William McEntyre Dye William McEntyre Dye ( 1831 – 1899 ) was a soldier from the United States who served in military capacities around the world . He became a brevet general in the Union Army during the American Civil War , a colonel in the Egyptian army and military adviser to the King of Korea . Civil War . Dye was born in Washington , Pennsylvania in 1831 and was appointed to West Point in 1849 . He graduated in 1853 as a 2nd lieutenant in the 4th U . S . Infantry . By 1859 he was the regimental quartermaster . When the Civil War began in 1861 , Dye was a captain in the U . S . Army . However he accepted a commission as colonel of the 20th Iowa Infantry Regiment on August 25 , 1862 . In 1862 Colonel Dye commanded the 2nd Brigade , 2nd Division of the Army of the Frontier . Dye led the brigade at the battle of Prairie Grove where his division was under the overall command of Brig . Gen . Francis J . Herron . The following year , Dye returned to command of his regiment and was part of Herron ' s division of reinforcements sent to aid the Union army besieging Vicksburg . After the fall of Vicksburg , Dye commanded various brigades in the Department of the Gulf . He was in command of a brigade during the Battle of Brownsville . In May 1864 he was brevetted colonel in the U . S . Army for his service in the Red River Campaign . He led his regiment in the attack on Fort Morgan during the battle of Mobile Bay . For the next year he served in the Reserve Corps in the Department of the Gulf . Once again he led his regiment into battle around Mobile , this time at the battle of Fort Blakely . He was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers dated March 13 , 1865 and brevetted colonel U . S . A . on April 9 , 1865 for services at Mobile , Alabama . His last service in the volunteer army was as the Exchange Agent for POW s in the Military Division of West Mississippi . Egyptian Army . General Dye was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 8 , 1865 . On Jan 14 , 1866 he was promoted to major of the 4th U . S . Infantry but in 1870 he was unassigned and discharged from the U . S . Army . In 1868 Civil War veteran , Thaddeus P . Mott , won the confidence of Ismail Pasha , the Khedive of Egypt , and encouraged him to use other Civil War veterans to help modernize the Egyptian army . In 1873 Dye travelled to Egypt to become one of several Union and Confederate veterans who offered their service to the Khedive . There Dye received the rank of colonel . General Charles P . Stone was another American veteran in Egypt who now held the rank of major general in the Egyptian army . Stone first suggested Dye to be the American chief - of - staff in the upcoming campaign against Abyssinia . However , Dye refused the appointment as he had no confidence in the Egyptian commander . The position of chief of staff eventually went to General William W . Loring and Dye was appointed assistant chief - of - staff under Loring . At the battle of Gura Dye was wounded in the foot and later was court martialed for hitting another Egyptian officer . The matter remained unresolved and he returned to the United States in 1878 . Dye would write a book about his experience in the Egyptian Army , titled " Moslem Egypt and Christian Abyssinia ; Or , Military Service Under the Khedive , in his Provinces and Beyond their Borders , as Experienced by the American Staff . " It was published in 1880 . Korean government . Upon his return to the U . S . Dye served as the Chief of Police in Washington , DC . In 1888 General Philip H . Sheridan recommended Dye for the position as Chief Military Adviser to the Korean Government under King Gojong . He served the king for the next 11 years , even writing a military treatise in Korean . He returned to the United States in 1899 but died the same year in Muskegon , Michigan .