Samuel Wylie Crawford (November 8, 1829 – November 3, 1892) was a United States Army surgeon and a Union general in the American Civil War. He served as a surgeon at Fort Sumter, South Carolina during the confederate bombardment in 1861. He transferred to the infantry early in the war and led a brigade at Cedar Mountain which routed a division that included Stonewall Jackson’s unit, though it was later driven back. He was severely wounded at Antietam and returned to action at Gettysburg, where his division drove the Confederates out of "the valley of Death" beside Little Round Top, with Crawford dramatically seizing the colors and leading from the front. The preservation of the battlefield, however, is largely due to his efforts. During the Battle of Five Forks, his division went astray which caused his corps commander, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, to miss the attack while searching for them – one of the pretexts used by Philip Sheridan for his controversial removal of Warren. Crawford was present for Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 which made him one of the few soldiers to be present at both the beginning and the end of the Civil War. Early life Crawford was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of the Reverend Samuel Wylie Crawford and Jane Agnew. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1846 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1850. He joined the U.S. Army as an assistant surgeon in 1851 and served in that capacity for ten years. Civil War Crawford was the surgeon on duty at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, during the Confederate bombardment in 1861, which represented the start of the Civil War. Despite his purely medical background, he was in command of several of the artillery pieces returning fire from the fort. A month after Fort Sumter, Crawford decided on a fundamental career change and accepted a commission as a major in the 13th U.S. Infantry. He served as Assistant Inspector General of the Department of the Ohio starting in September 1861. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on April 25, 1862, and led a brigade in the Department of the Shenandoah under Major General Nathaniel Banks. The brigade participated in the Valley Campaign but saw no actual combat. Its first taste of battle was during the Northern Virginia Campaign,