James Deering Fessenden (28 September 1833 – 18 November 1882) was a Union Army Brigadier-General during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
James Deering Fessenden was born in Westbrook, Maine in 1833, a son of US Senator William P. Fessenden and a brother of Francis Fessenden. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1852 and worked for his father's law firm before recruiting a company of riflemen and marksmen for the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. He became a colonel in July 1862 while serving in South Carolina, participating in the encirclement of Charleston. In November 1863, he became an aide-de-camp to Joseph Hooker and distinguished himself at the 1864 Battle of Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta Campaign. In August 1864, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, serving in the Shenandoah Valley. He mustered out of service on 15 January 1866 and served three terms in the Maine state legislature before dying in 1882.