Nathan Kimball Nathan Kimball ( November 22 , 1822 – January 21 , 1898 ) was a physician , politician , postmaster , and military officer , serving as a general in the Union army during the American Civil War . He was the first statewide commander of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans organization in Indiana . Early life and career . Kimball was born in Fredericksburg , Indiana , a small rural hamlet where he attended the local school . He attended the Washington County Seminary and then Indiana Asbury College ( what is now DePauw University ) from 1839 until 1841 before leaving to teach school and farm in Independence , Missouri . He studied medicine under his brother - in - law at the University of Louisville Medical School in 1844 and established a private practice in Salem and Livonia . He married Martha A . McPheeters in Washington County , Indiana , on September 22 , 1845 . The couple had one child , a son named James . When the Mexican - American War erupted , Dr . Kimball volunteered his services to state , raising a company from Livonia in the 2nd Indiana Infantry and being elected as a captain . Kimball was distinguished at the Battle of Buena Vista , where he rallied his company and held them fast even as the rest of the regiment crumbled and fled in disorder . He mustered out in June 1847 and returned to Indiana , where he resumed his medical practice , expanding it to Loogootee . He was defeated for election as a Whig to the Indiana State Senate in 1847 . His wife died in early 1850 , and he married Emily McPheeters in August . In 1852 , he again lost an election , this time for Presidential Elector . Kimball joined the newly formed Republican Party in 1854 . His medical practice flourished , and he became well known in the region . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 , Kimball again volunteered his services to Indiana and raised a company of infantry . Governor Oliver Morton named him the Colonel of the 1 , 143 - man 14th Indiana Infantry on June 7 , 1861 . He led his regiment in the campaigns in western Virginia , seeing his first combat at the Battle of Cheat Mountain in the autumn . In March 1862 , he fought in the Shenandoah Valley , commanding a brigade at the Battle of Kernstown . On the second day of the fighting at Kernstown , he temporarily assumed command of the division of wounded Brigadier General James Shields , and then pushed back Stonewall Jackson in a successful counterattack . It was one of the first repulses that Jackson had suffered . In recognition of Kimball ' s performance , he was promoted to brigadier general on April 16 , 1862 . With the victory at Kernstown , Kimball had now participated in the first military defeats during the Civil War of Robert E . Lee and Thomas J . Jackson . In July 1862 , Kimball led his regiment , the 8th Ohio Infantry , and the 7th West Virginia Infantry to join the Army of the Potomac . After adding the 4th Ohio Infantry to his brigade , Kimball was briefly stationed in Fort Monroe before covering John Pope ' s retreat from the Second Battle of Bull Run on September 1 . During the subsequent Maryland Campaign , Kimball commanded the First Brigade of William H . French ' s third division in the II Corps . His men formed the right of the division during its series of assaults on the Sunken Road at the Battle of Antietam , losing over 600 men killed or wounded . Despite the severe losses , the men held their ground and eventually pushed aside the Confederates in their front , capturing 300 men and several colors . Kimball ' s brigade became known as the " Gibraltar Brigade " for their steadfast ability to withstand enemy fire . In December , his men were part of the desperate assaults ordered by Ambrose Burnside against Marye ' s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg . There , Kimball suffered a painful thigh wound that put him out of action for the winter and spring of 1863 . The Gibraltar Brigade was subsequently turned over to Col . Samuel S . Carroll . In early 1863 , Kimball was nominated to run for the Lieutenant Governor of Indiana , but he declined the nomination to remain in the army . After finally recovering enough for field command , Kimball was assigned to duty in the Western Theater , reporting in June 1863 to Corinth , Mississippi , where he assumed command of a division in the XVI Corps . His was one of three divisions in that corps that were ordered to Mississippi in to join the Siege of Vicksburg , although they arrived too late to participate in much of the actual fighting . In September , the greater part of Kimball ' s division was ordered to Arkansas , where it became incorporated in the VII Corps . He commanded the rear echelon in the Camden Expedition . In April 1864 , Kimball was relieved of duty in the Department of Arkansas and ordered to report to William T . Sherman , who became a close personal friend . Kimball was on detached duty under Sherman until May 1864 , when he was given command of a brigade in the IV Corps at the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign . Following the Battle of Peachtree Creek in July , Kimball assumed command of a division in the same corps . He returned to Indiana at Governor Morton ' s request to help subdue the Knights of the Golden Circle in that state , then returned to active field duty in the late fall , serving as a division commander in the battles of Franklin and Nashville . He received a brevet as a major general February 1 , 1865 , and mustered out of the army on August 24 , 1865 , following the close of the war . Postbellum activities . Kimball returned to Indiana , where he became associated with the newly organized Grand Army of the Republic , serving as its first state commander . Reentering politics , he was elected in 1867 as the State Treasurer , where he focused on banking reform and was re - elected to a second term . In 1869 , he joined the Freemasons lodge in Mount Pleasant , Indiana . Kimball won election to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1873 from Marion County . His former commander in the Vicksburg Campaign , Ulysses S . Grant , appointed Kimball in 1873 as Surveyor General for the Utah Territory , a post that he held until 1878 . The following year , President Rutherford B . Hayes appointed him as the Postmaster of Ogden , Utah , Kimball ' s adopted home . He served in this role until his death in 1898 . Kimball was buried in Weber , Utah . Honors . A bronze bust of Kimball was erected in the Vicksburg National Military Park in 1915 .