[2] During the Battle of Cerro Gordo on April 17 and 18, Dana was severely wounded in the hip while storming the entrenchments on Telegraph Hill.

[4] In early July, shortly after Malvern Hill, Dana became ill and was diagnosed with "remittent fever."

[4] Dana led his brigade notably during the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, where he was severely wounded.

Gen. John Sedgwick's 2nd Division of Maj. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner's II Corps) forded the Antietam Creek at about 7:30 a.m. and marched to the support of the right of the Union line.

Sumner led this division due west, desiring to push any remaining Confederate forces through Sharpsburg and toward the Potomac River.

[4] Marching about fifty yards behind the leading Union brigade, Dana's command began to receive artillery fire but continued forward.

Shortly after entering the West Woods, Dana's brigade was struck hard on their left by Confederate troops, and became in danger of being completely surrounded and cut off.

Maneuvering his soldiers in the difficult terrain, Dana led his men to the relative safety of the Miller Farm, despite receiving a serious wound to his left leg.

He led the Department's second division from September 26, 1863, to January 3, 1864,[1] during which he participated in the small action at Fordoche Bayou as well as the expedition from Brazos Santiago to Laredo, Texas, and was overall Union commander during the Battle of Stirling's Plantation.

[6] He was also in overall command of the area where the steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee on April 27.

An April 27, 2007, article in the Washington Times explained what Dana had been told about the ship before it departed Vicksburg:[7] Capts.

Speed and Williams both assured Dana that the load was not too large for the boat and that the men appeared comfortable and not overcrowded.

[7]At 2 a.m. on April 27, 1865, the repaired boilers exploded, which instantly killed most of the passengers and crew and threw others into the Mississippi; the survivors jumped into the chilly river to escape the flames.

The weak and exhausted ex-prisoners of war jumped overboard, risking their lives in the Mississippi to avoid the raging fire.

He was then the commissioner in charge of Railroad Pools at St. Louis, Missouri from 1878 to 1881, and was president of the Montana and Union Railway Company in 1885.

[9] Due to a Special Act of the United States Congress in 1894, Dana was commissioned a captain the U.S. Army from August 2–11.