Charles Griffin (December 18, 1825 – September 15, 1867) was a career officer in the United States Army and a Union general in the American Civil War. He rose to command a corps in the Army of the Potomac and fought in many of the key campaigns in the Eastern Theater. After the war, he commanded the Department of Texas during Reconstruction. He was an ardent supporter of the Congressional policies of the Radical Republicans and of freedmen's rights, and controversially disqualified a number of antebellum state officeholders in Texas, replacing them with loyal Unionists. Early life and career Griffin was born in Granville, Ohio, the son of Apollos Griffin. He attended the nearby Kenyon College in Gambier, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, placing 23rd out of 38 in the Class of 1847. Commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant, he served with the 2nd U.S. Artillery during the final campaign of the Mexican–American War. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1849 and served in the New Mexico Territory against Navajo Indians until 1854, when he left the Southwest frontier. He then taught artillery tactics at West Point, forming an artillery battery from the academy's enlisted men shortly after the Southern states began seceding from the Union. Civil War Captain Griffin led the "West Point Battery" (officially designated as Battery D, 5th U.S. Artillery) at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. He received a brief furlough from the army and married Sallie Carroll, the scion of a prominent Maryland family, on December 10, 1861. Griffin commanded his battery during the early part of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on June 12, 1862, to rank from June 9, 1862, and assigned command of a brigade of infantry. He served with distinction at Gaines's Mill and Malvern Hill. During the Second Battle of Bull Run, his brigade was held in reserve. His men were also lightly engaged at the Battle of Antietam. Griffin's irascibility frequently led to conflict with his superiors, but his leadership abilities brought steady promotion. Assigned command of a division in the V Corps, he served at the Battle of Fredericksburg and during the Chancellorsville Campaign. Stricken with illness, he turned over command of the division to a subordinate and did not accompany it during the early part of the Gettysburg Campaign.