Richard Coulter ( general ) Richard Coulter , Sr . ( October 1 , 1827 – October 14 , 1908 ) was an American Civil War general in the Union Army , a businessman , and banker . During the Civil War he was colonel of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry , often rising to brigade command upon the wounding of superior officers . Early life and career . Richard Coulter , Sr . was born in Greensburg , Westmoreland County , Pennsylvania , a son of Eli Coulter Jr . ( 1791 – 1830 ) and Rebecca Alexander . Eli Coulter was a prominent business man and managed a steam mill in Greensburg . Richard attended Jefferson College in Washington , Pennsylvania . After leaving college in 1845 at the age of 19 , he worked in the law office of his uncle , Richard Coulter ( 1788 – 1852 ) in Greensburg where he remained until the beginning of the Mexican - American War . Coulter enrolled in the Westmoreland Guards , a local militia company that was mustered into the United States Army as Company E of the Second Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment . It was one of only two regiments sent from Pennsylvania to serve in Mexico . Coulter saw action under General Winfield Scott in the Siege of Vera Cruz and the subsequent battles of Cerro Gordo , Contreras , Churubusco , and Chapultepec , and the capture and occupation of Mexico City in 1847 . He served directly under future Civil War general John W . Geary , a man he had little respect for due to his vanity . After the Mexican War , the regiment returned to Pennsylvania in June 1848 . Coulter then resumed his study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1849 . His uncle had become a Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge in 1846 , and Coulter took over his uncle ' s law practice in Greensburg . He practiced law until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 . Throughout the 1850s , he remained active in the local militia . Civil War . With the outbreak of the war and the subsequent calls to arms by President Abraham Lincoln and then by the Governor of Pennsylvania , Andrew Curtin , Coulter raised a company of soldiers and was elected as their first captain . The company soon was made part of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers , in which Coulter was promoted to lieutenant colonel . When the regiment was reorganized as a three - year regiment , Coulter became the regimental commander until the end of the war in 1865 . Coulter ' s regiment fought at Cedar Mountain , Thoroughfare Gap , and Second Bull Run . At the Battle of Antietam , Coulter assumed command of the 3rd Brigade , 2nd Division , I Corps when Brig . Gen . George L . Hartsuff was wounded . Returning to regimental command Coulter fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville . At the battle of Gettysburg Coulter assumed command of the 1st Brigade , 2nd Division , I Corps when Brig . Gen . Gabriel R . Paul and all other ranking officers were wounded on July 1 near Oak Ridge . Coulter himself was wounded but retained brigade commanded until July 3 when he briefly turned over command before resuming command the same day . At the start of the 1864 Overland Campaign , Coulter was in command of his regiment but once again assumed brigade command ( 2nd Brigade , 2nd Divisio , V Corps ) at the Wilderness when Brig . Gen . Henry Baxter was wounded on the second day of the battle . At Spotsylvania he assumed command of the 2nd Division , V Corps when Brig . Gen . John C . Robinson was wounded and led the division for two days before returning to brigade command . On May 18 Coulter received a wound that incapacitated him for the next several months . He was brevetted Brigadier General of United States Volunteers on August 1 , 1864 . During the siege of Petersburg Coulter briefly returned to the front in command of the 2nd Brigade , 3rd Division , V Corps at the battle of Globe Tavern . His final command appointment was the 3rd Brigade , 3rd Division , V Corps during the Appomattox Campaign . He was brevetted Major General of U . S . Volunteers for services at Five Forks . He was mustered out of the volunteer services on July 1 , 1865 . Postbellum career . After the Civil War , Coulter returned to Greensburg , where he became active in business . He joined with several other local financiers to invest in various industries , businesses , and residential areas in and around Greensburg . Coulter began a partnership with George Franklin Huff , a local businessman and financier who later became a state senator and a U . S . congressman . Coulter and Huff collaborated on several of the largest and most significant companies in Westmoreland County in the 1880s , including the Keystone Coal and Coke Company , the Greensburg - Hempfield Electric Street Railway , and the First National Bank of Greensburg ( now the First Commonwealth Bank ) . Coulter served at the bank ' s president until his death in 1908 . His son , Richard Coulter Jr . ( 1870 – 1955 ) took over as president and held that position for more than 40 years . Greensburg was located on a large vein of bituminous coal about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh . Coal and coke were needed for steel mills that were built in and near Pittsburgh in the 1860s and 1870s . Coulter and Huff prospered with the rising steel industry by developing and mining the coalfields in Westmoreland County . General Coulter married Emmy Welty ( 1841 – 1929 ) and had six children — Richard Coulter Jr . , Rebecca , Henry , Alexander , William , and Margaret . Memorial . Coulter is memorialized on the Pennsylvania State Monument at Gettysburg National Military Park . As the " most famous Civil War veteran " from Westmoreland County , Pennsylvania , Coulter ' s grave was featured by the Westmoreland County Historical Society ' s celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War .