Alexander Bielaski (August 1, 1811 – November 7, 1861) was an engineer and Union Army officer who was killed during the Battle of Belmont during the American Civil War. Born in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire or elsewhere in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Bielaski fought under Polish officer Henryk Dembiński during the November Uprising against the Russians in 1831. After suffering a disfiguring wound at the Battle of Grochów, he immigrated to the United States in 1832 and worked as an engineer and surveyor, including doing work for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Illinois Central Railroad. Bielaski was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, who gave him a commission in the Union Army when the American Civil War broke out in 1861. Serving as an aide to Brigadier General John A. McClernand, Bielaski was killed while leading the 27th Illinois Infantry Regiment in a charge at the Battle of Belmont. Early life Alexander Bielaski was born either in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire or elsewhere in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on August 1, 1811. The modern historian Nathaniel C. Hughes describes him as Polish. Bielaski was trained as a topographical engineer in a Russian military academy at St. Petersburg and entered the Imperial Russian Army as an engineer. He joined the November Uprising, a revolt against the Russian Empire, in 1831. He served in a Polish army under Henryk Dembiński, under whom he once commanded a 300-man rear guard; his unit was wrecked by a Russian attack and Bielaski only returned to Polish headquarters with a single man. He was later shot in the mouth while fighting in the Battle of Grochów. The wound was disfiguring and destroyed several teeth. After the wound healed, Bielaski moved to Paris to work for the French government before immigrating to the United States in 1832. Bielaski entered the United States at Portland, Maine, and entered the railroad industry. When he first reached the United States, he spoke no English, but some French; he eventually gained a proficiency in the use of English. After serving as a surveyor and engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, he traveled to Florida for surveying work in 1835 before moving to Springfield, Illinois, in 1837. That same year, Bielaski befriended Abraham Lincoln. After surveying the Illinois Central Railroad, he was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1841.