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He was promoted to brigadier general on May 12, 1864, and then promoted to major general
of volunteers on October 21, 1865. After the Civil War, he was appointed as colonel of the 40th U.S. Infantry and promoted to brevet major general in March of 1867. He transferred to the 5th Infantry in 1869 and then became a brigadier general in the U.S. Army in 1880, major general in 1890, and lieutenant general in 1900.
While the later years of his career are the most famous, they were built upon his service in the American Civil War. As an officer in the eastern theater of the war, he participated in nearly every major battle of the Army of the Potomac aside from when he was forced to rest to recover from the several wounds he sustained in combat. He was first wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines (May 31, 1862) while he was serving on the staff of Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard and was leading a group of reinforcements from the 61st New York. His bravery in the battle earned him a promotion to lieutenant colonel.
At the bloody Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Miles served as lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York Infantry and then took command when Colonel Francis C. Barlow was seriously injured by enemy artillery fire. Command fell to Miles who led his men in continuing the fight and driving the Confederates back. Later that year, he was wounded in the neck during the Union’s ill- fated struggle to capture Marye’s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862). He remained in command of the 61st for the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863), one of the key battles of his early career. The 61st was part of the Union’s advance and then covered the II Corps’ retreat. He led his men ably and rallied them in the desperate fight against the Confederates on May 2nd and 3rd. Early on the 3rd while riding along his line, Miles was shot in the abdomen by a Confederate Sharpshooter and as he put it “obliged to leave the field.”
Miles wrote in “Serving the Republic,”“While
riding down the line at Chancellorsville one of
the enemy’s bullets struck my metallic belt plate with great force. This caused a slight deviation
as it entered the body. The result was an instant deathly sickening sensation; my sword dropped from my right hand, my scabbard and belt dropped to the left; I was completely paralyzed below the waist. My horse seemed to realize what had occurred; he stopped, turned, and walked slowly back—I holding to the pommel of the saddle with my hands.” Given the nature of his wound and the state of medical treatment of
the time, he was fully expected to die from his wounds. Making matters worse, the Chancellor House to which he was carried caught on fire.
He was then carried to safety again but was still left essentially untreated and was soon sent to Washington to await his death. His elder brother Daniel met him there and took him home. Though
he survived the journey, the young officer was not expected to survive to celebrate his 24th birthday that August. Nevertheless, the bullet and pieces of his fractured hip were extracted two weeks after he was shot. After the surgery, his paralysis faded, and he quickly began to recover. Within weeks,
he returned to the fight to save the Union. It was during this time that he was presented the Model 1860 Staff & Field Officer’s sword in the second lot of this section by the residents of his hometown of Westminster.
Though he attempted to return to his command, he was forced to wait some time longer to
heal and thus did not participate in the fight
at Gettysburg. Instead, he served as an acting brigadier general at Huntington, Pennsylvania. Records indicate he returned to the field as commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, II Corps of the Army of the Potomac on July 31, 1863, with the rank of colonel. His brigade then participated in the campaign in Virginia that fall and winter and then in the Overland Campaign (May-June of 1864). Now a brigadier general,
he led the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of
the II Corps in the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), Spotsylvania Court House (May 9-21, 1864), and Cold Harbor (May 31-June 21, 1864). In July of 1864, he took command of the First Division of the II Corps. He remained aggressive in the later phase of the Siege of Petersburg (June 9, 1864 – March 25, 1865) where he was lightly wounded when a bullet struck his sword and a fragment hit his neck. He continued to press the attack at the Battle of Sutherland Station (April 2, 1865) where his men drove the Confederates back from their line on the right. A few days later at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek (April 6, 1865), his men participated in the last major battle against Robert E. Lee and his famous Army of Northern Virginia and participated in a running battle against Confederate General John B. Gordon’s troops during which Miles later noted his men “made most important captures.” They then continued in the pursuit of Lee. During the smaller Battle of Appomattox Court House (April
9, 1865) that followed, his men helped corner
Lee and finally compel his surrender thus largely bringing the war to a close.
By the end of the Civil War, Miles had risen from
an obscure first lieutenant to a major general
of volunteers and had proven his ability as a military commander. He was placed in command of Fort Monroe in Virginia and thus was left in charge of Jefferson Davis. As the country worked towards reunification, Miles transitioned from the volunteers to the regular U.S. Army and became a colonel. The Bowie knife in the archive signifies the next phase of his career: the Indian Wars.
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