Edward Ord Edward Otho Cresap Ord ( October 18 , 1818 – July 22 , 1883 ) was an American engineer and United States Army officer who saw action in the Seminole War , the Indian Wars , and the American Civil War . He commanded an army during the final days of the Civil War , and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E . Lee . He also designed Fort Sam Houston . He died in Havana , Cuba of Yellow fever . Early life and career . Ord was born in Cumberland , Maryland , the son of James and Rebecca Ord . Family tradition made James Ord the illegitimate son of George IV of England and Maria Fitzherbert but he seems likely to have been the son of Ralph Ord , who was baptised at Wapping , Middlesex , in 1757 , the son of John Ord , a factor from Berwick - upon - Tweed . He was considered a mathematical genius and was appointed to the United States Military Academy by President Andrew Jackson . His roommate at West Point was future general William T . Sherman . He graduated in 1839 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U . S . Artillery . He fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida and was promoted to first lieutenant . In January 1847 , he sailed on the steamship " Lexington " around Cape Horn with Henry Halleck and William Sherman . He arrived in Monterey , California , and assumed command of Battery F , 3rd U . S . Artillery , with orders to complete Fort Mervine ( at the site of the former Spanish " presidio " ) , which was renamed Fort Halleck . Its construction was superintended by Lieutenant Ord and his second in command , Lieutenant Sherman . On February 17 , 1865 , the fort was renamed Ord Barracks . ( It is now known again by its original name , the Presidio of Monterey . ) Ord was in California when the gold rush began , with its resultant skyrocketing prices . Since their military salaries no longer covered living expenses , Ord ' s commander suggested that the younger officers take on other jobs to supplement their income . In the fall of 1848 , Ord and Sherman , in the employ of John Augustus Sutter , Jr . , assisted Captain William H . Warner of the U . S . Army Corps of Engineers in the survey of Sacramento , California , helping to produce the map that established the future capital city ' s extensive downtown street grid . Ord also produced a map of the Gold and Quicksilver district of California dated July 25 , 1848 . Later , Los Angeles officials needed to have a survey of the public lands in order to sell them , and Ord was hired as the surveyor . He chose William Rich Hutton as his assistant , and together the two mapped Los Angeles in July and August 1849 . Thanks to the efforts of these two men , historians have a fairly good view of what the Pueblo de Los Angeles looked like at the middle of the 19th century . Lieutenant Ord surveyed the pueblo and his assistant Hutton sketched many scenes of the pueblo and drew the first map from Ord ' s survey . The Los Angeles City Archives has the original map produced by Hutton from Ord ' s survey . Ord was paid $ 3000 for his work on this survey . Ord was promoted to captain in 1850 , while serving in the Pacific Northwest . He married Mary Mercer Thompson on October 14 , 1854 , and they eventually had thirteen children . One of their notable children was Jules Garesche Ord who was killed in action after reaching the top of San Juan Hill in Cuba . He was the officer who started and led the charge which Teddy Roosevelt followed . Another was Edward Otho Cresap Ord , II who was also a United States Army Major who served with the 22nd Infantry Regiment during the Indian Wars , the Spanish – American War and the Philippine - American War . He was also a painter , inventor and poet . In 1859 , while attending artillery school at Fort Monroe , Virginia , Ord was summoned by Secretary of War John B . Floyd to quell John Brown ' s raid on the Harpers Ferry Federal arsenal . However , Col . Robert E . Lee reached Harpers Ferry first , and Colonel Lee telegraphed to Captain Ord that the situation was under control and Ord and his men would not be needed at Harpers Ferry . They were instructed to halt at Fort McHenry in Baltimore . Civil War service . At the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 , Ord was serving as Captain of Battery C , 3rd U . S . Artillery , and also as post commander at the U . S . Army ' s Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory . On May 7 , 1861 , Ord led two companies of the 3rd Artillery from Fort Vancouver to San Francisco . After relocating to the east , Ord ' s first assignment was as a brigade commander in the Pennsylvania Reserves . In this capacity , he figured prominently in the Battle of Dranesville in the fall of 1861 . On May 3 , 1862 , Ord was promoted to the rank of major general of volunteers and , after briefly serving in the Department of the Rappahannock , was assigned command of the 2nd Division of the Army of the Tennessee . Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant sent Ord with a detachment of two divisions along with Maj . Gen . William S . Rosecrans ' s forces to intercept Sterling Price at the town of Iuka . Due to a possible acoustic shadow Ord ' s forces were never engaged and Rosecrans fought alone . Ord likewise missed the fighting at Corinth but engaged the Confederate forces in their retreat at the Battle of Hatchie ' s Bridge . There he was seriously wounded and had to leave field command only for a short time . When Grant relieved Maj . Gen . John A . McClernand from his command , Ord was conveniently situated to assume command of the XIII Corps during the final days of the Siege of Vicksburg . After the fall of Vicksburg , Ord remained in command of the XIII Corps in the Department of the Gulf . In 1864 , he was transferred back to the Eastern Theater to assume command of the XVIII Corps . His forces were present during the Battle of the Crater but did not actively participate in the fighting . In the fall of 1864 he was seriously wounded in the attack on Fort Harrison and did not return to action until January 1865 . In March 1865 , during a prisoner exchange in Virginia , Ord spoke with Confederate General James Longstreet . During their conversation , the subject of peace talks came up . Ord suggested that a first step might be for Lee and Grant to have a meeting . General Longstreet carried this idea back to General Lee , who wrote to Grant about the possibility of a " military convention " in the interest of finding what Lee called " a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties " . Grant forwarded Lee ' s proposal to President Abraham Lincoln , with a request for instructions . In the end , Lincoln directed Grant to decline all such offers unless it was for the explicit purpose of accepting the surrender of Lee ' s army . It was at this time , during the spring of 1865 , that Ord ' s career peaked . He was assigned command of the Army of the James during the Appomattox Campaign . Maj . Gen . John Gibbon ' s corps of Ord ' s army played a significant role in the breakthrough at Petersburg . On April 9 , he led a forced march to Appomattox Court House to relieve Maj . Gen . Philip H . Sheridan ' s cavalry and force Lee ' s surrender . General Sherman said that he " had always understood that [ Ord ' s ] skillful , hard march the night before was one of the chief causes of Lee ' s surrender . " General Ord was present at the McLean house when Lee surrendered , and is often pictured in paintings of this event . When the surrender ceremony was complete , Ord purchased as a souvenir , for $ 40 , the marble - topped table at which Lee had sat . It now resides in the Chicago Historical Society ' s Civil War Room . After Abraham Lincoln ' s assassination on April 14 , 1865 , many in the North , including Ulysses S . Grant , wanted strong retribution on the Southern states . Grant called upon Ord to find out if the assassination conspiracy extended beyond Washington , D . C . Ord ' s investigation determined the Confederate government was not involved with the assassination plot . This helped greatly to quench the call for revenge on the former Confederate states and people . Postbellum . During Reconstruction , Ord was assigned by Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant to command the Army of Occupation , headquartered at Richmond . Subsequently , he was assigned to the Department of the Ohio until he was mustered out of the volunteers in September 1866 . On December 11 , 1865 , he received the commissions of lieutenant colonel and brigadier general in the regular army for the Battle of Hatchie ' s Bridge and brevet major general of volunteers for the assault of Fort Harrison , all dating from March 13 , 1865 . Subsequently , he commanded the Department of Arkansas , the Fourth Military District , and the Department of California . Ord commanded the Department of the Platte from December 11 , 1871 , until April 11 , 1875 , when he was reassigned as the commander of the Department of Texas . He served in that role until his retirement on December 6 , 1880 . While he was stationed in Texas , he supervised the construction of Fort Sam Houston . In January 1872 , Ord was a member of the buffalo hunting excursion with the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia on the plains of southwest Nebraska with American celebrities of the day . They included Philip Sheridan ( second in command of the United States Army ) , Lt . Col . George Armstrong Custer , Buffalo Bill Cody , Wild Bill Hickock , and Texas Jack Omohundro . Ord retired from the army in 1881 with the rank of brevet major general , and at this time , General Sherman wrote of him , " He has had all the hard knocks of service , and never was on soft or fancy duty . He has always been called on when hard duty was expected , and never flinched . " Later in 1881 , Ord accepted an appointment with the Mexican Southern Railroad , owned by U . S . Grant and Jay Gould , as a civil engineer to build a railroad line from Texas to Mexico City . While working in Mexico , Ord contracted yellow fever . He became seriously sick while on his way from Vera Cruz to New York . He was taken ashore at Havana , Cuba , where he died in the evening of July 22 , 1883 . On the occasion of his death , General Sherman said of Ord , " As his intimate associate since boyhood , the General here bears testimony of him that a more unselfish , manly , and patriotic person never lived " . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery ; Ord ' s grave is located just feet from Arlington House , The Robert E . Lee Memorial .