Benjamin Brice Benjamin William Brice ( November 30 , 1809 – December 4 , 1892 ) was a lawyer and soldier who served in the United States Army during the Black Hawk War and Mexican - American War . Later employed as the Paymaster General of the Union Army during the American Civil War and postbellum periods , Brice had on his retirement in 1872 risen to the rank of brevet major general . Early life and background . Brice was born in what is now Harrison County , West Virginia . In 1825 , he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , in 1825 . His classmates included future civil war generals Robert Anderson , Daniel S . Donelson , Benjamin Huger , William R . Montgomery , and Charles F . Smith . He graduated near the bottom of his class , ranking fortieth out of forty six cadets . Upon graduation he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served with the 3rd U . S . Infantry Regiment on frontier duty at Jefferson Barracks , Missouri . He served during the Black Hawk War expedition against the Sac Indians in 1831 . Brice left the Army in 1832 and moved to Ohio . He passed the bar exam , began to practice law , and in 1846 was elected an associate judge of the court of Licking County , Ohio . Later in 1846 , Brice was appointed Adjutant General of the state militia by Governor William Bebb and served until 1847 , when he resigned to re - enter the army to serve in the Mexican War . Brice became United States Army Paymaster under President James K . Polk at the rank of major and served from March 3 , 1847 , to March 4 , 1849 . He saw service at Camargo in 1847 , Monterrey , Saltillo , and Brazos Island in 1848 , and was then stationed at Fort Brown , Texas , from 1848 to 1849 . After the war with Mexico , Brice ' s command was disbanded . He was reappointed a Major in 1852 , and saw service in the Pay Department at Fort Fillmore , New Mexico from 1852 to 1854 ; New Orleans , Louisiana , from 1854 to 1856 ; Paymaster of the Southern District of New Mexico , headquartered at Fort Bliss , Texas , from 1856 to 1859 ; as well as special service in Florida in 1859 . He was made Paymaster of the Western Department under General David Hunter at Fort Leavenworth , Missouri in 1859 and served until the beginning of the Civil War . Civil War . At the outbreak of the rebellion , he became Paymaster General of the District of Kansas and the Territories . In 1862 , he became chief of the pay district embracing New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Maryland , and Delaware , headquartered at Baltimore , Maryland , and served until 1864 . On March 22 , 1862 , he was promoted to brigadier general , but the promotion was tabled by Congress on July 16 , 1862 , and Brice reverted to his regular army rank of major . On November 29 , 1864 , he was called to Washington on to take command of the Pay Department . According to all reports and diaries , the paymaster ' s department was grossly inefficient at the beginning of the war in 1861 . Col . Benjamin F . Larned was paymaster at the beginning of the war and had served since July 1854 . He died September 6 , 1862 , and was succeeded by Col . Timothy B . Andrews , who served to November 29 , 1864 . After the death of Colonel Larned , there was considerable pressure for a complete investigation of the problems in the pay department . In 1863 , the War Department finally began to check the suitability of deputy paymasters with a physical examination , and tests to evaluate mental and moral fitness . Most paymasters in the field were political appointees and those looking for a safer job away from the front lines . When Brice took charge in 1864 , the regulations were finally brought up to date , and officially included the examination of candidates . This took the form of writing a business letter , solving mathematical problems , and knowledge of accounting and pay systems . The statistics of the Pay Department show that during it disbursed $ 1 , 100 , 000 , 000 , with discrepancies of less than one - tenth of one per cent . The overhead cost of paying the troops , including expenses , defalcations and losses of all kinds , was just three - fourths of one per cent of the amount disbursed . General Brice reflected on the massive endeavor of creating a modernized pay department from scratch in 1865 : Brice is among the group of capable Washington staff officers who have been largely forgotten by modern historians , even though there was a surprisingly low turnover . While many have credited the North ' s victory in the conflict to President Abraham Lincoln ' s ability to create a cabinet of the brightest and most capable minds from a team of his political rivals , Ulysses S . Grant is recognized for reorganizing the staff departments under the finest officers in their fields , including Brice . Brice was brevetted to brigadier general on December 2 , 1864 , and major general on March 13 , 1865 , for his wartime service . Postbellum career . In 1866 , he was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army by General Grant during the reorganization of the staff corps . Brice ' s position as paymaster was often used for political leverage . In 1867 , General Grant had the pay of Col . Gordon Granger suspended because of an unauthorized absence . Granger and Grant had been adversaries since the beginning of the war , and Grant hindered Granger ' s advancement , stating that he was " outspoken and rough in manner , kindly and sympathetic at heart . . . His independence occasionally came near to insubordination , and at ordinary times he lacked energy . " Brice also officially interceded on behalf of his friend James Magoffin , a Confederate Quartermaster assigned to the far West supplying the forces of Henry H . Sibley and John W . Baylor . In the fall of 1865 , Magoffin went to Washington to seek amnesty from President Andrew Johnson for his activities on behalf of the Confederacy , but was unsuccessful until Brice ' s intervention in 1866 . After the war , Brice remained in charge of the Pay Department in Washington D . C . until 1872 , when he retired from active duty . He died in 1892 and was interred at the Soldier ' s Home National Cemetery in Washington . His brother in law was Bvt . Maj . Gen . William Scott Ketchum .