William Starke Rosecrans (grave 1862)- 38.8737488, -77.0712204

Rosecrans graduated in 1842 from West Point where he also served as a faculty member before leaving the military to pursue a career in civil engineering. At the start of the Civil War he achieved early success in western Virginia at the Battle of Rich Mountain. In 1862 in the Western Theater, he won the battles of Iuka and Corinth while under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant. A rift occurred between Rosecrans and Grant which would last for the rest of the war over Rosecrans perceived lack of support from Ord at Iuka and Grant’s perception that Rosecrans had performed poorly in allowing Price’s Confederate forces to escape. As commander of the Army of the Cumberland he defeated Braxton Bragg at Stones River and subsequently maneuvered him out of Middle Tennessee during the Tullahoma Campaign. His strategic movements caused Bragg to abandon the critical city of Chattanooga. Rosecrans’ pursuit of Bragg ended during the bloody Battle of Chickamauga where he was defeated. Besieged in Chattanooga, Rosecrans was relieved of command by Grant and reassigned to command the Department of Missouri, where he opposed Price’s Raid. 

Jonathan Letterman– grave 1869

Surgeon general of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, Major Letterman has been called “the father of battlefield medicine”. He established the Ambulance Corps and implemented procedures and techniques that are still used today.

John Henry Upshur– grave 1883

Unlike his cousin Robert E. Lee, John Henry Upshur stayed with the Union military during the Civil War, resisting family pressure to join the Confederacy. He was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the capture of forts Clark and Hatteras at Hatteras Inlet in 1861, which opened the North Carolina sounds to Union forces. Upshur was executive officer of the Wabash during the Battle of Port Royal Sound in South Carolina. He also commanded four boats in Commander C. R. P. Rodgers’s expedition in the inland coastal waters in the vicinity of Port Royal and Beaufort, South Carolina. Promoted to lieutenant commander in July 1862, Upshur served in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in charge of the USS Flambeau from 1862 to 1863, during operations against Charleston. He returned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in time for the abortive joint expedition against Fort Fisher in December 1864. Upshur was in the expedition which finally carried the Southern works guarding Wilmington in mid-January 1865. He commanded the squadron flagship USS Minnesota from 1863 to 1864 and the steamer USS A.D. Vance from 1864 to 1865.

Daniel Sickles (grave 1906)- 38.8733, -77.0712, on the opposite side of the street from those above at the top of the hill.

Sickles was a Medal of Honor Recipient, a US Congressman, and a US Diplomat. He was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, where he served from 1857 to 1861. While in Congress, he shot and killed Philip Barton Key (the son of Francis Scott Key) for having an affair with his wife. In the subsequent trial, he was the first person in American Judicial history to plead temporary insanity, and was acquitted. His lawyer was future Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. With the onset of the Civil War, he raised a brigade of New Yorkers, that became known as the “Excelsior Brigade”. He was commissioned Brigadier General, United States Volunteers on September 3, 1861. His command fought in the Peninsular Campaign, the Battle of Second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. Now a Major General in early 1863 he was given command of the Army of the Potomac’s III Corps, which he led at the Battle of Chancellorsville. At the Battle of Gettysburg, his III Corps was stationed in the Little Round Top area. Without orders, General Sickles extended his battle line forward to Emmitsburg Road, believing it to be a better position, which it was not. Confederate General James Longstreet’s Army of Northern Virginia Corps subsequently attacked and crushed the Union salient, causing the III Corps to lose fully half its numbers. During the battle, General Sickles’ right lower leg was amputated after being mangled by a twelve-pound cannonball while in his headquarters next to the Trostle Farmhouse Barn. His personal bravery during the battle earned him the Medal of Honor. He gave his severed leg to the US Army Medical Corps, and it is displayed in the Army Medical Museum. Meade was infuriated with Sickles’ battlefield actions and the two men remained at odds until Meade’s death in 1872. After being wounded, he never again held field command, yet remained in the military in non-combat related positions. After the war he served as a diplomat to Colombia, Minister to Spain, and a Congressman, representing New York’s 10th district in the House of Representatives. His last years were spent in involvement in Veterans issues. Upon his death he left an estate of only $500 and his Fifth Avenue home.

Isaac D. DeRussy– grave 1856

He began his service as a Second Lieutenant with the 1st United States Infantry and by the end of the Civil War was a Captain. He participated in the siege of Corinth in May and June of 1862 and was breveted Major in 1865 for faithful and meritorious service during the war.