James Deering Fessenden [SEP] conflict
James Deering Fessenden
James Deering Fessenden (September 28, 1833 – November 18, 1882) was a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the state of Maine who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Primarily a staff officer and operations planner until the latter stages of the war, he commanded an infantry brigade in the Western Theater in 1864 and 1865. In 1862, he organized in South Carolina what became one of the first black regiments in the Federal army. He was a member
James Deering Fessenden, and the Major-General Francis Fessenden, the latter of whom wrote a two-volume biography of his father, "The Life and Services of William Pitt Fessenden," which was published in 1907. A fourth son, William Howard Fessenden, stayed in Maine to take care of the law practice his father had established. Their fifth child was Mary Elizabeth Deering Fessenden who died in childhood. 
Actress Beverly Garland is his great-great-granddaughter who dropped her real name Fessenden and went by her