at Trevillian Station, he captured a large force of Confederates with a brilliant cavalry charge. On July 8, 1864, Alger was severely wounded pursuing the enemy at Boonesborough, Maryland. Alger resigned from the army on September 20, 1864. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Alger for the award of the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from June 11, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 12, 1866. On February 28, 1867, President Johnson nominated Alger for the award of the grade of brevet major general of volunteers to rank from June 11, 1865, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 2, 1867. In 1868, he was elected the first commander of the Michigan department of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1889, he became the Grand Army's National Commander-in-Chief. He was also a member of the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Lumber baron After the Civil War, Alger settled in Detroit as head of Alger, Smith & Company and the Manistique Lumbering Company. His holdings included a great pine forest on Lake Huron covering over and producing more than of lumber per annum. In order to transport the lumber, Alger led his company to create the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad, of which Alger served as president. After clear cutting forests in the lower peninsula, his lumber companies acquired land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan including Kingston Plains, just south of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. These bleak stump plains have resisted 90 years of reforestation efforts.<ref>Geology and Landscape of Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Vicinity” William L. Blewett, Wayne State University Press, 2012</ref> Alger made a fortune logging the area which he used to propel himself to governor of Michigan. At the turn of the 20th century, he and Florida landowner Martin Sullivan established the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company, which milled lumber in Foshee, Alabama and Century, Florida. Political activism Alger was active in politics as a Republican. In 1866, he was a delegate to the party's Wayne County convention and its state convention. In the late 1860s, Alger was a leader of the Boys in Blue, an organization of Union veterans formed to support Republican Party policies and candidates. In October 1872, Alger was a vice president of the committee that organized a Republican campaign