Rufus Ingalls Rufus Ingalls ( August 23 , 1818 – January 15 , 1893 ) was an American military general who served as the 16th Quartermaster General of the United States Army . Early life and career . Ingalls was born in the village of Denmark in what is now Maine ( at the time , it was a part of Massachusetts ) . His father Cyrus was a prominent local mill owner and politician who was among those at the Maine constitutional convention in 1819 . Through his father ' s political connections , Rufus Ingalls was appointed to the United States Military Academy , graduating in the Class of 1843 , which included his friend Ulysses S . Grant . Ingalls was brevetted as a Second Lieutenant and assigned to garrison duty in the western frontier . In 1845 , he joined the First U . S . Dragoons with the rank of first lieutenant . Ingalls served in the Mexican - American War in the New Mexico Territory in the Army of the West under Col . Stephen W . Kearny . Ingalls distinguished himself in action at the skirmish at Eabudo and conflict at Pueblo de Taos , for which he received the brevet rank of first lieutenant . He later served in California under Kearny . He became a quartermaster in 1848 and served in that role the rest of his career . Promoted to the rank of captain , he was assigned to duty in the Oregon Territory in 1849 , and then to Fort Vancouver in 1852 , along with Ulysses Grant . There , he joined the local Freemasons . In early 1854 , while on duty in Washington DC , Ingalls was ordered to accompany the Steptoe Expedition from Fort Leavenworth in Kansas across the continent through the Utah Territory to the Pacific Coast . Civil War . With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 , Ingalls was reassigned to duty at Fort Pickens in Florida . He became a major and then a lieutenant colonel in the volunteer army . Shortly after First Battle of Manassas in July , he moved northward to Virginia to serve as aide - de - camp to Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan . He was promoted to the rank of major in January 1862 . Ingalls helped establish effective supply depots for McClellan ' s army during the Peninsula Campaign . He became the Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac in August 1862 following the Peninsula Campaign . He served efficiently during the Northern Virginia and subsequent Maryland Campaign s , winning praise for his logistics skills . In June 1864 , his old friend Ulysses S . Grant placed Ingalls in charge of supply with responsibility for all Federal armies operating against Petersburg and Richmond . In this capacity he built up the huge supply depot at City Point , Virginia . Ingalls won brevets to the rank of major general in both the regular and volunteer services . Postbellum . With the surrender of Robert E . Lee in April 1865 and the subsequent mustering out of much of the Union Army , Ingalls left the City Point depot in May . He returned to Washington , and in July 1866 was given the rank of colonel in the Regular Army . He served in a variety of quartermaster posts for the next two decades in New York City , San Francisco , and Chicago . For sixteen years , he was the chief quartermaster of the Pacific and the Missouri Division . On February 23 , 1882 , he was named as the 16th Quartermaster General of the U . S . Army with the full rank of brigadier general . He retired from the army in 1883 and entered civilian life in Oregon . Ingalls moved to New York City in 1891 , where he died two years later at the age of 74 . He was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery . Honors . Ingalls Street in San Francisco is named for him . Rufus Ingalls was inducted into the Quartermaster Hall of Fame in 1987 .