Thomas Welsh ( general ) Thomas Welsh ( May 5 , 1824 – August 14 , 1863 ) was a soldier in the United States Army during the Mexican - American War and a Union brigadier general during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Thomas Welsh was born in Columbia , Pennsylvania on May 5 , 1824 , the third of 4 children born to Charles Welsh and Nancy ( Dougherty ) Welsh . His father died before his third birthday , and at the age of 8 , he left home to work in a nail factory . Thus began a long series of jobs including farming , factory work and the lumber business , in the towns of Colemanville , Gap , and Bird in Hand , through which he became self - sufficient at an early age . He attended school only sporadically , attaining the equivalent of four to five years of formal schooling , but was self - taught , and became an educated man . At age 20 , Welsh headed west to find work as an itinerant carpenter in Cincinnati , Ohio , and Fort Smith , Arkansas . Mexican War . At the outbreak of the Mexican War , Welsh enlisted as a third sergeant in the 2nd Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry . He served in the Monterey campaign under General Zachary Taylor . He was quickly promoted to first Sergeant then for reasons that have been lost , demoted to private . Welsh was severely wounded at the Battle of Buena Vista on February 23 , 1847 , when he was hit by a musket ball which shattered the bone just below his right knee . Though the wound would leave him lame for the rest of his life , his regimental surgeon named Dr . Blanton was able to save his leg from amputation ( Welsh would later name his first son after Dr . Blanton ) . He returned to Columbia to recover and was received as a war hero . In January , 1848 , as soon as his wound had closed , he returned to service , accepting a commission as a second Lieutenant in the 11th US Infantry Regiment serving under General Winfield Scott in the Vera Cruz campaign . His leg wound hadn ’ t fully healed , however , and in May 1848 , he was sent home on medical leave . Political career and return to civilian life . Returning to Columbia during the election year of 1848 , Welsh became active in the local Democratic Party . He supported Democratic presidential nominee Lewis Cass in his race against Welsh ' s former commanding office Zachary Taylor . He also spoke out against Federal anti - slavery legislation , instead favoring a doctrine of Popular sovereignty , which espoused each territory ' s right to determine its own slavery or anti - slavery laws . Welsh married Annie Young in October 1850 . The first of their seven children was born in 1851 . He became an enterprising businessman , He opened a dry goods store in Columbia ’ s Canal Basin , sold insurance and operated a small fleet of canal boats which he named after his children . He was appointed Weigh Master in 1850 , and lock superintendent a few years later . He was elected Justice of the Peace , and also served as president of the Borough Council . Civil War . When the Civil War erupted in April 1861 , Welsh raised one of the first companies of volunteers from Lancaster County and was elected as its captain . Within days , the company was mustered into service as part of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry , and he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment . This was a three - months regiment , which served briefly in the Shenandoah Valley , then York , Pennsylvania , where it served out its term . In July , when his term of enlistment was over , Welsh was appointed by Governor Andrew Curtin as a colonel and placed in charge of Camp Curtin , the processing center set up to process as many as 500 , 000 volunteers into war service . Welsh is credited with instituting needed reforms in camp discipline and sanitation . In October 1861 , he was appointed to command the 45th Pennsylvania infantry , a three - years regiment , which he had recruited from Center , Tioga , Lancaster and Mifflin and Counties . The 45th eventually became known as one of the best drilled and best disciplined regiments in the service , for which Col . Welsh is credited . After brief service around Washington , the 45th was sent south to Charleston Harbor , under Gen . H . G . Wright , as part of the blockade of southern shipping . There it participated in the Battle of James Island on June 10 , 1862 . In July , the 45th was called north to become part of the 9th Corps under Gen . Ambrose Burnside , and Welsh directed the successful rear - guard action during the Union evacuation of Acquia Creek , near Fredericksburg . When Confederate General Robert E . Lee launched his invasion of Maryland in September 1862 , McClellan ’ s Army of the Potomac ( of which the 9th Corps was part ) was sent in chase . At the Battle of South Mountain on September 14 , Col . Welsh , now in brigade command , engaged the rebels at Fox ’ s Gap . His brigade came under heavy fire and suffered severe casualties , but succeeded in driving the Confederates off the ridge and securing a Union victory . On September 17 , 1862 , at the Battle of Antietam , after first being held in reserved ( on account of its losses at South Mountain ) , Welsh ’ s brigade was placed into action in the afternoon after Burnside exhausted his other troops capturing the bridge that now bears his name . Against steady opposition , Welsh ’ s troops advanced a mile , entering the village of Sharpsburg ( threatening to cut off the Confeederate route of escape across the Potomac ) before being called back because they couldn ’ t be supported . This was the furthest Union advance of the battle . As it was , the battle ended largely in a stalemate . Welsh ' s performance drew praises from his superiors , and he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on November 29 , 1862 ( confirmed by the Senate on March 13 , 1863 ) . He was assigned to command the 1st division of the 9th Corps , sent west to Kentucky , then south to Mississippi to serve under Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant during the Siege of Vicksburg , where he was assigned to guard the exterior of the Union line from attack by Confederate General Joseph E . Johnston . Upon the surrender of Vicksburg , he marched with Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman to Jackson , Mississippi , and defeated the Confederates at the battle of Jackson . Welsh contracted a malarial fever during this campaign , from which he died in Cincinnati , Ohio , on August 14 , 1863 . He was buried in Mount Bethel Cemetery in his native Columbia . Namesake . After the Civil War , the Grand Army of the Republic ( GAR ) named Post # 118 in Columbia after Thomas Welsh . For many years , this was one of the most active Posts in Pennsylvania . As Civil War veterans died off , eventually the GAR went into decline and disappeared . Today , a successor group , the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War , have a General Thomas Welsh Camp in Lancaster .