Augustus Wade Dwight Augustus Wade Dwight ( February 22 , 1827 – March 26 , 1865 ) was a lawyer who became an officer in the American Civil War . He served in 21 battles and was wounded three times , the last wound being fatal . Life . Augustus Wade Dwight was born February 22 , 1827 in Halifax , Vermont , the oldest of nine children . His father was physician Morris Dwight of the New England Dwight family , born October 1 , 1796 , and mother was Minerva Bryant , born February 18 , 1800 . In 1829 the family moved to Cummington , Massachusetts as the father practiced medicine , and in 1839 to Poughkeepsie , New York where his father tried to raise mulberry trees . In 1840 they moved to LaFayette , New York . Dwight enrolled in Yale College in September 1851 ; his distant cousin Theodore Dwight Woolsey was president of Yale at the time . However , he dropped out in February 1852 when he could not afford it . Instead he went to California to join the California Gold Rush . He studied law for a while in California . Somehow he ended up on a ship to the Hawaiian Islands , and from there to China . Returning to the US , he had circumnavigated the earth . He studied for the bar and was admitted to practice in Onondaga County , New York in 1859 . American Civil War . A year into the American Civil War , additional troops were being raised in Onondaga County . Dwight volunteered for the Union Army for what he thought would be a three year enlistment . He was commissioned as Captain of Company E of the 122nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment on July 8 , 1862 . By August 28 , 1862 was promoted to lieutenant colonel under Colonel Silas Titus , and was sent immediately into combat action as part of the Army of the Potomac . In its first engagement , the Battle of Antietam , they were kept in reserve and there were no losses . After a few other skirmishes , they saw heavy fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 . Sickness also took its toll on the regiment . Several times Col . Titus was ill and Dwight had led the troops . Other times , both officers were unable to lead and command passed to Captain Horace Hall Wapole ( later promoted to lead the regiment ) . Titus was also called away to serve as Provost Marshal . Dwight would often send reports back to the Syracuse Journal newspaper , and wrote letters notifying relatives of men who were killed in action . On September 19 , 1864 at the Battle of Opequon , he received his first wound , a severe contusion of his right thigh , but was able to continue in his post . On October 19 , 1864 he was more severely wounded at Battle of Cedar Creek when a ball shattered his right wrist . He was given a medical discharge and sent home to recover with an effectively useless right arm . Dwight left home again on January 30 , 1865 to rejoin his regiment which was at the Siege of Petersburg . He officially replaced Titus to command the regiment as acting colonel on February 28 , 1865 , under Colonel Thomas W . Hyde who was in turn acting as brigade commander . On the early morning of March 25 , 1865 , Confederate forces launched the daring surprise attack on Fort Stedman near Petersburg . After initially capturing the Union fort , the attack stalled and the fort was retaken . In response , later that day Dwight ' s regiment was ordered to take some of the weakened trenches on the Confederate ' s right side . During the operation , he was hit it the head by artillery fire and was instantly killed . His commission as full colonel was not finalized before his death . He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse , New York . At the dedication of a monument for the regiment in 1888 at the Gettysburg Battlefield , speeches mentioned Dwight as the one " to whom the efficiency of the regiment was so largely due . "