James Blair Steedman (July 29, 1817 – October 18, 1883) was an American printer, contractor and lawyer who rose to the rank of general in the Union Army during the Civil War. A printer by trade, as well as a soldier during the Texas War of Independence, Steedman returned to Ohio and later became a delegate in the state’s General assembly as well as President of Public Works, although he lost his campaign to become a U.S. Congressman.
Col. Steedman raised a ninety-day regiment that participated in the early fighting at Battle of Philippi in western Virginia in June 1861. Posted to the Western theater and promoted to brigadier general under Major General Don Carlos Buell, Steedman was credited with saving a whole division from being routed at the Battle of Perryville (Kentucky). At the desperate Battle of Chickamauga (Tennessee), he lent valuable support to General George H. Thomas, and won praise for saving the remaining Union forces after their defeat. He reunited with Thomas at Nashville (December 1864), taking heavy losses at first, but played a big part in the dramatic victory that ended the war in the west.
Steedman and his brigade fought during the Battle of Stones River in December 1862 and into January 1863,[1] with his command a part of Brig. Gen. Speed S. Fry’s division of the renamed Army of the Cumberland, now under the command of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans[3]
Chickamauga
During the Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee in the fall of 1863, Steedman led the vanguard of Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger’s Reserve Corps to Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas’ aid on September 20. From his position north of the battlefield at MacAfee’s Church, Granger heard the sounds of the fight to the south. Without orders from Rosecrans, Granger sent Steedman’s brigade to support Thomas’ last-ditch defensive effort as the rest of Rosecrans’ defeated army raced for Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Steedman moved quickly and arrived about 2:30 p.m., just in time to stop Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s attempt to turn Thomas’s right. Steedman is credited with “performing the most conspicuous act of personal courage recorded by any army officer during the Battle of Chickamauga”[4][5] and preventing Rosecrans’ defeat turning into a Union “disaster.”[1] Military historian Ezra J. Warner stated that “His heroism was virtually the salvation of the Union forces left on the field” at Chickamauga.[6] During the fight, Steedman was wounded when his horse was shot and killed under him.[3]
In late 1863, Steedman participated in the Siege of Chattanooga, as well as the Third Battle of Chattanooga from November 23–25.[2] He remained in Chattanooga, commanding all forces there until May 1864, during which he was promoted to the rank of major general on April 20.[3] Steedman also participated in much of the Atlanta Campaign,[2] and then commanded the District of Etowah in the Department of the Cumberland from June 15 to November 29, and again from January 5, 1865.[3]
Content retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Steedman.