Robert H . Milroy Robert Huston Milroy ( June 11 , 1816 – March 29 , 1890 ) was a lawyer , judge , and a Union Army general in the American Civil War , most noted for his defeat at the Second Battle of Winchester in 1863 . Early life . Milroy was born on a farm near the hamlet of Canton , five miles east of Salem , Indiana , but the family moved to Carroll County in 1826 . He graduated from Norwich Academy in Vermont in 1843 . He moved to Texas in 1845 , returning to Indiana in 1847 . He was a captain in the 1st Indiana Volunteers from 1846 to 1847 . He graduated from $ 3 in 1850 and became a lawyer and judge in Rensselaer , Indiana . Civil War . Just before Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated , Milroy recruited a company for the 9th Indiana Militia with men living around Rensselaer and was appointed its captain soon after Fort Sumter , but on April 27 , 1861 , he was appointed to the Federal service as colonel of the 9th Indiana Infantry . He took part in the western Virginia campaign under Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan and was promoted to brigadier general on September 3 , 1861 . He commanded the Cheat Mountain District of the Mountain Department and served as a brigade commander in the Mountain Department during Stonewall Jackson ' s Valley Campaign of 1862 . Milroy commanded another brigade in Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia for the Second Battle of Bull Run . He was promoted to major general on March 10 , 1863 , to rank from November 29 , 1862 . On May 8 – 9 , 1862 , Milroy led Union forces in the Battle of McDowell against Maj . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson . Milroy ' s " spoiling attack " surprised Jackson , seized the initiative , and inflicted heavier casualties , but did not drive the Confederates from their position . The low point of Milroy ' s military career was during the early days of the Gettysburg Campaign . He commanded the 2nd Division of the VIII Corps , Middle Department , from February 1863 until June . During the Second Battle of Winchester , he was outmaneuvered and " gobbled up " by the Confederate corps of Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell , the vanguard of Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia on its way north to invade Pennsylvania . Although ordered to withdraw his 6 , 900 - man garrison from Winchester , he chose to remain in the face of the Confederate invasion , assuming that the fortifications of Winchester would withstand any assault or siege . General - in - chief Henry W . Halleck never favored this " forward " position , so far from the B & O Railroad , and he wanted Milroy to withdraw his 6 , 900 - man garrison from Winchester . Major General Schenck was seemingly undecided and gave contradicting orders on the evacuation of Winchester , as Milroy convinced Schenck that he could hold Winchester and its extensive fortifications against any Confederate invasion , for months if necessary . Schenck capitulated and left Milroy with a final telegram to wait further orders . The telegraph wire into Winchester was cut by Confederate raiders . As Ewell ' s Confederate Second Corps closed in on Winchester , Milroy was further blinded by the fact that his vedette s and pickets were not extensively placed in the surrounding territory , due to heavy and repeated bushwhacking of his men , and he never realized that an entire Confederate corps was bearing down upon him . Milroy ' s harsh mistreatment of Winchester citizens had been such that even many pro - Unionists had changed their sympathies , serving to further isolate Milroy ' s ability to gather intelligence around him . On June 15 , 1863 , Milroy escaped with his staff , but over 3 , 000 of his men were captured , as were all of his artillery pieces and 300 supply wagons . He was called before a court of inquiry to answer for his actions , but after ten months he was relieved of any culpability for the debacle . After this period of inactivity , Milroy was transferred to the Western Theater , recruiting for Maj . Gen . George Henry Thomas ' s Army of the Cumberland in Nashville in the spring of 1864 . He also commanded the Defenses of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad in the Department of the Cumberland until the end of the war . Although it was not anticipated that this would be a combat assignment , he fought briefly in the Third Battle of Murfreesboro , part of the Franklin - Nashville Campaign in 1864 . Anxious to reduce some of the stigma of Winchester , he ordered the 13th Indiana Cavalry to make a mounted charge directly at an enemy artillery position , assuming that it was only a portion of Maj . Gen . Nathan Bedford Forrest ' s dismounted cavalry . The Hoosiers suffered heavy casualties . When Milroy realized that he was facing not cavalry , but an infantry division of Maj . Gen . Benjamin F . Cheatham ' s corps , he returned to the safety of " Fortress Rosecrans " in Murfreesboro . The following day General Lovell H . Rousseau , commander of all Union forces in the Murfreesboro area , reinforced Milroy with two infantry brigades . Milroy attacked and routed the combined Confederate infantry and cavalry . The battle was " well conducted by Maj . Gen . Milroy " in the words of General Rousseau . Milroy resigned his commission on July 26 , 1865 . Postbellum career . After the war , Milroy was a trustee of the Wabash and Erie Canal Company and , from 1872 to 1875 , he was the superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Washington Territory and an Indian agent for the following ten years . During this time he was active in ensuring that the aging Yakama chief , Kamiakin , would not be evicted from his ancestral land by area ranchers . Robert Milroy died in Olympia , Washington , and is buried in the Masonic Memorial Park at Tumwater , Washington . He is remembered by the people of Rensselaer with a large bronze statue . He was the author of " Papers of General Robert Huston Milroy " , published posthumously in 1965 and 1966 .