John C. Tidball
John Caldwell Tidball (January 25, 1825 – May 15, 1906) was a career United States Army artillery officer who served in the United States Horse Artillery Brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the Commander of the Department of Alaska, the military governor of the region. Early life and antebellum career Tidball was born near Wheeling, Virginia, in Ohio County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), to parents: James Squires Tidball and Maria Caldwell. He grew up on a farm in eastern Ohio. He graduated eleventh of thirty-eight cadets in the United States Military Academy Class of 1848, and entered the United States Army as a brevet second lieutenant in Battery E, 3rd U.S. Artillery. He was commissioned second lieutenant on February 14, 1849, when he was transferred to Battery M, 2nd U.S. Artillery. Promoted to first lieutenant on March 31, 1853, he transferred again to Battery B, 2nd U.S. Artillery. He served in the Third Seminole War fought against the indigenous Seminole tribe, and accompanied an exploring expedition to California in 1853–1854. In 1859 he was sent on the Army's expedition to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to suppress John Brown's