Henry M . Judah Henry Moses Judah ( June 12 , 1821 – February 14 , 1866 ) was a career officer in the United States Army , serving during the Mexican - American War and American Civil War . He is most remembered for his role in helping thwart Morgan ' s Raid in 1863 and for leading a disastrous attack during the Battle of Resaca . Early life and career . Judah was born at Snow Hill on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Henry Raymond Judah and Mary Jane ( Reece ) Judah . His father , a native of Connecticut , was serving as a parish minister in an Episcopal church . One of his brothers , Theodore Judah , later was chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad and was instrumental in constructing the first transcontinental railroad . Another brother became a prominent attorney . Judah received an appointment to the United States Military Academy , graduating 35th of 39 students in the Class of 1843 . He was a classmate of Ulysses S . Grant . Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U . S . 8th Infantry Regiment , he served on the frontier . He served with distinction during the Mexican - American War and was promoted to first lieutenant on September 26 , 1847 . He was commended for bravery during the storming of Monterrey , and again at the Battle of Molino del Rey and the Battle for Mexico City . He was promoted to captain in the U . S . 4th Infantry Regiment and served in a variety of posts in the Pacific Northwest in the Washington Territory before being assigned to duty in California . His Company E was stationed at Fort Jones in Siskiyou County , where he joined the Freemasons , becoming a member of the North Star Lodge No . 91 . In 1854 , Judah participated in an expedition against local Native Americans , but was too inebriated to lead his company in an attack on a group of Indians who were hiding in a cave . Instead , he stayed with the pack train and straggled far behind the column . The commissary officer , Lt . George Crook ( a future Civil War general ) later wrote , " It seemed that the rear guard had gotten some whiskey , and were all drunk , and scattered for at least 10 miles back . Judah was so drunk that be had to be lifted from his horse when the rear guard straggled into camp . The next day he was sick all day with the delirium tremens . " Crook and other officers discussed pressing charges against Judah , but the matter was dropped when Judah promised to arrange a transfer to a new post . He then served in Placerville , California , in El Dorado County . However , Judah ' s reputation for bouts with alcohol would carry over into the Civil War . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 , Judah was colonel of the 4th California Volunteers at Fort Yuma , a post on the Colorado River opposite the Arizona Territory . He commanded troops at Camp McClellan near Auburn , California , until November , when he resigned his command and returned to the East . He served in the defenses of Washington , D . C . for several months . He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on March 22 , 1862 ( confirmed March 24 , 1862 ) , to rank from March 21 , 1862 , and served as Grant ' s inspector general during the Battle of Shiloh . Given field command of a division under Henry W . Halleck , Judah participated in the siege of Corinth . He received a promotion in the Regular Army in June 1862 to Major ( United States ) of the 4th Infantry . By autumn , he was performing administrative duties in Cincinnati , Ohio before being ordered in October to join the Army of Kentucky under Maj . Gen . Gordon Granger at Covington , Kentucky . Judah returned to a staff position during the winter of 1862 – 63 , when he served as acting inspector general of the Army of the Ohio . In June 1863 , Judah was assigned to command the 3rd Division of the XXIII Corps , stationed in Cincinnati , Ohio . During Morgan ' s Raid , Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside ordered Judah to pursue the Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan . Judah ' s Indiana and Illinois cavalry under Edward H . Hobson defeated Morgan at the Battle of Buffington Island , but failed to capture the general ( who finally surrendered to other Federal troops on July 26 ) . Judah was criticized for missing an opportunity earlier in the week to snare Morgan near Pomeroy , Ohio , where his slowness in flanking Morgan allowed the Confederates to escape . He then led his command back to Tennessee to rejoin the army of William S . Rosecrans . In 1864 , Judah led an infantry division under Maj . Gen . John M . Schofield during the Atlanta Campaign . Having been previously disciplined for poor performance and alcoholism by Schofield , Judah was given one last chance to redeem himself at the Battle of Resaca . In his haste to seize victory , he did not properly reconnoiter the battlefield terrain beforehand or use his artillery in the fight . It would be his last field command , as Schofield soon removed him from duty . Judah was placed on routine administrative duty in the Department of the Cumberland until the end of the war , stationed in Marietta , Georgia . He was appointed a brevet lieutenant colonel and colonel in the Regular Army on March 13 , 1865 . On May 12 , he received the surrender of Brig . Gen . William T . Wofford ' s estimated 3 , 000 to 4 , 000 Confederate soldiers . Since no crops had been grown here on the battlefields in 1864 and , as the surrender had paralyzed the local economy and government , the citizens and former soldiers lacked food , funds and employment . Judah , seeing that aid was needed to prevent suffering , issued corn and bacon to the needy until a crop could be harvested . The rations helped put the Georgians and their economy back on a sound basis , and served as a humanitarian gesture . After the war , Judah mustered out of the volunteer army on August 24 , 1865 and reverted to his Regular Army rank of major . He served on garrison duty in Plattsburg , New York , where he died a year later . He was entombed at Kings Highway Cemetery in Westport , Connecticut .