William Wallace Burns William Wallace Burns ( September 3 , 1825 – April 19 , 1892 ) was a career American soldier who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War , reaching the rank of brigadier general in the volunteer army . He was among the commanders of the famed Philadelphia Brigade . Birth and early years . Burns was born in Coshocton , Ohio , son of future U . S . congressman Joseph Burns and a distant relative of George Washington through his mother ' s family . He entered the United States Military Academy in 1842 and graduated 28th in his class in 1847 , a year late due to failing English as a freshman . He accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry and served in the Mexican - American War without seeing any combat . He was then assigned to various army posts in the Old West and Southwest , marrying in Arkansas in 1849 . He served on recruiting duty in Philadelphia from 1854 – 1856 and then as a regimental Quartermaster in Florida during the Third Seminole War ( 1856 – 1857 ) . After the conclusion of that conflict , Burns was part of an expedition sent to Utah in 1857 to quell Mormon unrest . In 1858 , he accepted a staff commission to serve as Chief Commissary of Subsistence for Albert Sidney Johnston , with the rank of captain . Civil War . Burns was stationed at Fort Smith , Arkansas when the war began , narrowly avoiding capture when that place fell to Confederate militia forces on April 23 , 1861 . He returned to Ohio after the fort ' s capture and was quickly appointed as Chief of Commissary on the staff of Major General George B . McClellan in May 1861 . Burns served in that capacity during McClellan ' s successful campaign in western Virginia that summer , and was promoted to the Regular Army rank of Major in August 1861 . However , Burns wanted a combat command ; he got his wish that fall , receiving a promotion to Brigadier General of Volunteers in September , and being placed in command of the Philadelphia Brigade in October , after the death of their previous commander at the battle of Ball ' s Bluff . Burns commanded the Philadelphia Briagde for just over a year ( October 1861 - November 1862 ) , most notably during McClellan ' s Peninsular Campaign in the spring and summer of 1862 . He led the brigade in a pivotal role at the battle of Savage Station ( June 29 ) , a rear - guard action fought to protect the Army of the Potomac as it retreated away from Richmond . Despite receiving a painful facial wound , Burns and his brigade successfully drove off a Confederate attack and allowed the Union withdrawal to continue without interference . His brigade played another important role in the battle of Glendale on the following day , fending off a Confederate attack that had already routed one Union division , and helping to prevent the strung - out Union army from being cut in half . Perhaps his greatest contribution to history occurred earlier in the campaign ; during the battle of Fair Oaks ( May 31 ) , Burns had ordered his men to assist an artillery battery that had gotten stuck on a rickety plank bridge over a flooded river . Burns ' men helped move the cannon off the bridge and through the mud on the other side , allowing the battery to be in place in time to play a significant role in driving off the last Confederate attack of the day . Even more importantly , a shot fired by that battery severely wounded Confederate General Joseph E . Johnston , who was replaced after the battle by Robert E . Lee . Burns ' facial wound grew infected , causing him to miss several months of fighting as he recuperated . He served as a division commander during the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 , afterwards he moved on to the Western theater , believing that he was going to be promoted to Major General and receive a corps command in the Army of the Cumberland under William S . Rosecrans . Unfortunately , Burns ' promotion was never approved by Congress , and he could not take command of a corps without it . Burns believed that his promotion had been deliberately blocked by Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton , as punishment for being a strong supporter of General McClellan , a man Stanton despised ( no evidence has yet been found that Stanton ever did this ) . Despite pleas from friends to not act rashly , Burns decided to take his case directly to President Abraham Lincoln ; he submitted his resignation as a general in the Volunteer army to Lincoln , hoping that the president would turn it down and force Stanton to allow his promotion . Instead , Lincoln accepted Burns ' resignation without comment , forcing him to return to his career in the Commissary department . He never commanded troops in combat again , and he never got his promotion to Major General . Later he became chief commissary officer of the Department of the Northwest and during the last part of the war was chief commissary of the Department of the South . He briefly served as the military mayor of Charleston , South Carolina in 1868 . He received the brevet of brigadier general in 1865 and was on duty in the Commissary Department at Washington until 1889 , when he retired , with the Regular Army rank of colonel . He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery .