Hiram Burnham Hiram Burnham ( 1814 – September 29 , 1864 ) was an officer in the Union Army who commanded a regiment and then a brigade in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War . He was killed in battle while assaulting Confederate positions near Richmond , Virginia , during the Battle of Chaffin ' s Farm . Early life and career . Hiram Burnham was born in Narraguagus , later Cherryfield , Maine , in 1814 . He formed and led a militia company as its captain in the Aroostook War of 1839 . He subsequently worked as a lumberman and owned a sawmill . Active in local politics , he held public office as a county commissioner and a coroner . Burnham is described as a burly man with a strong voice , able to make himself heard on a battlefield . He was born in Machias , Maine the son of John & Elizabeth ( Libby ) Burnham . He moved to Cherryfield in the early 1830s . Civil War . Service in the Army of the Potomac . Early in the war Burnham became lieutenant colonel of the 6th Maine Infantry on July 16 , 1861 . He was promoted to the rank of colonel on December 12 of that year . He served with the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsula Campaign , starting out in Brig . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock ' s brigade in a division of the IV Corps under Brig . Gen . William F . Smith . This division later became part of the VI Corps . At the Battle of Crampton ' s Gap and the Battle of Antietam , Burnham led his regiment in the 1st Brigade , 2nd Division , VI Corps under Hancock . He led the same regiment under Brig . Gen . Calvin E . Pratt at the Battle of Fredericksburg , where the brigade was only lightly engaged . In 1863 , a " Light Division " of VI Corps , composed of five regiments , was organized under General Pratt . It was to be able to move rapidly . Instead of wagons , supplies were to be carried on mules . However , Pratt resigned his post and Burnham led the division from May 3 to May 11 , including at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg , where he was wounded , temporarily relinquishing command . The Light Division was among the first VI Corps units to cross the Rappahannock River on May 1 , 1863 to draw Confederate attention away from the main crossing points of the Army of the Potomac upstream . The Light Division made up the rightmost column in Maj . Gen . John Sedgwick ’ s attack on Marye ’ s Heightson May 3 . Although Burnham spoke " cheerfully " to his troops before they attacked , casualties were heavy — an estimated 30 % . Burnham ' s Light Division was the right flank anchor of Sedgwick ' s line when VI Corps stood on the defensive during the later stages of the Battle of Salem Church . Only lightly engaged , Burnham was able to send two regiments to help repel a Confederate attack on the left flank . The 6th Maine of Burnham ' s command was one of the rearguard units when the corps retreated across the Rappahannock River . The Light Division was dissolved after the Battle of Chancellorsville , and Burnham ' s regiment joined the 3rd Brigade , 1st Division , VI Corps under Brig . Gen . David Allen Russell . In that capacity he was present in reserve behind Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg . A monument to the regiment stands on Howe Avenue behind the Round Top . Service in the Army of the James . Burnham was absent from Russell ’ s brigade at the beginning of the Overland Campaign . Having been promoted to the rank of brigadier general on April 26 , 1864 , he was assigned command of a brigade in the first Division of the XVIII Corps , Army of the James on April 28 of that year . General Burnham led the brigade until July 31 , and then again from September 27 to September 29 during the Siege of Petersburg . He commanded the 1st Division briefly in between . Burnham was killed at the Battle of Chaffin ' s Farm on September 29 , 1864 . His brigade had routed Confederate skirmishers from a cornfield on the Varina Road and pursued toward the Confederate earthworks . In preparation for the planned assault on Fort Harrison , the division ’ s commander , Brig . Gen . George J . Stannard , deployed Burnham ’ s brigade in the front of his column . Burnham was hit in the intestines by a bullet shortly after his brigade penetrated into the fort . He died shortly thereafter . General Burnham was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Cherryfield . The U . S . Army renamed the captured Fort Harrison as Fort Burnham in his honor .