Emory Upton (August 27, 1839 – March 15, 1881) was a United States Army general and military strategist, prominent for his role in leading infantry to attack entrenched positions successfully at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the American Civil War, but he also excelled at artillery and cavalry assignments.

[1] He would become the brother-in-law of Andrew J. Alexander and of Frank P. Blair Jr.[2] He studied under famous evangelist Charles G. Finney at Oberlin College for two years[3] before being admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1856.

In the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, he was wounded in the arm and left side during the action at Blackburn's Ford, although he did not leave the field.

[5] In the Bristoe Campaign, Upton was cited for gallant service at Rappahannock Station in November 1863 and was given a brevet promotion to major in the regular army.

The standard infantry assault employed a wide battle line advancing more slowly, firing at the enemy as it moved forward.

His tactics worked and his command penetrated to the center of the Mule Shoe, but they were left unsupported and forced to withdraw in the face of enemy artillery and mounting reinforcements.

On that same day, Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock adapted Upton's columnar assault tactic to the entire II Corps to break through the Mule Shoe.

On April 16, 1865, the division made a night assault upon the Confederate works in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, capturing a large amount of arms, ammunition, stores, and 1,500 prisoners, and burning the incomplete casemate ironclad, CSS Muscogee.

"[10] After the war, Upton commanded a cavalry brigade in the Department of the Cumberland from July through September 1865 and served in the District of Colorado until April 1866.

Upton presented 54 pages of recommendations for changes in the Army, including that it establish advanced military schools, a general staff, a system of personnel evaluation reports, and promotion by examination.

[12] He was appointed superintendent of theoretical instruction at the Artillery School of Practice located at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he emphasized combined arms tactics.

Although his books on tactics and on Asian and European armies were considered influential, his greatest impact was a work he called The Military Policy of the United States from 1775.

He denigrated the influence of the Secretary of War and promoted the idea that all military decisions in the field should be made by professional officers, although the president should retain the role of commander-in-chief.

He argued for a strong, standing regular army that would be supplemented by volunteers or conscripts in time of war, a general staff system based on the Prussian model, examinations to determine promotions, compulsory retirement of officers who reach a certain age, advanced military education, and combat maneuvering by groups of four three-battalion infantry regiments.

[5][12] All of Upton's proposed reforms would be implemented in the 1890s and early 1900s and laid the foundation for the high level of efficiency the U.S. Army demonstrated in World War I.

In view of his success of all arms of the service, it is not too much to add that he could scarcely have failed as a corps or army commander had it been his good fortune to be called to such rank.

... No one can read the story of his brilliant career without concluding that he had a real genius for war, together with all the theoretical and practical knowledge which any one could acquire in regard to it.

So long as the Union has such soldiers as he to defend it, it will be perpetual.Upton was commemorated at a site in central Suffolk County, New York, presently occupied by Brookhaven National Laboratory.