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William Jackson Palmer (September 18, 1836 – March 13, 1909) was an American civil engineer and veteran of the American Civil War. During the Civil War, he was promoted to brevet brigadier general and received a Medal of Honor for his actions. In his early career, Palmer helped develop the expanding railroads of the United States in Pennsylvania; this was interrupted by the American Civil War. He served in colorful fashion as a Union Army cavalry Colonel and was appointed to the brevet grade of Brigadier General. After the war, he contributed financially to educational efforts for the freed former slaves of the South. Heading west in 1867, Palmer helped build the Kansas Pacific Railway. He befriended a young English doctor, Dr. William Abraham Bell, who became his partner in most of his business ventures. Generally Palmer took the role of president with Bell as vice president. The two men are best known as co-founders of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (Rio Grande). The Rio Grande and its successors eventually operated the largest network of narrow gauge railroad in the United States. They were ultimately absorbed by the 21st century Union Pacific Railroad. Palmer and Bell are notable for helping introduce to the United States the practices of burning coal (rather than wood) for railroad engines and using narrow gauge railways. He helped develop rail-related industries in Colorado, such as a large steel mill near Pueblo. He founded the city of Colorado Springs, in 1871, as well as several other communities. Palmer founded Colorado Springs as a "dry" community, based on his Quaker and temperance beliefs. He funded institutions of higher education and helped found a hospital for tuberculosis, then incurable. Public schools in Colorado Springs were named for both him and his wife, Mary (née Mellen) Palmer, who was known by her nickname of "Queen". A statue of William J. Palmer still stands in downtown Colorado Springs, across from the school named in his honor. Early life William Jackson Palmer was born in 1836 to a Hicksite sect Quaker family on their Kinsdale Farm in 1836, near Leipsic, Kent County, Delaware.: 13  His parents were John and Matilda (Jackson) Palmer.: 8  When he was five years old, his family moved to Germantown, then an independent city outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the private Friends School, and then public schools: Zane Street School and Boys' Central High School.: 13  Pennsylvania railroads In 1851, Palmer went to work at the age of 15 in western Pennsylvania as a clerk for Hempfield Railroad's engineering department. Two years later, at age 17, he worked under chief engineer Charles Ellet, Jr. as a rodman. Palmer became transitman for Hempfield in 1854.: 8  Frank H. Jackson, president of Westmoreland Coal Company and Palmer's maternal uncle, encouraged him to go to England to study coal mining and railroads, which he believed were going to be key to United States development.: 33, 372  The young Palmer was particularly interested in whether railroad engines could run on anthracite coal rather than wood as fuel. He left in the summer of 1855 for a six-month period, having arranged to write paid articles for Miner's Journal of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to finance the trip abroad. He also borrowed money from his uncle.: 33, 372  While in England, Palmer met with noted railroad engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson,—and visited railroads, mills, and coal mines.: 372  In 1856, his uncle Jackson hired Palmer to work at Westmoreland Coal Company as the secretary and treasurer.: 8  The following year he worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad and became private secretary to President John Edgar Thomson,: 8  a successful Quaker businessman.: 372  At this time, future industrialist Andrew Carnegie was a peer and secretary to a company vice president. Palmer wrote, Reports of Experiments with Coal Burning Locomotives and learned about running a railroad from Thomson.: 372  Palmer began an evaluation of converting steam engines to run on coal, which was more abundant , rather than wood. His findings were key to changing the type of fuel used to fuel the country's locomotives.: 113–114  He began a relationship with Thomas A. Scott at the Pennsylvania Railroad. Scott was later appointed as Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation during the Civil War.: 114  Civil War service As the American Civil War began in 1861, although his Quaker upbringing made Palmer abhor violence, his passionate abolitionism compelled him in keeping with the dictates of his conscience to enlist in the Pennsylvania volunteers. Palmer took a commission in the Union Army.: 27–28  He organized the Anderson Troop, an independent company of Pennsylvania cavalry, in the fall of 1861: 8  and was elected its captain.: 46–47  Originally formed to act as a bodyguard for Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson, it instead served as the headquarters cavalry for General Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio. Impressed with the "elite scouts" that Palmer had assembled, Buell detailed Palmer and 12 of his men to go back to Pennsylvania to recruit more men to form a battalion around the Anderson Troop that would be known as the "1st Anderson Cavalry". In ten days of recruiting, however, Palmer received enough applications for enlistment to form a regiment, which was authorized as the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was appointed the regiment's colonel.: 8 : 47  Before Palmer was able to organize the regiment at Camp Alabama in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he and a portion of it were ordered on September 9 to help the Army of the Potomac resist the Confederates invasion of Maryland. For nearly a week Palmer, accompanied by a telegrapher, personally sought information of Lee's movements every night in civilian clothing, and transmitted his findings to General George B. McClellan via telegraph connections. Two days after the Battle of Antietam, Palmer was captured while scouting at the personal direction of McClellan, seeking information on any preparations by Lee's army to cross the Potomac River back into Virginia. He was on the Confederate side of the river, again garbed in civilian clothes and accompanied by a local blacksmith and a parson as his guides, attempting to recross to the Union side after midnight when he was captured by Confederate artillerymen sent to guard the dam he used for the crossing. When questioned, Palmer gave his name as "W.J. Peters," and claimed to be an engineer on an inspection trip. He was interrogated by General William N. Pendleton, who thought he was a spy. He was detained and sent to Richmond, Virginia, with a rambling note from Pendleton that was ignored. Palmer was incarcerated at the notorious Castle Thunder prison on Tobacco Row, Richmond where his true identity was never uncovered. Doubts about his identity were apparently reinforced by publication of a fictitious dispatch in the Philadelphia newspaper.... Discover the Glenn Danford Bradley popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Glenn Danford Bradley books.