Truman Seymour was born on September 24, 1824, in Burlington, Vermont. The son of a Methodist minister, Seymour was both an accomplished painter and, primarily, a career soldier. He served in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War, where he rose to the rank of Brigadier General. He commanded the Union troops at the Battle of Olustee on February 20, 1864, the only major Civil War battle fought in Florida.

Seymour attended Norwich University for two years before enrolling at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating in 1846, he was assigned to the U.S. First Artillery.

He served in the Mexican War in 1846. During the war, he was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant for his performance in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco.

After serving in the Mexican War, he was an assistant professor of drawing at West Point from 1850-53 and fought against Seminoles in Florida from 1856-58. He was promoted to Captain on November 22, 1860.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Seymour participated in the defense against the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter, after which he received the brevet of Major.

Major Seymour commanded the U.S. Fifth Artillery and the U.S. Camp of Instruction at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from December 1861 to March 1862. Then he was Chief of Artillery for General George McCall’s division from March 6, 1862 until July 25, 1862. He became a Brigadier General of Volunteers on April 28, 1862.

General Seymour served in the Army of the Potomac’s Fifth Corps during the Peninsula Campaign of April-July 1862. He commanded the left wing at Mechanicsville on June 26 and led a division at Malvern Hill on July 1. He was also present at Gaines’ Mill on June 26.

General Seymour performed well at the battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam in the latter half of 1862, especially in his brigade’s capture of Turner’s Gap, Maryland, on September 14th. He received the brevet from the U.S. Army of Lieutenant Colonel after South Mountain and that of Colonel after Antietam.

After November 18, 1862, General Seymour was sent to the Department of the South where he served as chief of staff to the commanding general from January 8 to April 23, 1863. He led a division on Folly Island, South Carolina, on July 4, participated in the attack on Morris Island on July 10th, and commanded the unsuccessful attack on Fort Wagner on July 18. Seymour gained notoriety for this controversial attack. He was also seriously wounded there and saw little field duty for the rest of 1863.

General Quincy A. Gillmore, commanding general of the Department of the South, placed General Seymour in charge of the newly created Division of Florida. The division made an expedition to Florida in February of 1864, landing at and taking possession of Jacksonville.

Subsequently, General Gillmore returned to South Carolina. On February 20, General Seymour’s force of about 5,500 men met a Confederate force of about 5,000, commanded by Brigadier General Joseph Finegan. The battle took place near the town of Olustee, about 40 miles west of Jacksonville.

The ensuing battle produced some of the heaviest losses, by percentage, of any major battle of the war. Although Seymour’s division inflicted nearly 1,000 casualties, it received nearly 2,000 in return. General Seymour’s force returned, defeated, to Jacksonville, where Union troops retained control until the war ended.

After Olustee, General Seymour retained command of the District of Florida until March 28, 1864. He then returned to Virginia and served in the Battle of the Wilderness that May, where he was captured. After his exchange on August 9, he commanded a division in the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, in the Shenandoah Valley and the Richmond Campaign.

Later, General Seymour was involved in the battles of Petersburg, Sayler’s Creek, and Appomattox. He was present at General Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865. After the capture of Petersburg, he received the brevet of Major General of Volunteers and the brevet of Brigadier General of the U.S. Army, both to date from March 13, 1865.

Truman Seymour is perhaps unique in that he was physically present at both the beginning and end of the Civil War. Some of the battles he fought in between were among the most famous of the war: the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, the Wilderness, Petersburg, and Appomattox.

After the war ended, Seymour stayed in the army. He served again in the 5th Artillery, and later commanded forts in Florida; Fort Warren, Massachusetts (1869-70), and Fort Preble, Maine (1870-75). He retired from the army on November 1, 1876.

He received the degree of A.M. from Williams College in 1865. Seymour spent his retirement in Europe. He painted much in watercolor, and died while traveling in Florence, Italy, on October 30, 1891