K-L: Kearney through Lyon

Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

KEARNY, PHILIP (June 1, 1814-September 1, 1862), soldier, son of Philip and Susan (Watts) Kearny and nephew of Stephen Watts Kearny [q.v.], was born in New York City to great wealth and distinguished social position. His mother died in 1823, and during much of his boyhood and youth he made his home with his maternal grandfather, John Watts, Jr. A succession of boarding schools, including the Round Hill School conducted by Joseph G. Cogswell and George Bancroft [qq.v.], furnished his elementary education. Family opposition kept him from entering the United States Military Academy, and he enrolled at Columbia College as a sophomore in I830. His grandfather, who had lost all his sons, sought to divert him from the military career on which his heart was set by offering him $1,500 a year if he would study for the ministry. To this proposition Philip could not agree, but he compromised by taking a law course. Nevertheless, during the European trip which followed his graduation from Columbia in 1833 his whole attention was given to military maneuvers, and when his grandfather died in 1836, leaving him a fortune of about a million, he at once applied for a commission in the army. Keenly fond of horses and a fearless rider from boyhood, he naturally turned to the cavalry branch of the service and secured (March 8, 1837) a second lieutenancy in the 1st United States Dragoons, commanded by his uncle, Stephen Watts Kearny. After two years service on the frontier he was sent to France by the secretary of war to study cavalry tactics in the cavalry school at Saumur, and in 1840 saw service with the Chasseurs d'Afrique in Algiers (see his Service with the French Troops in Africa, 1844, reprinted in Magazine of History, Extra No. 22, 1913). Upon his return to the United States he acted as aide-de-camp to General Alexander Macomb, commander in chief of the army, and to his successor, General Winfield Scott. On June 24, 1841, he married Diana Moore Bullitt of Louisville, Kentucky, grandniece of William and George Rogers Clark [qq.v.]. They had five children. Kearny saw further service on the frontier, but early in. 1846 resigned his commission.

A month later, however, on the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was reinstated, recruited his squadron to war footing in the Middle West, and became General Scott's bodyguard on the advance to the city of Mexico. His dragoons were mounted on uniform dapple-gray horses, selected by Kearny and procured at his expense, "the hoofs of all striking simultaneously . . . as if they were galloping to set music" (Reid, post). While leading a charge on the retreating Mexicans at Churubusco his left arm was shattered so badly as to require amputation. He was promoted to the rank of major for his courage in action.

After leading an expedition in California against the Rogue River Indians, he resigned from the army in 1851 and took a trip around the world. Upon his return he settled for a few years in New Jersey, employing himself in extensive improvements on his recently acquired country estate, "Belle Grove," near Newark, New Jersey, in a section now named Kearny. In 1859, however, he returned to France and was attached to the staff of General Morris, commander of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard under Napoleon III. He was present at the battles of Magenta and Solferino, and is said to have participated in every charge of the cavalry. The Cross of the Legion of Honor was awarded to him by the French Emperor for his military services.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he hurried from Paris to Washington hoping to secure a general's commission, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers in command of the 1st New Jersey Brigade. Throughout the Virginia campaigns he had ample opportunity, at first on the Peninsula under McClellan, later as major-general under Pope, to show his mettle. He participated in at least twelve engagements. The dash and spirit which he had come to symbolize are expressed in E. C. Stedman's poem, "Kearny at Seven Pines." The men of his division each wore on his uniform a bit of scarlet cloth known as the "Kearny patch." "You are marked men," Kearny said to them on one occasion, "you must be ever in the front " (War of the Rebellion: Official Records, I series II, part 3, pp. 215-16). It is said that his troopers cheered him every time he rode down their lines.

Following his custom, when ordered to a new position, of riding through the country learning the roads, he unwittingly entered the enemy's lines at Chantilly, September 1, 1862, and met his death. General Lee, who had known Kearny in the Mexican War, forwarded the body under a flag of truce to General Pope, and subsequently, at the request of Kearny's widow, he delivered to her the General's sword, horse, and saddle. Kearny won not only the devotion of his men, but the sincere respect of his fellow officers: "Tall and lithe in figure, with a most expressive and mobile countenance, and a manner which inspired confidence and zeal in all under his command, no one could fail to admire his chivalric bearing and his supreme courage," wrote General Pope. "He seemed to think that it was his mission to make up the shortcomings of others, and in proportion as these shortcomings were made plain, his exertions and exposure were multiplied" (Battles and Leaders, II, 492). General Scott called him "the bravest man I ever knew, and a perfect soldier" (De Peyster, post, p. 495). In 1912 his body was removed from the Watts vault in Trinity Churchyard, New York, to the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, where the state of New Jersey has erected an equestrian statue in his honor.

[J. W. de Peyster, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny (1869); Cortlandt Parker, Philip Kearny (1868); W. N. Jones, The Hist of St. Peter's Church in Perth Amboy, New Jersey (copyright 1924); New York Herald, September 3, New York Tribune, September 3, 4, and Evening Post (New York), September s, 1862; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series XI (part 3), XII (part 2), XIX (part 2); Mayne Reid, "A Dashing Dragoon," in Onward, January 1869, report in Magazine of History, Extra No. 22 (1913).]

A.E.P.



KEYES, ERASMUS DARWIN (May 29, 1810-October 14, 1895), soldier, business man, was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, the son of Justus Keyes, a prominent physician, and of Elizabeth (Corey) Keyes. His English ancestry went back to Solomon Keyes, who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony; and to Giles Corey, said to have been killed for witchcraft. When the son was still a youth, the Keyes family moved to Kennebec County, Maine, from which state he secured appointment to West Point, graduating in the year 1832 as brevet second lieutenant. For a time he was at Fort Monroe, Virginia, then he was at Charleston, South Carolina, during the nullification troubles. On August 31, 1833, he was commissioned second lieutenant, 3rd Artillery. He was aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott, 1837-38, and after a brief service in the West and South again served as aide, 1838-41. He received promotion to captain, 3rd Artillery, November 30, 1841, and from 1842 to 1844 he was in garrison at New Orleans Barracks and at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. In the latter year he became a member of the board of visitors to the Military Academy, immediately thereafter serving as instructor at the Academy in field artillery and cavalry, 1844- 48. From 1851 to 1860 he was for the most part on the Pacific Coast, during which period he saw service against the Indians in Washington in 1855 and participated in the Spokane Expedition in the year 1858. He was commended in official reports for services in the combat at Four Lakes, Washington, September 5, 1858, and was present at a skirmish with Indians on Spokane River, September 8. On October 12, 1858, he received promotion to major, 1st Artillery, and from January 1, 1860, to April 19, 1861, served as military secretary to General Scott, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On May 14, 1861, he became colonel, 11th Infantry, and on May 17, brigadier-general of volunteers, commanding a brigade in General Tyler's division at Bull Run (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, I, 175-215), for his conduct of which he received commendation.

He commanded the IV Army Corps in McClellan's Peninsular campaign, participating in many battles and engagements, and received promotion to major-general of volunteers, May 5, 1862. His corps performed important rearguard service in the transfer of McClellan's base from the York to the James River. For gallant and meritorious conduct at Fair Oaks, Virginia, he was brevetted brigadier-general, United States Army, May 31, 1862. The IV Corps remained on the Peninsula, 1862-63, and in a controversy with General Dix over participation in expeditions against White House and West Point, Virginia (January 7, and May 7, 1863), Keyes asked for an official investigation which was refused him. He served on an army retiring board, July 15, 1863, to May 6, 1864, when he resigned from the army and moved to the city of San Francisco. In the West he became president of the Maxwell Gold Mining Company (1867-69), vice-president of the California Vine-Culture Society for Napa County, and of the Humboldt Savings and Loan Society (1868-70). Keyes had married, on November 8, 1837, Caroline M. Clarke, who became the mother of five children, one of whom was Edward Lawrence Keyes [q.v.]. She died in 1853 and on November 22, 1862, he was married to Mary (Loughborough) Bissell, by whom he had five children. His death occurred at Nice, France, but final interment was at West Point, November 19, 1895, where his portrait in oils hangs in Cullum Memorial Hall. His Fifty Years' Observation of Men and Events (1884), and "The Rear Guard at Malvern Hill" (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, II, 434), are among his published writings.

[Keyes's autobiography, while giving intimate descriptions of Scott, Sherman, Lee, Grant, McClellan, Thomas, and others, furnishes little regarding him. Valuable de tails are to be found in the Twenty seventh Annual Reunion, Association Graduates, U. S. Military Academy, 196; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register ... U. S. Military Academy, I. I (edition 1891); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 1 volumes, 1887-88); F. B. Heitman, History Register and Dictionary the U.S. Army (1903), volume I; Asa Keyes, Genealogy Journal, on Keyes of Newbury ... and His Descendants 886); New York Tribune, Examiner (San Francisco), ct,.i5, 1895. ]

C.D.R.



KILPATRICK, HUGH JUDSON (January 14, 1836-December 2, 1881), soldier, diplomat, was the son of a farmer who lived near Deckertown, New Jersey. After a common-school education he entered West Point in 1856 as Judson Kilpatrick, graduating May 6, 1861--a month earlier than usual -as second lieutenant, Ist Artillery. He is said to have possessed more than ordinary ability graduating seventeenth in a class of forty-five members. On the day of his graduation he married Alice Nail er of New York, and three days later he secured appointment as a captain, 5th New York Volunteers (Duryee's Zouaves). He left with his regiment for Fort Monroe, Virginia, in time to participate in the battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, in which he was severely wounded. His gallant service won for him appointment as lieutenant-colonel, 2nd New York Cavalry, and thereafter until the end of the Civil War he had almost continuous field-service with cavalry, with unusual participation in actions, engagements, and battle s. 'When General McClellan transferred the Army of the Potomac to the James River, Kilpatrick assisted in covering the defenses of Washington with his cavalry, and for two y ears he took an active part in cavalry operations of the Army of the Potomac: in the Department of the Rappahannock (March-July 1862); in the Northern Virginia campaign (August-September 1862), where he was constantly and gallantly fighting Stuart's cavalry; and in the Rappahannock campaign (January-June 1863). At Beverly Ford he commanded a brigade and participated in the ill-fated Stoneman's raid where he destroyed immense quantities of enemy's stores and penetrated to within two miles of Richmond. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers (June 13, 1863) and shortly afterward commanded a cavalry division in the engagements of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, Virginia. For gallant and meritorious services at Aldie he was brevetted major in the regular army. He took an active and successful part at the battle of Gettysburg in cavalry assaults upon the Confederate right flank, and in pursuit of the defeated enemy. In subsequent operations in Central Virginia (August-November 1863), he initiated the Kilpatrick raid on Richmond, with the object of releasing Federal prisoners in Libby Prison--an operation ably executed but barren of results. Thereafter he was transferred to command of the 3rd Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland, assembling in northern Georgia for the campaign against Atlanta, and for conspicuous services at the battle of Resaca, where he was again severely wounded, he was brevetted colonel in the regular army. He joined Sherman's march to the sea while still unable to ride a horse, and in the invasion of the Carolinas which followed, his cavalry division performed valuable service. He was brevetted (March 13, 1865) brigadier-general and major-general respectively for gallant and meritorious services in the capture of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and in the campaign in the Carolinas.

After the war, Kilpatrick resigned from the army and entered politics, receiving appointment as United States minister to Chile (1865-68). But after Grant's second campaign for the presidency, Kilpatrick was recalled and joined the Democratic party in supporting Horace Greeley. In the year 1876 he again became a Republican and in 1880, while a director of the Union Pacific Railroad, was nominated for Congress from his native state but was defeated. In the same year he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention and in March 1881 was reappointed by President Garfield United States minister to Chile. While involved in a diplomatic controversy with Stephen A. Hurlbut, United States minister to Peru-Chile and Peru being then at war-he died at Santiago of kidney trouble. His first wife had died during the Civil War. He was later married to a Chilean, who survived him. As a cavalry commander he was a brilliant leader, having originated the saying that "cavalry can fight anywhere except at sea." In political life he was an eloquent, magnetic, and forceful public speaker.

[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register ... U.S. Military Academy (ed. 1891), volume II, contains a sketch by Kilpatrick's classmate, Gen. James H. Wilson. See also: Thirteenth Annual Reunion, Association Graduates U. S. Military Academy, 1882; War of the Rebellion, Official Records (Army); Foreign Relations of the U.S., 1867-68, 1881-82; New York Tribune, May 19, November 18, December 7, 22, 1881.]

C. D. R.



LOGAN, JOHN ALEXANDER (February 9, 1826--December 26, 1886), Union soldier, United States senator, was born on a farm in Jackson County, Illinois. His father, Dr. John Logan, was of Scotch descent, an immigrant from the north of Ireland who settled first in Maryland, then in Missouri, and finally in Jackson County, Illinois, near the present Murphysboro. His second wife, Elizabeth Jenkins, al so of Scotch ancestry, was the mother of his eleven children. John, the eldest, received a broken education which included some study of law. After service as a lieutenant in the Mexican War, he continued his legal studies under his uncle, Lieut-Governor Alexander M. Jenkins, began practice, served in local offices and in the Illinois legislature, and married, on November 27, 1855, Mary Simmerson Cunningham, the daughter of a comrade in the war. In 1858 he was elected to Congress from the eleventh Illinois district, as an anti-Lecompton Democrat.

Logan's spread-eagle oratory and contentious spirit, together with the abundant black hair that suggested Indian ancestry, made him a noticeable spokesman of the "Egyptian" counties constituting his district. He was sent to the Charleston convention of 1860 as a Douglas supporter, and was again elected to Congress that autumn. At intervals for the rest of his life he was forced to repel the calumny of having been at heart a Southern sympathizer; but he was able to bring to his vindication the testimony of Lucius Q. C. Lamar and the words of his numerous Union speeches in Congress (Congressional Record, 49 Congress, Special Session of the Senate, pp. 132, 330, March 30, April 19, 1881). When his Democratic associates from the South went home in the winter of 1861, he repeatedly avowed his determination to stand by the Union. In the spring he seized a musket and marched with a Michigan regiment to the battle of Bull Run; and when the special war session came to an end he hurried back to "Egypt" and raised the 31st Illinois Regiment, of which he was at once made colonel.

His military career was distinguished. He took his regiment into early action, had a horse shot under him at Belmont, was twice wounded, was made a brigadier-general after Fort Donelson, and a major-general after Vicksburg. In the fighting around Atlanta he commanded the XV Corps of the Army of the Tennessee; and upon the death of McPherson, July 22, 1864, he took command of that army. It was a matter of deep chagrin to him, and to his Illinois supporters, that, upon the recommendation of Sherman, Lincoln relieved him of this command. Logan believed that the discrimination against him was due to the West Point prejudice against a volunteer; but the fact was that Sherman mistrusted Logan's active political interests, which often took him from the field, and furthermore, as he later explained, although he considered Logan "perfect in combat," the latter "entertained and expressed a species of contempt" for the laborious preparations in logistics that a commander, to be successful, must carry on (Report of the Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting, Society of the Army of the Tennessee, 1887, p. 57).

Logan declined a permanent commission in the regular army and was discharged in 1865. He helped organize the Society of the · Army of the Tennessee and the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was three times president (Proceedings of the First to Tenth Meetings ... of the National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic, 1877, pp. 23, 29, 74); and he went back to Congress as a Republican, elected in 1866 as representative-at-large from Illinois. The Democratic counties of his old district now gave him a substantial majority as a Republican. He was reelected in 1868 and 1870, and in 1871 was chosen senator from Illinois. He lost this seat in 1877, because of a coalition of Democrats and independents that gave it to David Davis [q.v.]; but he obtained the other seat by ousting R. J. Oglesby in 1879; and was chosen for a third term after a prolonged deadlock in 1885 (D. W. Lusk, History of the Contest for U. S. Senator before the 34th General Assembly of Illinois, 1885).

In the Senate Logan was a stalwart Republican who associated himself with all matters of veteran relief. His dislike for West Point and its graduates was never far beneath the surface. He clung to his job, for he had no other means of support; and when his defeat in 1877 threw him into poverty his wife was bitter because President Hayes did not provide him with an appointment (Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wife, p. 360). He was naturally a worker for the nomination of Grant in 1880, making every effort to establish the right of the Illinois convention to name the district delegates and to bind them to the unit rule; but he accepted Garfield and organized the western canvass. In 1884 he had some local support for the presidency, but was obliged to take the second place on the Republican ticket. He fought a vigorous campaign, knowing it to be a losing one, and in the outcome derived his mortification less from Cleveland's victory than from that of Hendricks, whom he believed to have been disloyal. The last months of his life were devoted to the compilation of his war book, The Great Conspiracy: Its Origin and History (1886), which is unimportant save as an expression of his views, and to the preparation of a ponderous manuscript published after his death under the title: The Volunteer Soldier of America, With Memoir of the Author and Military Reminiscences from General Logan’s Private Journal (1887).

Logan was described as "clearly the most eminent and distinguished of the volunteer soldiers" of the Civil War (Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, volume IV, 1925, p. 302). He had conceived the idea of Memorial Day and inaugurated it on May 30, 1868; his last public utterance was a plea for every disabled "Union soldier who served in the army and has an honorable discharge" and for "Every Union soldier over sixty-two years old" (Chicago Tribune, November 20, 1886). He died in Washington, D. C., survived by two children, and by his wife, whose intelligence and charm had always been valuable assets in his campaigns.

[G. F. Dawson, Life and Services of General John A. Logan as Soldier and Statesman (1887), a revamped campaign biography, provided the basis for most of the material of the elaborate obituary in the Chicago Tribune, December 27, 1886. Mary S. C. Logan, Reminiscences of a Soldiers Wife; an Autobiography (1913), is affectionate and personal. Memorial addresses in Congress were printed as Senate Misc. Doc. No. 93, 49 Congress, 2 Session See also: History of Jackson County, Illinois (1 878); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Memoirs of General William T. Sherman (2 volumes, 1875); J. G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress (2 volumes, 1884-86); Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (2 volumes, 18 85- 86); Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (2 volumes, 1907).]

F. L. P.



LYON, NATHANIEL (July 14, 1818-August 10, 1861), soldier, son of Amasa and Keziah (Knowlton) Lyon, was born at Ashford, Connecticut. His father was a descendant of William Lyon who settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1635; his mother was a niece of Thomas Knowlton [q.v.]. At Ashford, Lyon received a common-school education and a Puritan upbringing. He entered the United States Military Academy and graduated in June 1841, being commissioned second lieutenant of infantry, and assigned to the 2nd Regiment, which was already fighting the Seminoles in Florida. I:Ie was next ordered to the quiet post of Sacketts Harbor on Lake Ontario. While here he became deeply interested in national politics, and unbosomed himself by writing (1844) that the sending of troops to the Texas frontier bore the earmarks of "madness and folly." Nevertheless, two years later he was ably doing his bit at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, and Mexico. He was commissioned first lieutenant during this campaign and captain in 1851. For several years he was on frontier duty in California. Between 1854 and early 1861 he was stationed, most of the time, in "Bleeding Kansas."

Impressed with his experiences in Kansas, and Washington, D. C. (during a leave of absence), Lyon wrote a series of political articles (1860- 61) for the Manhattan (Kansas) Express, wherein he bitterly condemned Douglas, called President Buchanan a "blue-eyed old hypocrite," and praised Lincoln and the Republican party. He felt that no state could withdraw from the Union short of revolution, and that in case of attempted secession "discreet measures of coercion" should be u sed. Nevertheless, he was opposed to disturbing slavery where it already existed, and even approved the enforcement, "in good faith," of the Fugitive-slave Law. After his death some of his papers were gathered into a volume, The Last Political Writings of General Nathaniel Lyon (1861).

The most critical epoch in his career opened when he was assigned (February 6, 1861) to the St Louis Arsenal. Here he was not only efficiently alert in all military matters, but was in constant conference with Francis Preston Blair, Jr. [q.v.] and other Republican leaders. After Lyon had questioned the zeal of his superior officer, General W. S. Harney [q.v.], and had threatened to throw the Arsenal ordnance officer into the Mississippi if he weakened toward the Southerners, and after Blair had exerted pressure at Washington, Lyon was made a brigadier-general and placed in supreme command (May 1861) of the Union forces in St. Louis. Among his important acts immediately thereafter were the seizure of Camp Jackson and the arming of volunteers. On June 12, Sterling Price and Governor Claiborne F. Jackson [q.v.], in a final effort at compromise, met Blair and Lyon for a conference at the Planters' Hotel. Although it was expected that Blair would lead the discussion for the Union, it was Lyon who took control. Proving himself a master of the issues involved, he dominated the entire four-hour conference. His final conclusion was, "This means war."

The next day he sent Colonel Franz Sigel with a small force directly into southwest Missouri, while he, with some two thousand regulars, pushed up the Missouri River, took Jefferson City June 15, and captured Boonville two days later. The state forces retreated to southwest Missouri and Lyon turned in pursuit, reaching Springfield July 13. After fruitless efforts to obtain reënforcements he decided (August 9) to attack the main forces of the enemy, camped ten miles southwest on Wilson's Creek. The combined effective state and Confederate troops in this battle totaled slightly over ten thousand, while Lyon's regulars and others numbered 5,400. At night Lyon sent Sigel with 1,200 men to attack, early the next morning, the enemy's extreme right wing, while he, with 4,200 troops, fell upon the rear of their left. Initially successful, Sigel was later surprised and routed, and thus a probable Union victory was turned into defeat. After about five hours of courageous and able fighting Lyon was killed at the head of his troops. The entire North mourned his death and he immediately became a national hero and martyr. In spite of the defeat at Wilson's Creek, his brilliant work had done much to hold Missouri for the Union. The volunteer private soldiers did not like him because, among other things, "he had no compliments or kind words for anybody, and talked to his soldiers as he did to a mule." Nevertheless, they had that respect for him which all soldiers feel toward an officer who understands his business.

[James Peckam, General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861 (1866) and Ashbel Woodward, Life of General Nathaniel Lyon (1 862), are eulogistic. Other sources are: "The Diary of Private Ironquill," in N. L. Prentis, Kansas Miscellanies (1889); Springfield (Missouri) Leader, September 29, 1928; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series, volume I; Report of the Joint Committee on the Cond1,ct of the War, part 3 (1863); T. L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri (1888); W. E. Smith, "The Blairs and Fremont," Missouri History Review, January 1929; The Lyon Monumental Association (1871),-comp. by E. H. E. Jameson; W. F. Switzler, Switzler's Illus. History of Missouri (1879); J. G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln (10 volumes, 1890); R. J. Rombauer, The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861 (1909); Allan Nevins, Fremont (1928); L. U. Reavis, The Life and Military Services of General Wm. Selby Harney (1878); Galusha Anderson, The Story of a Border City During the Civil War (1908); G. W. Anderson, Life and Character of General Nathaniel Lyon (1863), an address; files of St. Louis newspapers, February-July 1861, and esp. Daily Missouri Democrat, August 14, 1861; Lyon Memorial, volume I (1905); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 18qr), volume II.]

H.E.N.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes V-VI, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.