George Pomutz was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire, in the town of Gyula (Romanian: Giula), Békés county, to ethnic Romanian orthodox parents Ioan (son of Dica, metalsmith) and Victoria, the family originally from Négyfalu (Săcele, Siebendörfer), near Brassó (Brașov, Kronstadt) in Transylvania, settling in Gyula during the second half of the 18th century.

[2] At the beginning of the Civil War, Pomutz enrolled in the Union Army as a first lieutenant in the 15th Iowa Infantry Regiment.

On February 16, 1866, he was appointed Consul of the United States in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia, serving in that capacity until September 30, 1870.

From the address by Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania, at a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress, July 15, 1998:[6] I would like to close with a true story.

Once on American soil, he volunteered for Lincoln's Army and fought in some of the key battles of the Civil War including Vicksburg and Atlanta.

In 1944, long after his death, the Romanian community in the United States donated money to build a battleship, named for Romanian-American General George Pomutz.