High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Alexander Shaler (1827–1911) was a Union Army general in the American Civil War. He received the United States military`s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg. After the war, he was at various times the head of the New York City Fire Department, president of the National Rifle Association, and Mayor of Ridgefield, New Jersey from 1899 to 1901.