Robert Alexander Cameron Robert Alexander Cameron ( February 22 , 1828 – March 15 , 1894 ) was an American soldier and newspaper publisher . He served as a Union general during the American Civil War . During the war he was made a brigadier general and after the war was appointed a brevet major general . After the war he was heavily involved in developing farms in the U . S . state of Colorado . Early life and career . Cameron was born in Brooklyn , New York . He moved with his parents to Valparaiso , Indiana in the early 1842 , where he attended the local public schools . Cameron graduated from Indiana Medical College in 1849 , and also attended Rush Medical College in Chicago , however he soon gave up his medical studies . In 1857 , Cameron bought and began publishing the Valparaiso " Republican " , a local newspaper . He also served as a Republican delegate to their 1860 convention in Chicago , supporting the campaign of Abraham Lincoln for U . S . President . Civil War service . When the American Civil War began , Cameron was a doctor in practice at Valparaiso and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives . He enlisted in the 9th Indiana , a three month regiment , and was elected captain on April 23 , 1861 . With the 9th , Cameron saw service in the Western Virginia Campaign s . After those three months were up , Cameron re - enlisted for the duration of hostilities and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 19th Indiana Infantry on July 29 . In September 1861 , Cameron and the 19th Indiana fought in a skirmish at Chain Bridge , one of the bridges over the Potomac River leading into Washington , D . C . After the action Col . Solomon Meredith , Cameron ' s brigade commander , thought highly of his performance , stating that he " rode the lines giving orders and maintaining a calmness that was not even shattered when the concussion of a shell brought his horse to its knees . " Despite this praise , Cameron was not able to get along with Meredith , and asked Indiana governor Oliver Morton to be removed from the 19th and assigned elsewhere . His request would be granted early in the following year . On February 3 , 1862 , Cameron was transferred to the 34th Indiana , and Cameron and the 34th fought in Missouri at the action near New Madrid and the following Battle of Island Number Ten that February to April . He also participated in the capture of Memphis , Tennessee , on June 6 . Cameron was then promoted to colonel and given command of the 34th , both on June 15 . With his regiment Cameron participated in the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign , where he was slightly wounded in his eyes during the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1 . Cameron was promoted to brigadier general in the Union Army on August 11 , 1863 . After several stints of brigade command in late 1863 and 1864 , he led a division of the XIII Corps during the 1864 Red River Campaign . During the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana on April 8 , Cameron ' s men attempted to reinforce the crumbling Union line around 5 p . m . , but were forced back when it finally broke near 6 p . m . Cameron finished the war in district command in the Department of the Gulf at Thibodaux , Louisiana . On March 13 , 1865 , he was appointed a brevet major general in the Union Army , and he resigned his commission soon after on June 22 . Postbellum . Following the war , Cameron headed to the Western United States and was active in establishing farm colonies in Colorado , and was also prominent in the politics and the economic development of the former territory . In 1870 Cameron was influential in founding of Greeley , and was elected president of Greeley ’ s board of trustees in 1871 . He was lured away by William Jackson Palmer to become superintendent of a new colony , which later would grow into the city of Colorado Springs . Cameron also took part in an attempt to establish Fort Collins . Cameron then moved to San Francisco , California , where he stayed there for few years before returning to Colorado to serve as a postal clerk in Denver . From 1885 – 87 , he served as warden of Colorado State Penitentiary . In the spring of 1894 Cameron died on his farm near Cañon City , Colorado , and is buried there . Legacy . Camerons Cone is located in Pike National Forest , about from Colorado Springs , Colorado , and was named for Robert Alexander Cameron . When originally dedicated , the summit was called Cameron ' s Cone .