biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1813–64)
|
| biography:
| US soldier, born in Cornwall, Connecticut, USA. He trained at West Point (1837), and saw considerable action in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and in the West. A brigade, division, and finally corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, he fought on the Virginia Peninsula and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Highly popular with the troops, he was known as Uncle John. He was killed by a sharpshooter at Spotsylvania on 9 May 1864. West Point cadets in danger of failing traditionally twirl the rowels of the spurs on his statue there to guarantee passing their exams. |
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