Washington Lafayette Elliott (March 31, 1825 – June 29, 1888) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

[1] In 1858, Elliott married Valeria Biddle Blaney (1828–1900), a collector of scientific natural history specimens who was a first cousin of Spencer Fullerton Baird of the Smithsonian Institution.

[2] After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Elliott served in Missouri, fighting at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

Commissioned colonel of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry on September 14, 1861, Elliott served under Maj. Gen. John Pope in the Battle of Island Number Ten.

Elliott went west again and led the first division of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Cumberland during the relief of the Siege of Knoxville.

[3][4] After the war, Washington Elliott remained in the Regular Army (United States) as a major in the 1st Cavalry.