John Mendenhall ( colonel ) John Mendenhall ( July 12 , 1829 – July 1 , 1892 ) was an officer in the United States Army . As a Union Army artillery officer in the American Civil War , his performance was notable at the Battle of Stones River , where his concentration of guns broke the last Confederate attack . Before the Civil War . Mendenhall was born in Indiana , son of Miles and Nancy Mendehall . He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1 , 1847 , graduating on July 1 , 1851 . Mendenhall ' s first assignment was as a brevet second lieutenant of cavalry at the barracks in Carlisle , Pennsylvania . Transferring to the 4th Artillery on February 20 , 1852 , he served at Fort Mifflin , Pennsylvania , 1852 - 1853 . On frontier duty at Ringgold Barracks , Texas , he was promoted to second lieutenant on October 8 , 1853 . After serving in the garrison of Fort Hamilton , New York , 1854 - 1855 , he was on frontier duty at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , 1855 . He was engaged in two skirmishes in 1855 . Mendenhall was at Fort Laramie in Dakota Territory 1855 - 1856 . Promoted to first lieutenant in 1856 , he served in Florida during hostilities with the Seminoles . Lt . Mendenhall was back at Fort Leavenworth during the Bleeding Kansas disturbances of 1857 - 1858 , and once more at Fort Laramie in 1858 . He was in the garrison of Fort Columbus , New York , in 1859 , followed by recruiting service in the same year . He was assigned to the Artillery School for Practice at Fort Monroe , Virginia , from 1859 to the outbreak of the war in 1861 . He was promoted to Captain , 4th Artillery , on July 3 , 1861 . Mendenhall married Sophia Elizabeth Mix ( 1838 - 1895 ) on November 27 , 1858 . War Service . At the outbreak of the war , MG John E . Wool retained Mendenhall to train artillery recruits . Capt . Mendenhall first saw combat commanding batteries H and M of the 4th Artillery in the Army of the Ohio , supporting the division of Brig . Gen . William " Bull " Nelson . At the Battle of Shiloh , on the second day of the battle , April 7 , 1862 , his guns supported Nelson ' s attack on the Confederate lines . Several senior officer , including MG Don Carlos Buell , the army ' s commander , praised Mendenhall and his gunners for outstanding work . For his work at Shiloh , Mendenhall was appointed to the brevet rank of major in the regular army to rank from the day of the battle . He continued in Nelson ' s division during the Siege of Corinth , taking part in a minor fight with the Confederates on May 8 , 1862 . Capt . Mendenhall was chief of artillery to Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Crittenden when he was assigned to collect guns at McFadden ' s Ford to stop an attack by the division of Maj . Gen . John C . Breckinridge on the Union left flank . The guns broke the Confederate attack and relieved the threat to the federal left . Mendenhall was promoted to the rank of major and continued on Crittenden ' s staff . At the Battle of Chickamauga he pulled together another grand battery to resist the Confederate breakthrough on the second day of the battle , but he lost many of these guns . Mendenhall received brevet rank of lieutenant colonel for his role in that battle . Late in the war , Maj . Mendenhall was inspector of artillery of the Department of the Cumberland . By March 1865 , he was commander of the Artillery Reserve of the department , a post he held to the end of the war . Post War . After the war , Mendenhall served in Michigan , the Carolinas , California , Alaska , Massachusetts , Rhode Island , New York , and Connecticut . He served as commander of the Department of Alaska , from June 15 , 1876 , to March 4 , 1877 . He died as colonel of the Second Artillery , while commanding Fort Adams in Newport , Rhode Island , on July 1 , 1892 . He left his widow and three grown sons : Clarence Miles , Theodore John , and Leo Thomas Crittenden . Col . Mendenhall was buried at West Point .