Frank Wheaton Frank ( Francis ) Wheaton ( May 8 , 1833 – June 18 , 1903 ) was a career military officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and Indian Wars . Early life and career . Wheaton was born in Providence , Rhode Island , to Dr . Francis Levison and Amelia S . Wheaton née Burrill . Dr . Francis Levison Wheaton graduated from Brown University in 1828 and served as a surgeon in the Mexican - American War and the American Civil War and as surgeon general of Rhode Island . Frank Wheaton attended Brown University , studying civil engineering , but withdrew in 1850 at the age of seventeen to take a position with Mexican - American Boundary Commission , where he worked for the next five years . On March 3 , 1855 , he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 1st U . S . Cavalry and assigned to duty on the Indian frontier on the Missouri and Kansas Border . He participated in the campaign against the Cheyenne Indians and also in the Utah War and was promoted to captain on March 1 , 1861 . On February 5 , 1857 , he married Sarah Maria Cooper ( August 4 , 1836 – December 15 , 1858 ) and had one child , Sarah Maria Cooper Wheaton , in 1858 . His wife died shortly thereafter . Wheaton remarried on November 2 , 1861 , to Emma Twiggs Mason ( October 17 , 1836 – February 16 , 1864 ) , born at Fort Des Moines , Wisconsin Territory , who , like his first wife , was a descendant of George Mason . She died in Harper ' s Ferry , West Virginia . Civil War . When the Civil War started , Wheaton was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry on July 10 , 1861 . His father - in - law from his first marriage , General Samuel Cooper , was the ranking general for the Confederacy , whereas Wheaton fought for the Union . Wheaton ' s unit fought at the First Battle of Bull Run , where its commander , Col . John Slocum , was killed . Wheaton took command of the unit , was promoted to colonel effective July 21 , 1861 , and led the 2nd Rhode Island during the Peninsula Campaign , where he was commended for his actions at the Battle of Williamsburg . At the Battle of Antietam , the regiment was kept in the rear and out of the battle . On November 29 , 1862 , Wheaton was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and placed in command of the 3rd Brigade ( 62d NY , 93d Pa , 98th Pa , 102 Pa & 139 Pa ) , 3rd Division , VI Corps . He led them in heavy fighting at the Battle of Chancellorsville . His brigade , under the command of Colonel David J . Nevin of the 62nd New York , was the only brigade of the VI Corps to see action on the afternoon of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg after completing a forced march of approximately 30 miles from Manchester , Maryland that day . At Gettysburg he commanded the 3rd Division while its commander , Maj . Gen . John Newton , temporarily commanded the I Corps , in place of John F . Reynolds . Wheaton remained in command of the brigade during Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ' s Overland Campaign in 1864 , as well as during the subsequent Siege of Petersburg . His men were hurried by train to Washington , D . C . , in time to help repel Jubal Early ' s raid on the capital . During the ensuing operations in the Shenandoah Valley , under Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan , Wheaton was promoted to command of the first division after Brig . Gen . David Allen Russell was killed at the Third Battle of Winchester . His division fought well in subsequent battles . After the return of VI Corps to the Petersburg front , Wheaton earned the brevet rank of major general in the volunteer army and was brevetted colonel in the regular services . Postbellum career and life . For his service in the Civil War , in 1865 he was awarded an honorary Master from Brown University and Rhode Island presented him with a sword of honor in July 1866 . Shortly after the end of the Civil war , Wheaton was placed to command the district of Nebraska in Omaha . On April 30 , 1866 , he was mustered out of the volunteers and was subsequently promoted as lieutenant colonel of the 39th Infantry on July 28 . He , along with others , recommended that Confederate General George H . Steuart of Maryland be pardoned for his crimes during the American Civil War . This led to Steuart ' s pardon in November 1866 . On January 14 , 1867 , Wheaton was married for the third and last time to Maria Bleeker Miller ( August 4 , 1846 – August 21 , 1924 ) , born in Utica , New York . She eventually would become a Vice - President General in the Daughters of the American Revolution ( as Mrs . Frank Wheaton ) . In the lead up to the Modoc War , Wheaton took command of approximately 250 regular army troops and a further 150 troops consisting of volunteers from California and Oregon as well as some Klamath Indians . At the First Battle of the Stronghold on January 17 , 1873 , he faced about fifty Modoc warriors in well defended positions amongst the lava fields of Northern California in a dense fog . Wheaton ' s troops suffered 35 deaths and many more wounded compared to no casualties on the Modoc side . Wheaton was subsequently relieved of command of the troops in the field . This defeat eventually led to the assassination of General Edward R . S . Canby on April 11 at a meeting of the Peace Commission on the battlefield . Wheaton was appointed colonel of the 2nd Infantry , effective December 13 , 1874 . On April 19 , 1892 , Wheaton was selected in a long and politically heated competition for promotion to brigadier general . While the selection of Wheaton was controversial , it was met with overall approval in the army due to his excellent war record . In August 1896 , General Wheaton played a minor role in the Yaqui Uprising at Ambos Nogales . After a group of Yaqui , Pima and Mexican rebels were repulsed in their attempt to capture the customs house in Nogales , Sonora , some of the party fled north into Arizona . Wheaton dipatched two companies of the 24th Infantry to pursue the rebels but they escaped . Wheaton was promoted to brevet major general on April 3 , 1897 after the retirement of Major General Thomas H . Ruger and retired one month later on his 64th birthday on May 8 . Post - military life . After his retirement , Wheaton left to spend two years in Europe . He gave a speech at a Thanksgiving dinner in Berlin , Germany in 1898 which he used as a platform to levee the U . S . Congress to support a stronger military which reflected the greatness of the United States . Wheaton died in Washington , D . C . , of a brain hemorrhage , and was buried in Section 1 , Grave 131 - A of Arlington National Cemetery . His third wife , Maria B . Wheaton , was buried next to him in 1924 after she died in Denver , Colorado . In memoriam . The Wheaton , Maryland , section of the Wheaton / Glenmont division of the unincorporated township of Silver Spring , Maryland , just northwest of Washington , D . C . , is named for him , as is the Wheaton High School , a school in the Down County Consortium of the Montgomery County Public School system of Montgomery County , Maryland .