Delos Bennett Sackett Delos Bennett Sackett ( April 14 , 1822 – March 8 , 1885 ) was a career officer in the United States Army , and served in the American Civil War as a general in the Union Army . He was a postbellum Senior Inspector General of the Army . Early life and career . Sackett ( spelled Sacket in some army records ) was born in Cape Vincent , New York . He graduated the United States Military Academy in 1845 . As a lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoons , he was assigned to duty in Texas and then in the Mexican - American War . He was cited for gallantry for his actions at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma . He plotted out 84 city blocks with stakes and rawhide rope [ fake lore ] , as the foundation of what is now Las Cruces , New Mexico . In 1848 , during the summer , he was with 87 soldiers of the First Dragoons of Company H , charged with defending homesteads from Apache raids . El Paso , Texas , was one of these communities protected by Sackett ' s force . While scouting against the Apache Indians in 1850 , he won special distinction from his superiors as " an active and gallant officer . " Sackett married a Cherokee girl , Amanda Fields . The couple had a daughter , but Mrs . Sackett died in August 1849 in Arkansas while her husband was serving on the frontier . In December 1850 , Sackett returned to West Point as Assistant Instructor of Cavalry Tactics , serving until April 1855 . With the rank of captain in the 1st U . S . Cavalry , he went to Kansas Territory to Fort Leavenworth and served on various expeditions against hostile Indians . He then served on a variety of posts around the country and took a leave of absence for an extended trip to Europe . He was serving in the Indian Territory when the Civil War erupted . Civil War . At the outset of the war , Sackett , then the lieutenant colonel of the 5th U . S . Cavalry , was assigned to Washington , D . C . as the Acting Inspector - General of the Department of Washington . He held that position until August 1861 , when he was reassigned as the Mustering and Disbursing Officer for New York City until December , spending much of his time helping to organize newly recruited troops . In late December , he joined the Army of the Potomac as its Inspector General , serving in that role until January 1863 . He was in the Peninsula Campaign as a staff officer and advisor to Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan and again during the Maryland Campaign . After serving under Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside at Fredericksburg , Sackett took command of the Inspector General ' s Office in Washington . He then served on a variety of military boards ( helping to organize the Invalid Corps ) until April 1864 , when he was sent to the Western Theater on inspection duty for the Departments of the Tennessee , Cumberland , Arkansas , and New Mexico . In the omnibus promotions at the end of the war , he reached the brevet rank of major general for " faithful and meritorious services during the Rebellion . " Postbellum career . After spending a year in New York City awaiting orders , Sackett was sent to the Montana Territory on an inspection tour , and then went on to the Pacific Coast . He was then assigned as Inspector General of the Department of the Tennessee from November 1866 through to March 1867 . He served in the same role in a variety of posts until 1881 , when he returned to Washington as a brigadier general and Senior Inspector General of the Army , a post he held until his death in Washington at the age of 63 of gangrene . He was buried in his native Cape Vincent , where he had built an impressive house in 1872 . Post # 268 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Cape Vincent was named for Delos B . Sackett . Camp Sackett was a United States military camp located about 3 . 5 miles southwest of Lecompton , Kansas . It served as a temporary prison for free state advocates , including Governor Charles L . Robinson , during the Bleeding Kansas issue in 1856 .