Stephen H . Weed Stephen Hinsdale Weed ( November 17 , 1831 – July 2 , 1863 ) was a career military officer in the United States Army . He was killed defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War . Early life and career . Weed was born in Potsdam , New York , the second of four children born to John Kilbourne and Charity Winslow Weed . He was appointed to the United States Military Academy , graduating 27th of 46 students in the Class of 1854 . Among his classmates were ten other future Civil War generals , including Oliver O . Howard and J . E . B . Stuart . He received a brevet rank of second lieutenant and was assigned to the 2nd U . S . Artillery on July 1 , 1854 . He served on frontier duty in Texas . In December , he received his regular rank of second lieutenant in the 4th U . S . Artillery . Two years later , he was promoted to first lieutenant and fought in Florida in the Seminole Wars in 1856 – 57 . He was engaged in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1858 . By now a combat veteran in command of Battery B , 4th U . S . Artillery , he participated in the Utah War , helping restore order to the territory . He saw action again fighting Indians at the Battle of Egan Station in the Nevada Territory on August 11 , 1860 , and at the Battle of Deep Creek on September 6 , 1860 . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Weed was promoted Captain of the newly formed Battery I , 5th U . S . Artillery in May 1861 . He remained at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , training his crews until the spring of 1862 , when they served in the Peninsula Campaign and at Second Bull Run . He commanded his battery during the fierce artillery duel at Antietam . Promoted to command of all the artillery of the V Corps , his guns were in action at the Battle of Fredericksburg . From December 1862 through January 1863 , he was stationed at Falmouth , Virginia . After a short leave of absence , he took part in the Battle of Chancellorsville , commanding the artillery of the 2nd Division , V Corps . On June 6 , 1863 , Weed left the regular army artillery to accept a commission as a brigadier general in the volunteer army . He was assigned command of 3rd Brigade in the 2nd Division , V Corps . At Gettysburg , his brigade went to the relief of Col . Strong Vincent ' s brigade on Little Round Top . His vanguard repelled a Confederate attack that had outflanked Vincent ' s right . Col . Patrick O ' Rorke of the 140th New York Infantry was killed leading that counterattack . Elements of Weed ' s brigade helped move the guns of Lt . Charles E . Hazlett ' s Battery D , 5th United States Artillery to the top of the hill . Weed was mortally wounded in the chest ( possibly by a sharpshooter hidden in Devil ' s Den ) while standing near these guns . His last words were reported as " I would rather die here than that the rebels should gain an inch of this ground . " Lt . Hazlett was killed trying to hear what Weed was saying . Command of the brigade fell to Col . Kenner Garrard of the 146th New York Infantry . According to Tillie Pierce , a young girl from Gettysburg who witnessed the horrors of the battle from the Weikert farm on Taneytown Road just to the east of Little Round Top , Weed died in the Weikert ' s " basement " , which served as the " cellar - kitchen . " Not knowing who the man was , Tillie watched over him briefly while an attending soldier stepped away , whereupon she asked " the wounded soldier " if there was anything she could do for him : " Will you promise to come back in the morning to see me , " he asked . She promised to do so , and , as she got up to leave for the night , Weed reminded , " Now don ' t you forget your promise . " The next morning , she " hastened down to the little basement room , " but " the soldier lay there - - dead . His faithful attendant was still at his side . " As she " stood there gazing in sadness at the prostrate form , the attendant looked up . . . and asked : ' Do you know who this is ? " When she said no , he replied , " This is the body of General Weed ; a New York man . " Weed ' s body was returned home and buried in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp , a village on Staten Island in Richmond County , New York . In memoriam . Redoubt A of the military defenses around Washington , D . C . , was renamed " Fort Weed " in September 1863 in his memory . Following the war , Post # 91 of the Grand Army of the Republic in New York City was named the Stephen H . Weed Post . In 1902 , Army General Orders No . 16 renamed a portion of Fort Wadsworth along The Narrows in New York Harbor as Battery Weed .