Philip S. Post joined the 59th Illinois Infantry as a lieutenant and rose to colonel, later commanding a brigade in the Army of the Cumberland. Severely wounded at Pea Ridge, he went on to fight at Stones River and led a celebrated charge at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, earning the Medal of Honor in 1893. Postwar he served as U.S. consul to Austria-Hungary and as an Illinois congressman until his 1895 death.