Charles Russell Lowell Charles Russell Lowell III ( January 2 , 1835 — October 20 , 1864 ) was a railroad executive , foundryman , and General in the Union Army during the American Civil War . He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek and was mourned by a number of leading generals . Lowell ' s life was first immortalized in a 1907 biography by Edward Waldo Emerson , son of Ralph Waldo Emerson . Early life . Charles Russell Lowell III was born in Boston , Massachusetts . His mother , Anna Cabot Jackson , a daughter of Patrick Tracy Jackson , married Charles Russell Lowell , Jr . , brother of Robert Traill Spence Lowell and James Russell Lowell . Charles Jr . , Robert , and James were sons of Unitarian Minister Charles Russell Lowell , Sr . . Anna wrote verse and books on education . Lowell III graduated as the valedictorian from Harvard College in 1854 , and worked in an iron mill in Trenton , New Jersey , for a few months in 1855 . He spent two years abroad , and from 1858 to 1860 was local treasurer of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad . In 1860 , he took charge of the Mount Savage Iron Works in Cumberland , Maryland . Civil War . Lowell entered the Union Army in June 1861 , and was commissioned as a captain in the 3rd U . S . Cavalry , transferring to the 6th U . S . Cavalry in August . He served as an aide - de - camp to General George B . McClellan during the formation of the Army of the Potomac in the summer and fall of 1861 and continued at McClellan ' s side during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam . In 1863 Lowell recruited and organized the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry , and on May 10 was appointed its colonel . During the winter of 1863 — 1864 , he was in charge of the outer defenses of Washington , D . C . , and was engaged in repelling the raid by Confederate Lt . Gen . Jubal Early that reached the outskirts of the capital . During the Valley Campaigns of 1864 , Lowell commanded a brigade of cavalry in Brig . Gen . Wesley Merritt ' s division of the Cavalry Corps of Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan ' s army . He distinguished himself at Third Winchester and took a leading role in the Confederate rout at Tom ' s Brook . He was mortally wounded during the Union counterattack at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19 , 1864 . General Sheridan interceded to ensure that he was promoted to brigadier general on that day . He died on the next day at Middletown , Virginia , at the age of 29 . He is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery , Cambridge , Massachusetts . Lowell was nominated as a brigadier general two days after his death . Since he was unable to sign his new commission after his death , Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton authorized an exception allowing the posthumous promotion to become official . Upon hearing of his death , General George Armstrong Custer wept and Sheridan remarked " I do not think there was a quality which I could have added to Lowell . He was the perfection of a man and a soldier . " In October 1863 , Lowell had married Josephine Shaw ( 1843 — 1905 ) , sister of his close friend Colonel Robert Gould Shaw ( 1837 — 1863 ) . Her home when she was married was on Staten Island , and she became deeply interested in the social problems of New York City . She was a member of the State Charities Aid Society , and from 1876 to 1889 was a member of the New York State Board of Charities , being the first woman appointed to that board . She founded the Charity Organization Society of New York City in 1882 , and wrote " Public Relief and Private Charity " ( 1884 ) and " Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation " ( 1893 ) . They had one daughter , Carlotta Russell Lowell ( November 30 , 1864 — September 19 , 1924 ) .