Sumner Carruth Sumner Carruth was an officer in the volunteer army of the United States during the American Civil War . He commanded the 35th Massachusetts Infantry and eventually rose to the command of two different brigades in the IX Corps . Pre - War . Carruth was born on December 22 , 1834 in North Brookfield , Massachusetts . He worked as a machinist . At the outbreak of the Civil War he was a militia officer . His company , the Chelsea Light Infantry , was mustered into the federal service as Company H of the 1st Massachusetts Infantry in 1861 . 1st Lt . Carruth was credited with the leading role in persuading the company to volunteer . Civil War Service . On May 22 , 1861 , Carruth , became captain of Company H by election . He first saw combat at First Bull Run in the brigade of Col . Israel B . Richardson . Carruth next served in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign . The regiment was in the III Corps in the division of Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker . Carruth was present at the Battle of Yorktown ( 1862 ) , where his company distinguished itself . The company also fought at the Battle of Williamsburg . Carruth was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Seven Pines , apparently missing the subsequent battles of the Peninsula Campaign . Carruth returned to the field as a major in the newly - organized 35th Massachusetts Infantry , commissioned at that rank on August 21 , 1862 . He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on August 27 of that year . The regiment served in IX Corps in the division of Brig . Gen . Samuel D . Sturgis . Carruth was present at the Battle of South Mountain , where the commander , Col . Edward A . Wild was wounded . Carruth succeeded to command , but he was wounded at the Battle of Antietam near Burnside ’ s Bridge . Carruth was captured at White Sulphur Springs , West Virginia on November 11 , 1862 , missing the Battle of Fredericksburg . After being exchanged , Carruth next served in IX Corps in the Department of the Ohio . He became colonel of his regiment on May 1 , 1863 and served with the corps in the Siege of Vicksburg , as well as in Eastern Tennessee . Carruth led the 2nd brigade , 2nd division , IX Corps from February 2 to March 3 , 1864 , before the Corps was transferred back to Virginia . In Virginia , he led the same brigade in April 1864 . Then he led 1st brigade , 1st division , IX Corps from April 25 to May 6 , 1864 . On the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness , May 6 , Carruth ' s brigade was involved in the fighting on the Orange Plank Road . Fighting in the Wilderness alongside the troops of Brig . Gen . Alexander Webb and Brig . Gen . James Wadsworth , Carruth was felled by sunstroke and carried from the field . Col . Carruth returned to IX Corps in the Army of the Potomac late in 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg , command his regiment . He led a brigade in the second division from January 23 to February 11 , 1865 , in the absence of Brig . Gen . John I . Curtin . He did so again from May 4 to June 9 of that year , serving in the Department of Washington after the Confederate surrender . Carruth was mustered out of the volunteer service on June 9 , 1865 . On January 13 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson nominated Carruth for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general , U . S . Volunteers , to rank from April 9 , 1865 , and the U . S . Senate confirmed the award on March 12 , 1866 . His brevet was awarded for gallant and meritorious services in the attack on Fort Mahone on April 2 , 1865 during Battle of Petersburg III . Maj . Gen . John G . Parke , commander of IX Corps , recommended him ; and two other officers commended his regiment for its role in that action . Post - War . Sumner Carruth married Clara Smith of Newark , New Jersey on August 18 , 1862 , just before leaving the 1st Massachusetts and joining the 35th regiment . The Sumner ’ s had two daughters , Minnie Hale , born in 1863 , and Clara Louise , born in 1869 . Carruth farmed and served as a customs official . Sumner died in 1892 in Andover , Massachusetts and was buried in the West Parish Cemetery .