Albin Schoepf was born in Hungary in 1822. A graduate of the Vienna military academy he joined the Prussian Army before fighting under Lajos Kossuth in 1848. Exiled to Turkey, he became a military adviser to the Ottoman Army.

Schoepf emigrated to the United States and worked with the US Patent Office. On the outbreak of the American Civil War he joined the Union Army. Commissioned as a brigadier general, he fought in the Army of Ohio. He commanded the 1st Brigade (November, 1861 to September, 1862) and the 1st Division (September, 1862 to November, 1862). Schoepf died in 1886.