Patrick Robert Guiney Patrick Robert Guiney ( Parkstown , Co . Tipperary , Ireland , on 15 January 1835 – Boston , March 21 , 1877 ) was an American Civil War soldier . Early life and career . He was the second and eldest surviving son of James Roger Guiney , who was descended from Jacobites , and Judith Macrae . James Guiney , impoverished after a failed runaway marriage , brought with him on his second voyage to New Brunswick his favourite child Patrick , then not six years old . After some years , Mrs . Guiney rejoined her husband , recently crippled by a fall from his horse ; a settlement followed in Portland , Maine , where the boy attended the public schools . He matriculated at Holy Cross College , Worcester , but left before graduating . His book - loving father having meanwhile died , he went to study for the Bar under Judge Walton , and was admitted in Lewiston , Maine , in 1856 , becoming involved in criminal law . In politics he was a Republican . For the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , he won its first suit . In 1859 he married in the old cathedral , Boston , Janet Margaret Doyle , related to the Rt . Rev . James Warren Doyle , Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin . They had one son , who died in infancy , and one daughter , the poet Louise Imogen Guiney . Home life in Roxbury and professional success were cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War . Civil War . Familiar with the Manual of arms , Guiney enlisted for example ' s sake as a private , refusing a commission from Governor John A . Andrew until he had worked hard to help recruit the Ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers . Within two years ( July , 1862 ) , the first colonel having died from a wound received in action , Lieutenant - Colonel Guiney succeeded Young to the command . He won high official praise , notably for courage and presence of mind at the Battle of the Chickahominy , or Gaines ' s Mill , Virginia . Here , after three successive color - bearers had been shot down , the colonel himself reportedly seized the flag , threw aside coat and sword - belt , rose white - shirted and conspicuous in the stirrups , inspired a final rally , and turned the fortune of the day . Guiney fought in over thirty engagements , including the Battle of Antietam , the Battle of Fredericksburg , and the Battle of Chancellorsville . The 9th Massachusetts was present at Gettysburg in second brigade first division V Corps on July 1 , 1863 . Col Jacob B . Sweitzer the brigade commander , detached Guiney ' s regiment for picket duty . Consequently , the regiment missed the second day ' s fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg . In 1864 , through the battle of the Wilderness , Guiney frequently had been in command of his brigade , the second brigade , first division , Fifth Corps . After many escapes from dangerous combats without serious injury , he was shot in the face by a sharpshooter at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5 , 1864 . The Minié ball destroyed his left eye , and inflicted , it was believed , a fatal wound . During an interval of consciousness , however , Guiney insisted on an operation which saved his life . Guiney was honorably discharged and mustered out of the U . S . Volunteers on June 21 , 1864 , just before the mustering out of his old regiment . On February 21 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson nominated Guiney for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general , to rank from March 13 , 1865 , for gallant and meritorious services during the war . The U . S . Senate confirmed the award on April 10 , 1866 . Postbellum . Kept alive for years by nursing , he ran unsuccessfully for Congress on a sort of " Christian Socialist " platform , was elected assistant district attorney ( 1866 – 70 ) , and acted as consulting lawyer ( not being longer able to plead ) on many locally celebrated cases . His last exertions were devoted to the defeat of the corruption and misuse of the Probate Court of Suffolk County , Massachusetts , of which he had become registrar ( 1869 – 77 ) . He died suddenly and was found kneeling against an elm in the little park near his home . General Guiney was Commandant of the Loyal Legion , Major - General Commandant of the Veteran Military League , member of the Irish Charitable Society , and one of the founders and first members of the Catholic Union of Boston . He also published some literary criticism , a few graphic prose sketches and some verse .