Simon Goodell Griffin Simon Goodell Griffin ( date unknown , 1824 - January 14 , 1902 ) was an American soldier , legislator , farmer and teacher . Pre - War . Simon G . Griffin was born at Nelson , New Hampshire ( USA ) in 1824 . Griffin was a farmer and a teacher at first . He represented his town in the State legislature and was admitted to the bar in 1860 . Civil War Service . During the American Civil War , Griffin served first as a captain in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry from June 1 , 1861 to October 31 of that year . He served as lieutenant colonel of the 6th New Hampshire Infantry from November 28 , 1861 until he became colonel on April 22 , 1862 . Griffin led his regiment in First Brigade , Second Division , Ninth Army Corps . He led the regiment in the Second Battle of Bull Run , the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg . Griffin led first brigade second division briefly during the winter of 1862 - 1863 . Griffin ' s regiment was sent West with MG Ambrose Burnside , alternately serving as regimental and brigade commander . He served under MG Grant in the siege of Vicksburg when MG John G . Parke took IX Corps to Mississippi . IX Corps served most with MG William T . Sherman , preventing Confederate reinforcements from reaching Vicksburg . ( A bust of Gen Griffin now stands near Grant Circle at the Vicksburg National Military Park . ) Next Col Griffin participated in Sherman ' s Mississippi campaign of 1864 , which culminated in the Battle of Meridian . Returning East , Griffin commanded the Second Brigade , Second Division , in the Battle of the Wilderness , Spotsylvania and the Battle of Cold Harbor . He was brevet ted brigadier general of volunteers in 1864 , on the recommendations of Generals Burnside and Grant . Griffin became a brigadier general on May 12 , 1864 . For gallantry at the Siege of Petersburg and around Richmond , he was brevetted major general of volunteers in 1865 . When Gen Robert B . Potter , the division commander , was wounded in an attack on Fort Mahone , Griffin became acting division commander during the Appomattox Campaign . He also commanded the division in the Department of Washington after the Confederate surrender . Post war . Gen Griffin was mustered out of the volunteer service on August 24 , 1865 . He was a manufacturer and was elected five times to a seat in the New Hampshire Legislature , serving in the last two terms as Speaker . Griffin died in Keene , New Hampshire on January 14 , 1902 . He was buried in Keene at the Wood ; and Cemetery . Gen Griffin also was a local historian , co - author of : Simon Goodell Griffin , Frank H Whitcomb and Octavius Applegate , Jr . , " A history of the town of Keene from 1732 , when the township was granted by Massachusetts , to 1874 , when it became a city " , Keene , N . H . , Sentinel Print . Co . , 1904 . Reprint : Bowie , MD : Heritage Books , 1980 . ISBN 0 - 917890 - 21 - 3 , ISBN 978 - 0 - 917890 - 21 - 5 Simon Goodell Griffin and Ebenezer Tolman , " Celebration by the town of Nelson , New Hampshire ( originally called " Monadnick no . 6 " and incorporated as " Packersfield " ) of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its first settlement , 1767 - 1917 " , New York : Evening post job Print . Office , Inc . , 1917 . Reprint : Salem , Mass . : Higginson Book Company , 1998 .