Horatio Gouverneur Wright (March 6, 1820 – July 2, 1899) was an engineer and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

In this capacity, he was responsible for building the fortifications around Washington DC, and in the Overland Campaign he commanded the first troops to break through the Confederate defenses at Petersburg.

He was sent to Florida in 1846, where he spent ten years working on the harbor of St. Augustine and the defenses of Key West, including Fort Jefferson.

[3] In 1855, he was promoted to the rank of captain and served as assistant to Chief of Engineers Colonel Joseph G. Totten the following year.

Wright began constructing fortifications around Washington, D.C., before being assigned to the 3rd Division of the Department of Northeast Virginia under Maj. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman.

Serving as chief engineer of the 3rd Division during the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Wright was promoted to major in August.

Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers the following month, Wright was assigned as chief engineer to Maj. Gen. Thomas W. Sherman's November 1861 expedition against Port Royal, South Carolina.

In this command he played a major logistical role in the repulse of Confederate General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in 1862.

During the defense of Fort Stevens, he gained notoriety by inviting President Abraham Lincoln to join him on a parapet exposed to enemy fire.