Robert Seaman Granger was born on May 24, 1816, in Zanesville, Ohio. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1838 and received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the army. He served in the Seminole War and worked as an assistant instructor of tactics at West Point from 1843 until 1844. He fought in the Mexican American War, earning a promotion to captain on September 8, 1847. He married Ann Elizabeth Turner on August 21, 1849.

 

Granger spent the 1850s stationed in Texas. Confederate forces captured him early in 1861. He was eventually paroled and exchanged, and in September 1862, he received a commission as a brigadier general of United States volunteers in October 1862. He spent the next few years stationed in Tennessee and Alabama. He remained in the army after the war, earning a promotion to lieutenant colonel on June 12, 1865, and then to colonel on August 16, 1871. He retired on January 1, 1873. He returned to Zanesville after his retirement. He died in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 1894.

 

Image: Robert Seaman Granger (courtesy Wikicommons)

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