William B . Franklin William Buel Franklin ( February 27 , 1823 – March 8 , 1903 ) was a career United States Army officer and a Union Army general in the American Civil War . He rose to the rank of a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac , fighting in several notable early battles in the Eastern Theater . Early life . William B . Franklin was born in York , Pennsylvania . His father Walter S . Franklin was Clerk of the United States House of Representatives from 1833 until his death in 1838 . One of his great - grandfathers , Samuel Rhoads , was a member of the First Continental Congress from Pennsylvania . Future President James Buchanan , then a Senator , appointed Franklin to the United States Military Academy in June 1839 . Franklin graduated first in his class in 1843 , before joining the Corps of Topographical Engineers and being sent to the Rocky Mountains for two years to survey the region with the Stephen W . Kearny Expedition . He then was assigned to duty in the administrative offices in Washington , D . C . He served under Philip Kearny during the Mexican - American War and received a brevet promotion to first lieutenant in the Battle of Buena Vista . Upon his return from Mexico , Franklin served as a professor at West Point for three years before supervising the construction of several lighthouses along the Atlantic Coast in New Hampshire and Maine . In 1852 , he married Anna L . Clarke , a daughter of Matthew St . Clair Clarke who had preceded his father as Clerk of the House of Representatives . The couple had no children . In March 1857 , he was named the supervisor of the Light House Board and oversaw the construction program across the nation . In November 1859 , he replaced Montgomery C . Meigs as the engineer supervising construction of the United States Capitol Dome . In March 1861 , just before the outbreak of the Civil War , he was appointed as the supervising architect for the new Treasury Building in Washington . Civil War . Soon after the beginning of the Civil War , Franklin was appointed colonel of the 12th U . S . Infantry , but three days later , on May 17 , 1861 , he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers . He led a brigade at First Bull Run , and afterwards became a division commander in the newly created Army of the Potomac . In March 1862 , the army was formed into corps , and Franklin appointed to head of the VI Corps , which he then led in the Peninsula Campaign . He was promoted to major general on July 4 , 1862 . During the Northern Virginia Campaign , Franklin stayed with the main army and did not participate in it . At Antietam , his VI Corps was in reserve and he tried in vain to convince Maj . Gen . Edwin V . Sumner to allow his corps to exploit a weakened position in the Confederate center . Franklin was a staunch ally of Army of the Potomac commander George McClellan , part of the reason he was not considered for command of the army following the latter ' s dismissal in November 1862 . At Fredericksburg , he commanded the " Left Grand Division " ( two corps , under Maj . Gens . John F . Reynolds and William F . Smith ) , which failed in its assaults against the Confederate right , commanded by Lt . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson . Army of the Potomac commander Maj . Gen . Ambrose E . Burnside blamed Franklin personally for this failure , although he appears to have executed his orders exactly . As political intrigue swept the Union Army after Fredericksburg and the infamous Mud March , Franklin was alleged to be a principal instigator of the " cabal " against Burnside ' s leadership . Burnside caused considerable political difficulty for Franklin in return , offering damaging testimony before the powerful U . S . Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and keeping him from field duty for months . When Joseph Hooker took command of the army that February , Franklin resigned his command , refusing to serve under him . During the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign , Franklin was home in York , Pennsylvania , and assisted Maj . Granville Haller in developing plans for the defense of the region versus an expected enemy attack . Franklin was reassigned to corps command in the Department of the Gulf and participated in the ill - fated 1864 Red River Campaign . He was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana . Returning from the field with his injury , he was captured by Maj . Harry Gilmor ' s Confederate partisan s in a train near Washington , D . C . , in July 1864 , but escaped the following day . The remainder of his army career was limited by disability from his wound and marred by his series of political and command misfortunes . He was unable serve in any more senior commands , even with the assistance of his West Point classmate , friend , and future president , Ulysses S . Grant . Postbellum career . Following the Civil War , General Franklin relocated to Hartford , Connecticut , and became the Vice - president of the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company until 1888 , as well as a director on the boards of several manufacturing concerns . He supervised the construction of the Connecticut State Capitol Building , and served on various boards and commissions , where his engineering experience proved helpful in expanding Hartford ' s public water service . After the Civil War , General Franklin became a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States . In 1887 he joined the Aztec Club of 1847 . In 1872 , Franklin was approached by a Pennsylvania and New Jersey faction of the Democratic Party to run against Horace Greeley for the party ' s nomination as President of the United States , a task he declined , citing a need for party unity . He was vice president of a Hartford area insurance company , and a delegate to the 1876 Democratic National Convention . In June 1888 , after his retirement from Colt Firearms , he was named as the U . S . Commissioner - General for the Paris Exposition of 1889 . William Franklin died in Hartford , Connecticut in 1903 ( one of relatively few general officers from the Civil War who lived to see the 20th century ) and is buried near his birthplace in York , Pennsylvania , in Prospect Hill Cemetery . The York Country Heritage Trust preserves many of his papers and personal effects from the Civil War .