Charles Woodruff ( general ) Charles Albert Woodruff , ( 1845 – 1920 ) Brigadier General in the United States Army , served in the American Civil War , and the Spanish - American War . Early life . Woodruff was born in Burke , Vermont on April 26 , 1845 . He attended elementary schools in Burke , the Lyndon Institute , and St . Johnsbury Academy . He graduated from Bryant & Stratton College which then had a business college in Burlington , Vermont . Career . He enlisted in the 10th Vermont Infantry at the onset of the Civil War . He served as a private and corporal with that unit until his discharge after the war on August 13 , 1865 . He first enlisted , June 5 , 1862 , in Company A , 10th Vt . Volunteers . He was promoted to corporal June 3 , 1863 . He was promoted to second lieutenant 117th infantry United States Colored Troops . He never mustered because of wounds received while serving in the 3d and 6th corps of the Army of the Potomac . He had been slightly wounded three times at Cold Harbor , Virginia , June 1 , 1864 . He was captured and escaped the same night . He was severely wounded June 3 , 1864 , and never rejoined his company . He was discharged for disability caused by wounds , August 18 , 1865 . In 1867 he was appointed to West Point Military Academy . He graduated 11th in his class in 1871 . He served from 1874 until 1878 with the Seventh Infantry , the unit to which he was assigned as a second lieutenant upon graduating from West Point . In 1890 he was cited for gallantry in action during the engagement at the Battle of the Big Hole in Montana during the Indian campaign of 1877 . He served on frontier duty in Montana . He was in charge of a mounted detachment from May , 1872 , to August , 1873 . He was in command of reconnaissance in the Washington Territory from August to October , 1873 . He was acting assistant adjutant - general District of Montana , and acting regimental adjutant July , August , and September , 1874 ; in command of company , Judith Basin County , Montana , June to October , 1875 . He was adjutant of battalion in the Indian campaigns of 1876 and 1877 ; with General John Gibbon ' s command that rescued survivors of Custer ' s command . He was severely wounded three times at Big Hale , Montana , August 9 , 1877 . He was promoted to first lieutenant August 9 , 1877 . He was appointed captain and commissary of subsistence March 28 , 1878 . He was in the office of commissary general to August , 1878 ; depot commissary , Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , to October , 1879 . He was acting chief commissary , and acting assistant adjutant - general Department of Missouri summer 1879 . He was chief commissary officer in the District of New Mexico in Santa Fe until November , 1884 . He was acting assistant adjutant - general and acting engineer officer at different times . He was the chief commissary for the Department of the Columbia , and depot and purchasing commissary Vancouver Barracks , Washington , to August , 1889 . He was acting assistant adjutant - general , acting judge advocate of department , acting ordnance officer , and acting signal officer for several months ; in the field with General Gibbon , suppressing riots against the Chinese . He was purchasing and depot commissary officer , San Francisco , California , until March , 1894 . He was promoted to major and commissary of subsistence December 27 , 1892 . He was the assistant to the Commissary General , Washington , D . C . , from March , 1894 . As a major , he spoke before a California chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic . They printed ten thousand copies of his oration , on " American Patriotism " for general distribution to the public . He retired in 1903 . Personal . He married Louise Virginia Duff . They had three sons and two daughters . The sons . James , Edwin and Charles , all served in the US Army . James became a Major General . One daughter , Genevieve , married Malin Craig , who became a General and US Army Chief of Staff . Death . Death was attributed to heart disease . He was 75 . He died in Berkeley , California , August 12 , 1920 .