Lysander Cutler Lysander Cutler ( February 16 , 1807 – July 30 , 1866 ) was an American businessman , educator , politician , and a Union Army General during the American Civil War . Early years . Cutler was born in Royalston , Massachusetts , the son of a farmer . Despite objections from his father , he desired a better education than the rudimentary courses he received in the local school , so he studied surveying and then began a career as a schoolmaster . Moving to Dexter , Maine , at the age of 21 , he was forced to confront unruly pupils who had " flogged and ejected " the last several teachers who had attempted to discipline them . Cutler established his reputation by spending his first day in the " thorough flogging of every bully in the school . " Although he received some military experience fighting Indians as a colonel in the Maine militia in the 1830s , the majority of his time before the Civil War was engaged in a variety of business pursuits . He started a woolen mill , a foundry , a flour mill , and a sawmill , becoming very wealthy in the process . Cutler invested in various factories and in tenement housing . He was prominent in civic affairs as a selectman , director of a railroad , trustee of Tufts College , and a member of the Maine State Senate . Cutler ' s woolen mill , built in 1843 , burned to the ground in 1853 , causing him to lose his entire investment . The financial panic of 1856 and depression of 1857 ruined him financially and he decided to leave Maine and moved to Milwaukee , Wisconsin , to restart his career . In Wisconsin , Cutler worked as a claims investigator for a mining company . He was required to make frequent trips into Indian territory , where he was often threatened with ambush and death . The mining company eventually failed , but a grain business that he founded in Milwaukee provided him with a living . Civil War service . 1861 – 62 . In the first summer of the Civil War , Cutler , a respected 54 - year - old businessman and Indian fighter , was commissioned colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry on July 16 , 1861 . This regiment would eventually become one of the units to comprise the famous Iron Brigade . During the fall and winter , he got off to a bad start as a commander , alienating his junior officers by insisting that they pass examinations on military topics , and removing them from command if he was displeased with the results . Many men of the regiment were of recent immigrant status and he sometimes enraged the enlisted men of the company by replacing their officers with men of different national backgrounds ( and sometimes speaking different languages ) . Despite these problems , Cutler was elevated to temporary brigade command in the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac on March 13 , 1862 . Cutler ' s men rejoiced when this temporary position was filled by Brig . Gen . John Gibbon that summer . The regiment ' s first significant action was the Second Battle of Bull Run , where he demonstrated that he was a tenacious fighter . One soldier in his regiment said that he was " rugged as a wolf . " During the fighting against Stonewall Jackson at Brawner ' s Farm , Cutler was severely wounded in the right thigh , causing him to miss the Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Antietam of September 1862 . When Gen . Gibbon was promoted to division command , he recommended that the recuperating Cutler be given command of the Iron Brigade , but Col . Solomon Meredith of the 19th Indiana had better political connections and received the appointment , dismaying Cutler . During the Battle of Fredericksburg in December , however , division commander Maj . Gen . Abner Doubleday placed Cutler in temporary command of the Iron Brigade for a few hours , dissatisfied with what he considered tardy execution of orders by Col . Meredith . After the battle , Cutler was promoted to brigadier general , to rank from November 29 , 1862 . 1863 . In the spring of 1863 , Cutler was given command of the 2nd Brigade , James S . Wadsworth ' s 1st Division , I Corps , which he led at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May , but his unit was only lightly engaged . In the Battle of Gettysburg , Cutler ' s brigade was the first Union infantry on the field on July 1 , 1863 . They were heavily engaged north of the Chambersburg Pike , ( 76th New York , 147th New York , and 56th Pennsylvania ) withstanding multiple Confederate assaults from the divisions of Maj . Gens . Henry Heth and Robert E . Rodes , coming in from the west and north , respectively . The brigade itself had been split earlier by Maj . Gen . John Reynolds , with a demi - brigade ( 14th Brooklyn and 95th New York ) , under the command of Colonel Fowler of the 14th Brooklyn , to engage Brig . Gen . James Archer ' s brigade south of the Chambersburg Pike . By the time the I Corps line broke around 4 p . m . , his brigade had suffered over 50 % casualties . During the frantic retreat through the town of Gettysburg , Cutler had two horses shot out from under him . For the remainder of the three - day battle , Cutler ' s brigade occupied defensive positions on Cemetery Hill and , taking advantage of the entrenchments there , suffered few additional casualties . 1864 – 65 . The Army of the Potomac was reorganized in the spring of 1864 and Cutler was given command of the 1st Brigade , 4th Division , V Corps , on March 25 . After Gen . Wadsworth was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness , Cutler assumed command of the 4th Division on May 6 . He led the division through the rest of the Overland Campaign and into the Siege of Petersburg . At the Battle of Globe Tavern on August 21 , 1864 , he was struck in the face and badly disfigured by a shell fragment and he was forced to leave field command . He spent the remainder of the war as an invalid , administering the draft in Jackson , Michigan . On December 12 , 1864 , President Abraham Lincoln nominated Cutler for appointment to the grade of brevet major general to rank from August 19 , 1864 and the U . S . Senate confirmed the nomination on February 14 , 1865 . Postbellum life . Cutler resigned from the Army on June 30 , 1865 , his health deteriorating rapidly . He died from a stroke , which doctors attributed to complications from his Globe Tavern wounds , in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , and is buried there in Forest Home Cemetery .