Eliakim P . Scammon Jacob Scammon ( December 27 , 1816 – December 7 , 1894 ) was a career officer in the United States Army , serving as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Scammon , a native of Whitefield , Maine , was appointed from his district to the United States Military Academy in West Point , New York , graduating 9th in the Class of 1837 . He remained at West Point after graduation , serving as Assistant Professor of Mathematics from August 1837 to September 1838 . Due to his ranking and abilities , he was selected as one of the original officers in the newly created U . S . Army Corps of Topographic Engineers in 1838 . He served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican - American War , serving under Winfield Scott in the Army of Occupation . He was elevated to captain in 1853 and assigned to various surveying assignments , but was dismissed from the service on June 4 , 1856 . He moved to Ohio and became Professor of Mathematics at Mount Saint Mary ' s College , and then was President and Professor of Mathematics , Polytechnic College of the Catholic Institute in Cincinnati . He had converted to Catholicism in 1846 . Civil War service . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Scammon offered his services to William Dennison , the Governor of Ohio in June 1861 and was appointed as Colonel of the 23rd Ohio Infantry , commanding two men who would later become Presidents , Rutherford B . Hayes and William McKinley . The regiment saw action in western Virginia and then in the northern part of the state . Assigned to what became the IX Corps in the Army of the Potomac , Scammon then commanded the 1st Brigade , Kanawha Division . During the Maryland Campaign , he led his men in an attack up the slopes of South Mountain . When Brig . Gen . Jacob D . Cox briefly assumed command of the IX Corps , Scammon temporarily commanded the Kanawha Division , while Col . Hugh Ewing commanded Scammon ' s brigade . He fought well at the Battle of Antietam , where his men were counterattack ed by late - arriving Confederate reinforcements under A . P . Hill . Scammon was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in October 1862 , and fought in the major actions of the Kanawha Division . He often clashed with his subordinate , Rutherford B . Hayes . Scammon , by then a division commander , was captured by partisan guerrillas from the 16th Virginia Cavalry on February 3 , 1864 , when they raided a steamboat carrying General Scammon on the Kanawha River . He returned to duty in South Carolina after being exchanged . He was again captured along the South Carolina coast , but exchanged and when he returned to duty , was placed in command of a brigade in the Department of Florida . He was honorably mustered out in August 1865 . Postbellum career . Following the war , he was the U . S . Consul to Prince Edward Island and then Professor of Mathematics at Seton Hall College in New Jersey . Bowdoin College in Maine conferred the honorary Degree of A . M . on Scammon . Scammon died in New York City . He was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City , New York . His brother , Jonathan Young Scammon , became one of the wealthiest men in America as a Chicago attorney , newspaper owner , philanthropist and businessman . Another brother , Charles Melville Scammon is a famous whaleman , naturalist and author of " Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America " ( 1874 ) .