Alfred N . Duffié Alfred Napoléon Alexander Duffié ( May 18 , 1833 – November 8 , 1880 ) was a French - American soldier and diplomat who served in the Crimean War and the American Civil War . Early life and career . Duffié was born in Paris . Several claims about his early life seem to be untrue : that he graduated from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint - Cyr , that he fought in the Austrian War of 1859 , that he was awarded the Legion d ' Honneur though he wore it in several photographs , or that his father was a count . It is known that Duffié joined France ' s Imperial Cavalry in 1852 , being assigned to the 6th Dragoon regiment . As a member of this unit , he served during the Crimean War , seeing action at the Battle of Balaclava and the Battle of Chernaya River . He proved to be a skilled non - commissioned officer and rose through the ranks . In 1859 , Duffié earned a commission as a sub - lieutenant with the 3rd Hussar cavalry regiment . However , for unclear reasons , he soon resigned his commission and left France for the United States . For leaving the army before his resignation was accepted , Duffié was charged with desertion and sentenced " in absentia " to ten years of imprisonment . After coming to the United States he married into a prominent New York family , making his new home on Staten Island . Civil War . When the American Civil War broke out , Duffié enlisted in the Union Army . He first joined the 2nd New York Cavalry ( also known as the Harris Light Cavalry ) , on August 9 , 1861 , and was soon promoted to the rank of captain . The somewhat quarrelsome Duffié was placed under arrest several times for confrontations with other officers ; in one incident , he challenged General Fitz John Porter to a duel . In July 1862 Duffié was appointed to command the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry , with the rank of colonel , by that state ' s governor , William Sprague IV . Though the 1st Rhode Island ' s officers initially refused to serve under a foreign - born leader , Duffié soon won them over and reorganized the 1st into a fine fighting unit . Assigned to the command of General William Averell , they saw action against Confederate troops under Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson in August 1862 , in fighting near Cedar Mountain , Virginia . At the Battle of Kelly ' s Ford in March 1863 Duffié ordered a charge , against Averell ' s orders to keep on the defensive , which forced the opposing cavalry into retreat . When the Union cavalry was reorganized under Alfred Pleasonton , Duffié was promoted to divisional command . On June 9 , 1863 , Duffié ' s division was assigned to the left wing of an intended assault on the Confederate cavalry , but initially lost its way , putting them behind schedule . Meanwhile , the Union right wing had opened the Battle of Brandy Station . Arriving on the field , Duffié was ordered toward the town of Stevensburg ; there his division was halted by a smaller Confederate force . As a result , he was demoted back to regimental command . On June 17 , 1863 he led the 1st Rhode Island on a reconnaissance mission toward Middleburg , Virginia . There he came close to capturing Confederate cavalry commander J . E . B . Stuart ; after his narrow escape , Stuart returned to Middleburg and inflicted a decisive defeat on Duffié ' s regiment , only 61 members of the 1st Rhode Island got back to the Union lines . Relinquishing his command , Duffié returned to Washington , D . C . . Though he received a promotion to the rank of brigadier general on June 23 , 1863 , he would not see active duty again until that fall when he was assigned to raise and train cavalry units in West Virginia . His division of West Virginia volunteers saw action around Lewisburg in December 1863 and as part of General David Hunter ' s 1864 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley . He also took part in operations against Confederate guerrilla leader John S . Mosby , promising to capture the so - called " Gray Ghost " and bring him back to Washington . Instead , it was Duffié who was captured by Mosby ' s men near Bunker Hill , West Virginia , on October 20 , 1864 . Due to this incident General Phillip Sheridan requested that he be dismissed from the army calling him " a trifling man and a poor soldier . He was captured by his own stupidity . " He was sent to prison camp , then paroled on February 22 , 1865 . Duffié was then ordered to Texas for a campaign against Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith , but that campaign ended before he could arrive . Postwar career . On August 24 , 1865 Duffié was mustered out of service and returned to his Staten Island home . He was naturalized as a U . S . citizen in 1867 . In 1869 he was appointed U . S . consul to Cadiz , Spain . It was there , on November 8 , 1880 , that he died from tuberculosis . After his death , some of Duffié ' s former officers from the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry established a subscription toward a monument to their old leader , to be placed in Providence .