David Sloane Stanley was a Union Army general during the American Civil War. Stanley took part in the Second Battle of Corinth and the Battle of Stones River as a division commander. He was later made a corps commander under William Tecumseh Sherman and sent to Tennessee to oppose John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee. At a critical moment in the Battle of Franklin, he saved part of George D. Wagner’s division from destruction, earning America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. Later he explored the Yellowstone River, and his favorable reports encouraged settlement of this region.

The Second Battle of Corinth was fought October 3–4, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. For the second time in the Iuka–Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans defeated a Confederate army, this time one under Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn.