Francis C . Barlow Francis Channing Barlow ( October 19 , 1834 – January 11 , 1896 ) was a lawyer , politician , and Union General during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Barlow was born in Brooklyn , New York , the son of a Unitarian minister , but was raised in his mother ' s home town of Brookline , Massachusetts . He studied law at Harvard University , graduated first in his class , and was practicing law on the staff of the New York Tribune newspaper when the Civil War broke out in 1861 . Civil War . In April 1861 , Barlow enlisted as a private in the 12th Regiment , New York State Militia , leaving behind his new bride , Arabella Wharton Griffith Barlow , ten years his senior , after one day of marriage . He was commissioned a first lieutenant in his first month of service . His regiment had only a three - month term of enlistment and he mustered out with his men , but soon found a new regiment . By November he was a lieutenant colonel in the 61st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment , and by the time of the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862 , he became its colonel . Barlow saw his first action at the Battle of Seven Pines as part of the brigade commanded by Brig . Gen . Oliver O . Howard in the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac . At Glendale , in the Seven Days Battles , his regiment became separated from the rest of the brigade ; and he exercised personal initiative by advancing his men to the sound of the fighting , encountering a Confederate battle line and leading his men in a bayonet charge against it . The enemy fled , and Barlow picked up a fallen Confederate flag . At the Battle of Malvern Hill , Barlow and his men successfully defended the line against repeated Confederate assaults . At the Battle of Antietam , commanding the 1st Brigade , 1st Division , II Corps , Barlow ' s men were in the center of fighting at the infamous sunken road ( " Bloody Lane " ) and captured about 300 prisoners . He was wounded by an artillery shell in the face and by grapeshot in the groin . Brig . Gen . John C . Caldwell wrote about Barlow in his official report : Two days after the battle , Barlow was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers . He was an unusual general , slight of build with a peaceful , boyish face , colorless cheeks without a typical general ' s beard , and a thin voice . He dressed informally , often wearing a " checked flannel lumberjack shirt " under an unbuttoned uniform coat . One of General George G . Meade ' s staff officers wrote that he looked " like a highly independent mounted newsboy . " But Barlow had a reputation as an aggressive fighter with strong personal confidence . Rather than carrying the Army - issued officer sword , he wore a heavy enlisted man ' s cavalry saber , which he used to whack the backsides of stragglers . ( His disdain for stragglers became a personal obsession . His columns on the march would be followed by a company in skirmish line with fixed bayonets to move them along . ) Barlow suffered from his Antietam wound for months , becoming emaciated and suffering from what doctors called an " influence of malaria . " Although he was not fully recovered , he returned to the Army in April 1863 and commanded the 2nd Brigade , 2nd Division , XI Corps , at the Battle of Chancellorsville . There , his corps was subjected to the devastating flank attack of Lt . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson that routed it , but Barlow ' s brigade had been detached to support the III Corps and thus escaped the humiliation . After the battle , General Howard promoted Barlow to command of the 1st Division , XI Corps , replacing its wounded commander , with orders to restore the fighting qualities of its defeated brigades . Barlow immediately angered his men by arresting the popular Col . Leopold von Gilsa , and they considered him a " petty tyrant . " In July 1863 , Barlow commanded his unhappy division at the Battle of Gettysburg , where he led them to a defensive position on Blocher ' s Knoll , which is now known as Barlow ' s Knoll . Unfortunately , this slight rise in the terrain was too far forward in comparison to the other XI Corps division , that of Maj . Gen . Carl Schurz ; and Barlow ' s position formed a salient that could be attacked from multiple sides . Maj . Gen . Jubal Early ' s division overwhelmed Barlow ' s division , causing serious losses and Barlow himself was wounded and left for dead on the field . He was found and cared for by Confederate Brig . Gen . John B . Gordon , who sent him to a field hospital . According to an account written by Gordon in 1901 , he allowed Barlow ' s wife Arabella to enter the Confederate camp to tend to her wounded husband , but this account is deemed apocryphal . The popular story continued that Gordon presumed Barlow had died and that both men met years later , being very surprised each was still alive . An examination of Barlow ' s subsequent war record makes this story very unlikely . As the Confederates retreated from Gettysburg on July 4 , Barlow was left behind and recovered by Federal forces . He was hospitalized for a lengthy period and could not return to the Army until April 1864 , just in time for Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ' s Overland Campaign . He commanded the 1st Division of Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock ' s II Corps , at the Battle of the Wilderness . At Spotsylvania Court House , his division incorporated shock tactics developed by Col . Emory Upton to quickly assault the rebel entrenchments in the " Mule Shoe " , effecting a breakthrough that could be exploited by reinforcements . Hand - to - hand fighting ensued for 21 hours , the longest hand - to - hand combat in the entire war , before Barlow ' s division finally broke through . On December 12 , 1864 , President Abraham Lincoln nominated Barlow for the award of the brevet grade of major general , to rank from August 1 , 1864 , for his leadership at the Battle of Spotsylvania , and the U . S . Senate confirmed the award on February 14 , 1865 . He fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg in the same command . At Petersburg , Barlow took another sick leave in July , but he returned to the army on April 6 , 1865 . He took command the 2nd Division , II Corps during the Appomattox Campaign in time for the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek . Barlow was appointed major general of volunteers on May 26 , 1865 , to rank from May 25 , 1865 , but the promotion was not confirmed by the U . S . Senate until February 23 , 1866 , after the war was over and Barlow had resigned from the army . Barlow was one of only a few men who entered the Civil War as enlisted men and ended it as generals . Postbellum life . Arabella Barlow , serving as an Army nurse , died of typhus on July 27 , 1864 , while Francis was battling in the Overland Campaign . After the war , he married Ellen Shaw , sister of Col . Robert Gould Shaw . Leaving the army on November 16 , 1865 , Barlow served as a United States Marshal and the New York Secretary of State and New York State Attorney General , prosecuting the Boss Tweed ring , before he returned to his law practice . As U . S . Marshal for the Southern District of New York , during May – July 1869 Barlow prosecuted Cuban independence rebels for violating the Neutrality Act and disbanded the filibuster expeditions on the Perit , Quaker City , and Whiting steamers . He was a founder of the American Bar Association . He was active in Republican politics and investigated the 1876 presidential election , the Hayes - Tilden election , for irregularities . Barlow died of Bright ' s disease in New York City on January 11 , 1896 . He was buried in Walnut Street Cemetery in Brookline , Massachusetts . In memoriam . Barlow is featured in Winslow Homer ' s painting " Prisoners from the Front " , depicting a scene from a June 21 , 1864 , engagement at Petersburg , Virginia .