George Pomutz
George Pomutz was a Hungarian-born Romanian officer during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Habsburgs, a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War, and a diplomat.Early life
George Pomutz was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire, in the town of Gyula, Békés county, to ethnic Romanian parents originally from Négyfalu, near Brassó in Transylvania. He received his primary and secondary education in Hungary, followed by the Military Academy in Vienna and Military Academy Saint Etienne. He also specialized in France and became a royal prosecutor. He served as a captain in the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Afterwards, in 1849, he emigrated to the United States; arriving in New York on February 24, 1850, alongside 20 acquaintances. The group of immigrants, Romanians and Hungarians, settled around the town of Keokuk, Iowa, founding a settlement named New Buda located south of the town of Burlington. George Pomutz became a U.S. citizen on March 15, 1855. He purchased land and a mining concession, the 1860 U.S. Census finding him living in Decatur, Iowa.At the beginning of the Civil War, Pomutz enrolled in the Union Army as a first lieutenant in the 15th Iowa Infantry Regiment. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh. In May 1864, after Pomutz had commanded the provisional Iowa Battalion, Maj. Gen. Francis P. Blair appointed Pomutz as Provost Marshal of his XVII Corps. In August 1864, Pomutz returned to the 15th Iowa Infantry, which he commanded in the Battle of Atlanta.
On May 4, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Pomutz for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on May 18, 1866.Postbellum career
After the end of the Civil War, Pomutz returned to Keokuk. 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. During that period, he was involved in the negotiations for the Alaska Purchase. Later he became the American consul general in Saint Petersburg, serving from June 17, 1874, until his death there, in 1882. He was buried in Smolensky Cemetery, Saint Petersburg, Russia but his grave seems to have disappeared, possibly after the re-purposing of cemetery lands by the Bolsheviks, after the 1917 Russian Revolution.Legacy
The Liberty ship was named after him. Launched August 3, 1944, the ship served till 1970.
On August 14, 2004, a statue of Pomutz was unveiled at the Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio.
A street in Timișoara, Romania bears his name.Quotation
From the address by Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania, at a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress, July 15, 1998:
