Frederick William Lander[2][1][3] (December 17, 1821 – March 2, 1862) was a transcontinental United States explorer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and a prolific poet.

His expedition to survey the Lander Road in 1859 included artists Albert Bierstadt, Henry Hitchings, and Francis Seth Frost, who photographed, sketched, and painted some of the earliest images that people could see of the West.

During the early part of the Civil War, Lander served with distinction on secret missions as a volunteer aide de camp on the staff of General McClellan.

At the conclusion of the Western Virginia campaign, General Lander was assigned to command a brigade in Charles Pomeroy Stone's Division of the Army of the Potomac.

[7] Lander had married English-born stage actress Jean Margaret Davenport in San Francisco in October 1860, but the couple had no children.