A West Point graduate, Alfred Pleasonton served most of the war in the eastern theater in the Army of the Potomac, at one point commanding its Cavalry Corps. In March 1864 General in Chief, US Army, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant replaced Pleasonton with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, shipping Pleasonton out to Missouri. After the war ended, Pleasonton stayed in the army as a major in cavalry. Pleasonton left the army in 1868 and received an appointment as commissioner of internal revenue in Grant’s administration but had to resign after quarreling with his superiors.
Warner, Generals in Blue, 373–374.
OR s1 v33, 721, 741.