Hey Buddy,
Ijust ran across this. Is this your relative?

"MRS. TURCHIN

Ivan Vasilevitch Turchinoff of Don, Russia, fought in the Crimean War before coming to the United States in 1856 and Anglicizing his name. Working as a topographical engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad when war broke out, he immediately volunteered and was put in command of the 19th Illinois. Like many officers on both sides, Turchin took his wife with him into camp and seems to have depended on her for military as well as domestic advice. Given command of a brigade without having been made a brigadier, Turchin led his men well at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and later during a famous raid on Huntsville, Alabama. They encountered stiff opposition in Athens, Alabama, and, after fending off attacks by Rebels, went on a looting spree. Tried by a court-martial over which James A. Garfield presided, the Russian was found guilty of misconduct; his dismissal from the military service was recommended.

While court was in session and before a verdict had been reached, Turchin's wife raced toward Washington, where she gained an audience with Abraham Lincoln. When the verdict concerning her husband reached Washington, she not only persuaded the president to set it aside, but also secured a commission for her husband in recognition of his service at Huntsville, but which he became a brigadier. Known by his men as the "Russian Thunderbolt," Turchin fought well at Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Atlanta. In July 1864, constant bouts with illness led to his resignation. For ten days during one of his periods of illness, his wife had commanded his unit. Described as having "seemed almost imperial, riding side-saddle on a great horse," the Russian woman reputedly led her husband's regiment in at least one engagement. Even if that is the case, the Smithsonian Institution's recognition of Harriet Tubman as the only American woman to do so stands unchallenged - for Mrs. Turchin was the daughter of a regimental commander in the army of the czar of Russia, not an American woman."
FC