BACK TO BRANCH COUNTY SOLDIERS
George Sigourney Acker
(born Dec. 25, 1835, died September 6, 1879) Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier
General. Enlisted at the start of the Civil War in the 1st Michigan Volunteer Cavalry,
being commissioned as Captain and commander of Company I. He led his command in the
Battles on the Spring of 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign and at the Second Battle of Bull
Run, rising to Major of the regiment. In May 1863 he was transferred to the newly mustered
9th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, and was made its Lieutenant Colonel. He participated in
the pursuit of Confederate General John Hunt Morgans raiders in Kentucky and Ohio,
and commanded a portion of his unit in the Battle at Bluffington Island, Ohio. After
Morgan was captured, the unit joined with General Ambrose Burnsides forces in East
Tennessee, where is engaged in continual scouting and skirmishing. On November 14, 1863
Colonel Acker was wounded at Beans Station, Tennessee, and missed a large portion of
his unit's subsequent service, but returned to lead it as a full Colonel in the Spring of
1864. After helping to inflict a loss to the forces of General Morgan (who had escaped the
Federals' hold) at Cynthiana, Kentucky, he continued to fight in lower Kentucky and
Tennessee until October 1864, when the unit was detailed to General William T.
Shermans Army fighting in Georgia. He participated in the March to the Sea and the
March up the Carolinas, where he finished out the war. He was brevetted Brigadier General,
US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for gallant and soldierly conduct under all
circumstances during the East Tennessee and Atlanta campaigns, especially at Morristown,
East Tennessee in December 1863, at Bean Station, and for conspicuous gallantry at
Cynthiana, in June 1864. After the war he became a successful Hotel Keeper, and died
in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1879. Buried in Riverside Cemetery, Union City, Branch
Co., Michigan.