Ulric Dahlgren (April 3, 1842 – March 2, 1864) was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was the son of Union Navy Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren and nephew to Confederate Brigadier General Charles G. Dahlgren. He fought in several key battles in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War and had his leg amputated below the knee after being wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. He returned to military service and was killed in 1864 during the Battle of Walkerton while leading a raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Confederate forces found documents on Dahlgren with orders to free Union prisoners from Belle Isle, burn the city of Richmond and assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. The documents were published in the Richmond newspapers and caused outrage in the South with accusations that the orders came from President Lincoln. Union newspapers claimed the papers were forged and reports of mistreatment of Dahlgren's corpse inflamed public opinion in the North. The controversy became known as the Dahlgren Affair. Early life Dahlgren was born on April 3, 1842 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the second son to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren and Mary Clement Bunker. His uncle, Charles G. Dahlgren, settled in Mississippi and joined the Confederate Army as a general. The family moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1843 and then to Washington, D.C. in 1848. After completing school in 1858, Dahlgren's father instructed him in civil engineering and in 1859, he worked surveying land for his uncle, Charles G. Dahlgren, in Mississippi. In September 1860, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and worked in the law office of another uncle, Jasper W. Paul. American Civil War Dahlgren entered military service in March 1861, and on July 24, 1861, joined the U.S. Navy. He was assigned to an expedition from the Washington Ship Yard to help in the defense of Alexandria, Virginia. He returned to Philadelphia in September 1861 and resumed his legal studies. He was part of a light artillery company in Philadelphia. In May 1862, he was sent to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and placed in charge of a battery of Navy howitzers. On May 29, 1862, Dahlgren was sent back to Washington to obtain ammunition supplies. He visited his father who was meeting with President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton