Isaac Peace Rodman was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island the son of Samuel Rodman and Mary Peckham. He was married to Sally Lyman Arnold, daughter of Rhode Island GovernorLemuel Hastings Arnold. His brother-in-law was future Civil War general Richard Arnold. He entered into a partnership with his brother Rowland Gibson Rodman and his father Samuel Rodman, under the name S. Rodman & Sons. Isaac Rodman was for many years president of the town council of South Kingstown, a representative for several terms in the Rhode Island General Assembly, in the Rhode Island Senate. He was also a director in the Wakefield Bank and the Institution for Savings. As well as being a politician, businessman, and banker, Isaac Rodman was a devoted Christian, a teacher of a Bible study class, and a superintendent of a Sunday school.
Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Rodman was torn between the precepts of his religion and his loyalty to the Union, but unhesitatingly raised a group of local residents for the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment and was given the rank of captain. The regiment fought in the First Battle of Bull Run in the brigade of Brigadier GeneralAmbrose Burnside and suffered heavy losses, including the regiment's colonel. Rodman was appointed as colonel of the new 4th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment by Rhode Island Governor William Sprague on October 3, 1861. He fought under Burnside in North Carolina in the Battle of Roanoke Island, and then at the Battle of New Berne, where he distinguished himself for his gallantry and was made a brigadier general on April 28, 1862. After the Battle of Fort Macon, he contracted typhoid fever and returned to South Kingstown. General Burnside wrote to Rodman, convalescing at home, to inform him of a need for officers for an upcoming battle in the Maryland Campaign, opposing Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North. Still ailing and against the advice of his physician, he returned to the Army after only a few weeks. In the Battle of South Mountain he led the 3rd Division of the IX Corps to take Turner's Gap. During that assault, IX Corps commander Maj. Gen. Jesse L. Reno was killed and he was replaced by Jacob D. Cox. Three days later, in the Battle of Antietam, on September 17, 1862, Burnside's corps was ordered to strike the right flank of the Confederate army, on the heights to the south of Sharpsburg. The corps was held up attempting to cross the single, heavily defended, bridge across Antietam Creek in that sector and Burnside sent Rodman's 3rd Division downstream to find a fording spot and flank the enemy defending the bridge. No one in the army had reconnoitered the proposed ford, two-thirds of a mile south of the bridge, and they found out too late that it was unusable due to its steep banks. Rodman's men spent three hours before finally finding and crossing Snavely's Ford two miles farther downstream at 1 p.m., by which time Burnside Bridge had finally been taken. The corps made good progress from that point in driving west towards Sharpsburg, but at 4:00 p.m. A. P. Hill's Light Division joined the battle, launching a spirited counterattack after a rapid forced march from Harpers Ferry. Sighting the approaching Confederates, Rodman knew his division, on the Union army's left flank, would take the brunt of their assault. Galloping across a cornfield to warn his brigade commanders, he was shot through the left lung, mortally wounded. He died thirteen days later in a field hospital at Sharpsburg. In a funeral oration, Senator Henry B. Anthony said of Rodman: Isaac Rodman is buried in the Rodman family cemetery, Peace Dale, Rhode Island. Rodman's house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Washington County, Rhode Island on April 23, 1990.
