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Major General James Birdseye McPherson was the highest ranking Union officer to die in the Civil War, killed during the Union advance on Atlanta. Trained as an engineer at West Point (Robert E. Lee was the superintendent), he went on to build coast defenses on the Atlantic and Pacific, and helped with flood control measures in the City of Washington. He was in charge of the engineering efforts that helped Grant capture Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson, and then was granted leave to marry his sweetheart in Baltimore. Grant called him back before he could marry, and gave him command of the Army of Tennessee, and pointed him toward Atlanta. Grant and his fiancee mourned his death.