Robert Alexander Cameron

Robert Alexander Cameron (February 22, 1828 – March 15, 1894) was an American soldier and newspaper publisher. He served as a Union general during the American Civil War. During the war he was made a brigadier general and after the war was appointed a brevet major general. After the war he was heavily involved in developing farms in the U.S. state of Colorado.

Early life and career Cameron was born in Brooklyn, New York. He moved with his parents to Valparaiso, Indiana , in the early 1842, where he attended the local public schools. Cameron graduated from Indiana Medical College in La Porte, Indiana , in 1849, and also attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, he soon gave up his medical studies.

In 1857, Cameron bought and began publishing the Valparaiso Republican, a local newspaper. He also served as a Republican delegate to their 1860 convention in Chicago, supporting the campaign of Abraham Lincoln for U.S. President. After those three months were up, Cameron re-enlisted for the duration of hostilities In September 1861, Cameron and the 19th Indiana fought in a skirmish at Chain Bridge, one of the bridges over the Potomac River leading into Washington, D.C. After the action Col. Solomon Meredith, Cameron's brigade commander, thought highly of his performance, stating that he "rode the lines giving orders and maintaining a calmness that was not even shattered when the concussion of a shell brought his horse to its knees." Despite this praise, Cameron was not able to get along with Meredith and asked Indiana Governor Oliver Morton to be removed from the 19th and assigned elsewhere. His request would be granted early in the following year.

On February 3, 1862, Cameron was transferred to the 34th Indiana, Cameron was then promoted to colonel and given command of the 34th, both on June 15. he led a division of the XIII Corps during the 1864 Red River Campaign.

Cameron finished the war in district command in the Department of the Gulf at Thibodaux, Louisiana. On March 13, 1865, he was appointed a brevet major general in the Union Army, and he resigned his commission soon after on June 22. In 1870, Cameron was influential in the founding of Greeley and was elected president of Greeley’s board of trustees in 1871. He was lured away by William Jackson Palmer to become superintendent of a new colony, which later would grow into the city of Colorado Springs. Cameron also took part in an attempt to establish Fort Collins. Cameron Pass, a gap in the Medicine Bow Mountains range, was also named in his honor in 1870.