artillery . He rose to the rank of Sergeant and served in the Mexican - American War . He was discharged in 1847 and took employment with the fledgling railroad industry in Harrisburg . Later he was involved in the mercantile business . Knipe enrolled in the Pennsylvania state militia and became a major and aide - de - camp to Brig . Gen . Edward Williams . With the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and the subsequent Federal call for troops to put down the rebellion , volunteers flocked to Harrisburg to enlist in Pennsylvania ' s newly commissioned regiment s . Williams and Knipe selected the site for the state ' s new military training center , Camp Curtin . In September 1861 , Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned Knipe as a colonel and authorized him to raise the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry . After cursory training , Knipe ' s regiment was assigned to garrison duty at Harper ' s Ferry . In the spring of 1862 , Knipe fought in the Valley Campaign against Stonewall Jackson ' s forces . He was wounded at the First Battle of Winchester . He was again wounded at the Battle of Cedar Mountain . Due to the chain of command changes necessitated during the Battle of Antietam by the death of XII Corps commander Joseph K . Mansfield , Knipe took command of the brigade of Samuel W . Crawford in the first division . Crawford had taken command of the division when Alpheus Williams became acting corps commander . On April 15 , 1863 , Knipe was promoted to brigadier general , backdated to November 1862 . He led first brigade first division XII Corps under Alpheus Williams which saw action at the Battle of Chancellorsville . Suffering from lingering effects from his wounds and a bout with malaria , he temporarily left the Army of the Potomac and returned to Harrisburg . He took command of a brigade of inexperienced New York militia and led it in pursuit of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia following the Battle of Gettysburg . Returning to his XII Corps brigade , Knipe went to the Western Theater and served in the Atlanta Campaign . He took command of a division of Union cavalry during John Bell Hood ' s incursion into Tennessee , and captured 6 , 000 Confederates and eight battleflags in a decisive victory over the retreating Army of Tennessee following the Battle of Nashville . Following the war , Knipe returned to Harrisburg , where he was appointed postmaster by President Andrew Johnson . He subsequently held a number of political patronage positions the rest of his life , both on the Federal and state level . For a term , he was postmaster of the United States House of Representatives . Knipe died at the age of 78 and was buried in the Harrisburg Cemetery .