Civil War Service
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, he resigned his clerk position to volunteer in the Union Army. On November 2 he was commissioned a major in the 3rd Indiana Cavalry. Briefly Chapman lead the cavalry division of the Army of the Ohio in May of the following year. Transferring to the infantry, he commanded a brigade in the Army of the Potomac until June 27, 1862.
Chapman was promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 25, 1862. He fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August, the Battle of Antietam in September, and the Battle of Fredericksburg in December. On March 12, 1863, Chapman was promoted to colonel, and that May he participated in the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Returning to the cavalry service, Chapman led his regiment during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Here his command was part of Col. Thomas C. Devin's brigade, and was noted as the first Union soldiers to engage Confederate forces approaching Gettysburg via the Cashtown road. Shortly after the battle, Chapman was given brigade command in the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac until March 1864.
Chapman participated in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 against Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's forces, lasting from May to October. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on July 21. Chapman led a cavalry brigade in the Union Army of the Shenandoah from August 6 until September 19, when he was wounded during the Third Battle of Winchester. Recovered by the following month, Chapman resumed leading a cavalry brigade in the Shenandoah Valley.
Beginning on January 5, 1865, Chapman led a cavalry division of the Army of the Shenandoah. After the Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia on March 2, he was ordered to remain in the Shenandoah Valley while the rest of the Union forces headed for Petersburg, Virginia. Chapman had with him now three small regiments and a few artillery pieces to hold the Valley. Near the end of the war he was brevetted to major general in the Union Army on March 13, in recognition of his performance at Winchester in September 1864. Beginning on April 19, 1865, he was given command of the cavalry division assigned to Washington, D.C.
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