Si-Sy: Sibley through Sykes

Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

SIBLEY, HENRY HASTINGS (February 20, 1811-February 18, 1891), fur trader, territorial delegate, governor of Minnesota, was born in Detroit, Michigan Territory. He was the descendant of John Sibley who emigrated from England to Plymouth about 1629 and later settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and the son of Solomon and Sarah Whipple (Sproat) Sibley. His mother was the granddaughter of Abraham Whipple [q.v.], and his father was territorial delegate to Congress and judge of the territorial supreme court. The boy's education at the local academy was supplemented by two years of tutoring in the classics and two years of law study. In June 1828 he became a clerk in the sutler's store at Fort Brady at Sault" Ste. Marie. In the spring of 1829 he entered the employ of the American Fur Company at Mackin2c as clerk, a position he held for five years. During the last two winters of this service he was stationed at Cleveland, Ohio, charged with the important duty of purchasing the company's supplies of flour, corn, pork, tobacco, and other produce. In the summer of 1834 Hercules L. Dousman and Joseph Rolette, veteran fur traders in the Northwest, invited him to join them as a partner in operating one of the outfits of the American Fur Company and to assume exclusive management of the trade with the Sioux from Lake Pepin to the Canadian boundary and west to the Rocky Mountain divide. On October 28 (Autobiography, post, p. 29, footnote), after an arduous journey by canoe and horse, he arrived at Mendota, beneath the walls of Fort Snelling. In 1835 he built himself "a substantial' and commodious stone dwelling . . . the first . . . private residence, in all of Minnesota, and Dakota" (Auto biography, post, p. 35); and here many explorers, travelers, missionaries, Indians, and other visitors to the region were entertained. His influence among the Sioux was extensive, not alone because of his position as head of the fur trade, but because of his firm and commanding personality, his remarkable physique, and his skill • as a huntsman. On May 2, 1843, he was married to Sarah Jane Steele, sister of Franklin Steele.

In 1848 he was elected delegate to Congress by the inhabitants of that part of the Territory of Wisconsin not included in Wisconsin state. He promoted the organization of Minnesota Territory in 1849 and was promptly elected as delegate to Congress. When Minnesota became a state in May 1858 he took office as the first governor, having been elected as a Democrat. His administration was marked by his interest in the state militia and in the public school lands, a premature sale of which he prevented by veto. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1859. As territorial delegate he had urged on Congress a change in Indian policy but in vain, and in the Sioux uprising in Minnesota of 1862 he led the military forces of the state against the Indians. With an ill equipped command and practically no cavalry he marched from St. Paul to the relief of the frontier posts, reenforced the soldiers and settlers after the battle of Birch Coulee, and fought the battle of Wood Lake on September 23. His influence among the Indians was no doubt partly responsible for the return of the white captives after this battle. In 1863 and 1864 he commanded punitive expeditions against the Sioux in 'the Dakota region, and in 1865-66 he was one of the commissioners to negotiate peace treaties with the Sioux.

He removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and thereafter was concerned with more prosaic public service and private business. He was president of a gas company, an insurance company, and a bank in St. Paul; he was for one term a representative in the state legislature, 1871, and was for ma ny years president of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota and of the Minnesota Historical Society, for which he wrote several addresses and sketches (see Minnesota Historical Society Collections, volumes I, III, post). These, with The Unfinished Autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a Selection of Letters (1932) ed. by T. C. Blegen (also in Minnesota History, December 1927) give a picture of his early life and of his character. He was perhaps the most striking figure among his contemporaries in Minnesota. For years after his retirement from politics he remained an important and influential figure in the state.

[W. W. Folwell, A History of Minnesota (4 volumes, 1921- 30); Minnesota Historical Collections., volumes I (1872), III (1880), VI (1894); Autobiog. ante, and in Minnesota Historical Bull., August 1919; Nathaniel West, The Ancestry, Life, and Times of Hon. Henry Hastings Sibley (1889); and W. P. Shortridge, The Transition of a Typical Frontier, with Illustrations from the Life of Henry Hastings Sibley (1922); W. A. Benedict and H. A. Tracy, History of Sutton, Massachusetts (1878); Daily Pioneer Press (St. Paul), February 17, 19, 1891; an important collection of Sibley's papers in possession of the Minnesota Historical Society.]

S. J. B.



SICKLES, DANIEL EDGAR (October 20, 1825-May 3, 1914), congressman, Union soldier, diplomat, was born in New York City, the son of George Garrett and Susan (Marsh) Sickles, and a descendant of Zachariah (Zacharias) Sickels, of Vienna, Austria, who entered the service of the Dutch West India Company and settled in America about 1656. He attended the University of the City of New York and later engaged in the printing trade, but changed to study law under Benjamin Franklin Butler, 1795-1858 [q.v.]. Admitted to the bar in 1846, he was elected to the state legislature in 1847. He was married to Theresa Bagioli, the seventeen year-old daughter of an Italian music teacher, in 1853. The same year he was appointed corporation counsel for the city of New York, but resigned to become secretary of the United States legation at London. He held this position for two years, and then he was elected to the state Senate. He served as a Democrat in Congress from 1857 to 1861, residing with his wife and little daughter in Washington, D. C. On February 27, 1859, he shot and killed Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key [q.v.], on account of attentions to Mrs. Sickles. In a celebrated trial in which, for the first time, the defense pleaded temporary aberration of mind, Sickles was acquitted (see Harper's Weekly, March 12, 19, April 9, 23, 1859). Sickles subsequently forgave his young wife, who died a few years later.

Although a Democrat, Sickles offered his services to President Lincoln early in March 1861, and was authorized by him to raise troops for the Federal service. Sickles organized in New York, the Excelsior Brigade, becoming first a colonel, then brigadier-general and led it, participating in the Peninsular campaign. He was promoted to the rank of major-general early in 1863, commanding the III Corps, and had an important part in the Chancellorsville campaign. It was the III Corps that, on May 2, discovered the march of Stonewall Jackson around the Federal army. Sickles reported this fact, and after some delay was instructed to attack the enemy cautiously. He did so, but arrived too late, and was surprised by the Confederate attack launched against the XI Corps, posted on his right, which broke. Falling back with his men well in hand, Sickles attacked the victorious Jackson, and after bloody fighting stopped his advance.

The last campaign of Sickles was Gettysburg. Arriving on July 2, 1863, the second day of the battle, the III Corps was stationed by George Gordon Meade [q.v.] to cover the Round Tops, two hills on the left. Sickles decided he could best do this by advancing to the famous peach orchard salient in front of the Round Tops. This decision later aroused a bitter controversy (see Battles and Leaders, post, volume III). Meade personally examined the new line, which Sickles had assumed without specific orders, and suggested retreat, but the discussion was interrupted by a violent Confederate attack on Sickles' forces led by James Longstreet [q.v.]. By nightfall the III Corps had lost one-half its men, but with belated reënforcements had stopped the enemy after slight lo ss of ground. At the very end of the battle, Sickles was struck by a shell, which resulted in the hasty amputation of his right leg on the field. Sickles' position would have been advantageous if an offensive battle had been contemplated, but, in the opinion of Meade, the battleground at Gettysburg favored a defensive contest for the Union forces, and he later criticized Sickles in his reports. His military career now at an end, Sickles was sent on a confidential mission to South America in 1865. He returned the same year and was appointed military governor of the Carolinas, but President Johnson found him too strenuous in the execution of his duties and relieved him in 1867. He was mustered out of the volunteer army on  January 1, 1868, reverting to the rank of colonel in the regular army. In 1869 he was retired as a major-general.

In May 1869 he was appointed minister to Spain where the complications of the Cuban problem and the Virginius affair proved too much for him. His actions were so vigorous that he was called the "Yankee King," but they were not diplomatic and he resigned in December 1873, leaving to his successor, Caleb Cushing [q.v.], the fruits of his efforts. Senorita Carmina Creagh became his second wife on November 28, 1871, at the American legation in Madrid. Sickles then lived abroad for seven years, and when he returned to the United States his wife refused to come with him. They were reconciled more than three decades later at his deathbed, through the efforts of their son. A daughter by this marriage had died in New York City. Sickles became chairman of the New York state monuments commission in 1886, but was relieved in 1912 because of mishandling funds (see New York Times,  January 23, 26, 28, 1913). He served another te rm in Congress from 1893 to 1895. Separated from his family, continually involved in financial troubles and altercations, the "old, irresponsible and cantankerous" gentleman spent his last years in New York City (Literary Digest, May 16, 1914). His one claim to honor which remained undisputed was his successful effort in 1852 to obtain Central Park for New York City. He related some of his experiences in an article "Leaves from My Diary," in the Journal of the Military Service Association of the United States, June and September, 1885.

[Who's Who in America, 1914-15; S. A. Merriam The Ancestry of Franklin Merriam Peabody (1929) : Trial of the Hon. Daniel E. Sickles (1859) War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 Ser., volumes XIII, XXXIX, XLIII; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887-88), volume III; G. G. Meade, With Meade at Gettysburg (1930); Francis Marshal, The Battle of Gettysburg (1914); Harper's Weekly, September 14, 1867; S. F. Bemis, The American Secretaries of State, volume VII (1928); National Tribune (Washington, D. C.), March 31, 1910; New York Times, May 4, 1914.]

C. H. L.



SIDELL, WILLIAM HENRY (August 21, 1810-July I, 1873), engineer and soldier, son of John Sidell, was born in New York City. He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy from New York on July 1, 1829, and was graduated four years later, standing sixth in a class of forty-three. He was commissioned brevet second lieutenant of the 1st Artillery, but, disappointed at not having been assigned to the engineer corps, he resigned from the army on October 1, 1833, and took up the profession of civil engineer. For four years he served successively as city surveyor in New York City, as assistant engineer on the Croton aqueduct, as division engineer of the Long Island Railroad, and as assistant engineer on projected dry docks in New York harbor. From 1837 to 1839 he was an engineer on the United States hydrographic survey of the delta of the Mississippi, and subsequently, until 1846, served as a civil engineer of various railroads in New York and Massachusetts. During the Mexican War he accepted a captaincy in the 4th New York Volunteers, but his regiment was never mustered into the federal service. From 1846 to 1849 he was with the Isthmus (of Panama) Railroad, becoming during the last year of his service its chief engineer. For the next two years he was in the United States service, exploring for a railroad route from the Mississippi to the Pacific. In 1851-52 he was engaged in the surveying of a railroad route across the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. Thereafter he was chief engineer of various railroads in Illinois and Missouri until 1858, when he returned to Mexico as chief engineer of the Louisiana Tehuantepec Company, to complete the difficult survey of the transisthmian railroad route on which he had been engaged some years earlier. When the Civil War broke out, he at once offered his services to the Union, and, May 14, 1861, was commissioned major of the 15th Infantry in the regular army and assigned to recruiting duty in Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1862 he was appointed acting assistant adjutant-general of the department of the Cumberland, and in 1863, acting assistant provost-marshal-general for Kentucky and general superintendent of recruiting and chief mustering and disbursing officer at Louisville, Kentucky, which positions he held to the end of the war. On May 6, 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, 10th Infantry. Though Sidell's accomplishments in the war were inconspicuous, they were of the greatest importance. He organized a system by which 200,000 men were mustered in and out of the armies without delay or confusion and with an exact record of each man's service. He was brevetted colonel, May 13, 1865, for meritorious and faithful services in the recruitment of the armies of the United States, and on the same date, brigadier-general for faithful and efficient services during the war. He was on frontier duty in the Dakotas and in Kansas for the most of the time until 1870, when he was retired from active service for disability contracted in line of duty. He died at the home of his sister, Mrs. Jasper Grosvenor, in New York City.

[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1891); Bull. Association Graduates, U. S. Military Academy, Annual Reunion, June 18f3; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); American Annual Cyclopedia 1873 (1874); Army and Navy Journal, July S, 1873; New York Times, July 2, 1873; records at headquarters U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York; records of Pension Bureau, Washington, D. C.]

S.J.H.



SIGEL, FRANZ (November 18, 1824-August 21, 1902), soldier and editor, the son of Franz Moritz and Maria Anna (Lichtenauer) Sigel, was born in Sinsheim, Baden, Germany. His father was chief magistrate of a district. After completing his studies in the Gymnasium of Bruchsal, Franz entered the military aca demy of Karlsruhe from which he graduated in 1843 to become a lieutenant in the grand ducal service. His liber al political views brought him into conflict with the existing regime, and in 1847, after severely wounding an opponent in a duel, he resigned from the service. In the insurrection in Ba den in 1848, as an associate of Friedrich Karl Franz Hecker [q.v.], he led an army of 4,000 revolutionists against the government but was defeated and compelled to flee to Switzerland. The next year, when a revolutionary government succeeded in establishing itself in the duchy, he was recalled and became minister of war. He took the field against the Prussian army sent to restore the old order, but his inferior force was soon overpowered and he was again forced into exile in Switzerland. His reminiscences of these years were published in Germany in 1902 under the title, Denkwurdigkeiten aus den Jahren, 1848 und 1849. He spent the year 1851-52 in England and then emigrated to America and settled in New York City, where he became an instructor in the private school of Dr. Rudolph Dulon. He maintained an interest in military affairs and became a major in the 5th Regiment of the New York militia. He accepted a position as instructor in mathematics and history in the German-American institute of St. Louis, Missouri, in the fall of 1857 and subsequently became a director of schools in that city.

When the Civil War broke out, Sigel organized the 3rd Missouri Infantry and, on May 4, 1861, became colonel. He performed efficient service in saving St. Louis, with its important arsenal, for the Union, and was soon assigned to command the 2nd Missouri Brigade, being appointed brigadier-general of volunteers to date from May 17, 1861. During the remainder of the year he took part in a number of battles in the struggle for the possession of Missouri. At the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7-8, 1862, Sigel commanded two divisions in Fremont's army, and by his gallantry and skill contributed greatly to the decisive Union victory which settled the fate of Missouri. He was promoted to the rank of major-general of volunteers on Mar, 21, 1862,.and in June became commander of the I Corps in Pope's army of Virginia. In this capacity he took a prominent part in the second battle of Bull Run. In September 1862 his corps was transferred to the Army of the Potomac as the XI Corps. Later, when Burnside divided that army into grand divisions, Sigel was given the reserve grand division, consisting of the XI and XII Corps, but in February 1863, he reverted to the command of the XI Corps. Owing to bad health he gave up his command temporarily in the spring of 1863, and when he returned to duty in the summer he was given a subordinate command in the department of the Susquehanna. He was assigned to command the department of West Virginia in March 1864, but a serious defeat at the hands of Breckinridge at New Market in the Shenandoah Valley, on May 15, 1864, cost him his command and he was removed to Harpers Ferry.

When Early's raid threatened Washington in July 1864, Sigel, by skilfully occupying a strong position on Maryland Heights, delayed Early's greatly superior force. The authorities, however, at no time had considered him sufficiently aggressive and now removed him from command. He resigned his commission in May 1865 and became for two years an editor of the Baltimore Wecker, a German newspaper.in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1867 he moved to New York City where he spent the remainder of his life. His great influence with the German element soon brought him into politics. From 1866 to 1869 he was pension agent in New York, and two years later he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the city, later being elected register. He was a prominent lecturer and kept himself in the public eye as publisher and editor of the Neu Yorker Deutsches Volksblatt, and from 1897 to 1900 as editor of the New York Monthly. A love for free government had been the ruling motive of Sigel's life. His military successes were not of the greatest, but his prompt and ardent espousal of the Union cause was a great factor in uniting the large German population of the North, with which he was extremely popular, solidly behind the Union. In October 1907, a bronze equestrian statue of Sigel, by Karl Bitter [q.v.], was unveiled with impressive ceremonies on Riverside Drive in New York City. He had been married to Elise Dulon, the daughter of his first employer, in January 1854. She and their five children survived him when he died in New York City.

[Who's Who in America, 1901-02; C. W. Schlegel, Schlegel's German-American Families in the U. S., volume I (1916); F. K. F. Hecker, Die Erhebung des Volkes in Baden (1848); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), see index; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887-88), volume IV; New York Times, August 22, 23, 1902, October 20, 1907; New Yorker Staats-Zeitung; August 22, 23, 24, 1902, October 13, 20, 1907.]

S. J.  H.



SIMPSON, JAMES HERVEY (M a r. 9, 1813-March 2, 1883), soldier, engineer, author, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of John Neely and Mary (Brunson) Simpson. After a common-school education he entered the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, at fifteen and graduated creditably in 1832. Commissioned in the artillery, he served a s aide to General Henry Lawrence Eustis during the Seminole War, 1837-38, and was in action at Locha-Hatchee. In 1838 he was transferred to the topographical engineers, and during the following ten years was en g aged in engineering projects in the East and the South. In 1849 he was in charge of the exploration of a route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, N. Mex. (Report from the Secretary of War Communicating the Report and Map of the Route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1850), serving a s chief topographical engineer, Department of New Mexico. About this time, too, he reconnoitered a route from Santa Fe to the Navajo Indian country, which he reported in Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa F e, N. M ex., to the Navajo Country (1852). He was promoted captain, March 3, 1853, and served five years on road construction in Minnesota and two y ears on coast survey duty. In 1858 he accompanied the Utah Expedition, and submitted a valuable report on a new route from Salt Lake City to the Pacific coast.

With the outbreak of the Civil War he attained the rank of major and for a few months was chief topographical engineer, Department of the Shenandoah, when he was commissioned colonel, 4th New Jersey Volunteers. With his regiment he saw service in the Peninsular campaign, and was engaged at Westpoint, Virginia, and at Gaines's Mill, where he was taken prisoner. After being exchanged he resigned his volunteer commission on August 27, 1862, and served as chief topographical engineer and chief engineer, Department of the Ohio, 1862-63. Until the end of the war he was in general charge of fortifications and engineering projects in Kentucky. For faithful and meritorious services during the war, he was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general, March 13, 1865. He became chief engine er, Department of the Interior, 1865-67, and was charged with general direction and inspection of the Union Pacific Railroad (Report on the Union Pacific Railroad and Its Branches, 1865), as w ell as of all government wagon-roads. He was promoted colonel of engineers on March 7, 1867. His subsequent active military service covered road construction, river and harbor improvements, and lighthouse supervision in the South and the Middle West. At his own request he retired on March 31, 1880, and made his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he died of pneumonia, and where he was buried with military honors. He was married first to Jane Champlin, and second, in 1871, to Elizabeth Sophia (Borup) Champlin, widow of Raymond Champlin. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and two adopted daughters. He published a number of interesting reports, descriptive of his explorations in the West (listed in Centennial of the United States Military Academy, 1904, volume II, p. 356), including Route From Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, N. Mex. (1850), The Shortest Route to California (1869), Coronado's March in Search of the Seven Cities of Cibola (1871), and Exploration Across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah (1876).

[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Grads. U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891), volume I; Fourteenth Annual Reunion Assoc. Grads. U. S. Military Academy (1883); C. L. Andrews, History of St. Paul, Minnesota (1890); obituaries in Army and Navy Journal, March 17, 1883; New York Times, Daily Globe (St. Paul), March 3, 1883.]

C. D.R.



SLOCUM, HENRY WARNER (September 24, 1827-April 14, 1894), Union general, was born at Delphi, Onondaga County, New York, the son of Matthew Barnard and Mary (Ostrander) Slocum. He was of the eighth generation in descent from Anthony Slocombe, who came from Taunton in England to Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1637. His early education was in the local district school and in Cazenovia Seminary. For several years he taught school, attending the state normal school during some of his vacations. An early interest in military reading was stimulated by the Mexican War, and he sought an appointment to the United States Military Academy. He secured it in 1848 and was graduated in 1852, number seven in a cl ass of forty-three, being commissioned second lieutenant in the 1st Artillery. He went first to Florida, then, in 1853, to Fort Moultrie. On March 3, 1855, he was promoted first lieutenant, but resigned on October 31, 1856, to engage in the practice of law, for which he had been preparing himself while at Moultrie. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and established himself at Syracuse, New York. He soon gained local prominence; in 1859 he was a member of the New York assembly, and, in 1860, treasurer of Onondaga County. He also served as colonel and artillery instructor in the New York militia. On May 21, 1861, he became colonel of the 27th New York Infantry. At the battle of Bull Run on July 21, he was severely wounded, but won promotion as brigadier-general of volunteers, on August 9, 1861. Reporting for duty again in September he was assigned to the command of a brigade in Franklin's division, and went with it to the Peninsula. This division became part of the VI Corps; Franklin was assigned to command the corps, and Slocum succeeded him in the division, which he commanded through the rest of the campaign. On July 4, 1862, he was promoted major-general of volunteers. Upon the withdrawal of McClellan's army from the Peninsula, Slocum's division was transported to Alexandria. From there it moved forward to assist in covering Pope's withdrawal. Slocum remained in command during the ensuing campaign in Maryland, and was engaged at South Mountain and Antietam. In October he assumed command of the XII Army Corps, which took part in th e Fredericksburg campaign, but was not engaged in the battle. In the following spring it bore a very active part in the campaign and battle of Chancellorsville.

At Gettysburg Slocum had command of the extreme right of the Union line-the "point of the fish-hook," from Culp's Hill southward. Until Meade's arrival early in the morning of July 2, Slocum exercised command, as senior officer present, of all the troops as they arrived, and supervised the formation of the lines. In the autumn of 1863, after the battle of Chickamauga, it became necessary to reenforce Rosecrans by troops from the east. On September 24, Howard's XI Corps and Slocum's XII were designated to move by rail to Tennessee. General Hooker was assigned to command the two corps. Slocum had been hostile to Hooker ever since the battle of Chancellorsville, and now, rather than serve under him, tendered his resignation. This was not accepted, but dispositions were made so as to avoid in so far as possible personal contact between the two officers. This transfer of troops was the largest ever made by rail up to that time. It involved the transportation of 24,000 men, with artillery and trains, for a distance of 1200 miles, with three changes of trains, and was completed in nine days. Slocum with half his corps was stationed on the Nashville Chattanooga Railway; the rest of the corps served directly under Hooker. In April 1864, he was assigned to command the district of Vicksburg. The XI and XII Corps were consolidated into the XX Corps under Hooker. In July, after McPherson's death, Howard was assigned to command the Army of the Tennessee in his place. Hooker, being senior to Howard, asked to be relieved, and Slocum returned to his old command as now enlarged. He joined it before Atlanta on August 26, and his troops were the first to enter the city on September 2. On the march to the sea and up through the Carolinas, Slocum commanded the left wing of Sherman's army, consisting of the XIV and XX Corps. Toward the end of the campaign the two wings became separate armies, Howard's resuming its old title as the Army of the Tennessee, and Slocum's, taking that of the Army of Georgia. At the end of the war Slocum was assigned to command the department of the Mississippi with headquarters at Vicksburg. He resigned on September 28; 1865, and returned to Syracuse. He was nominated as Democratic candidate for secretary of state of New York, but was defeated by Francis Channing Barlow [q.v.]. In the spring of 1866 he moved to Brooklyn, and began the practice of law in that city. He was a Democratic presidential elector in 1868. He was elected to Congress in 1868, and again in 1870. In 1876 he was commissioner of public works in Brooklyn. In 1882 he was returned to Congress, and served until March 1885. He was active in the case of Fitz-John Porter [q.v.], and in that officer's interest delivered one of his strongest speeches in Congress on January 18, 1884. Slocum maintained an active interest in military matters, and was a member of the Board of Gettysburg Monument Commissioners. His wife, Clara Rice, of Woodstock, New York, to whom he had been married on February 9, 1854, survived him, with three of their four children, when he died in New York City.

[C. E. Slocum, A Short History of the Slocums, Slocumbs and Slocombs of America, vol I (1882), volume II (1908), The Life and Services of Major-General Henry Warner Slocum (1913); In Memoriam, Henry Warner Slocum 1826-1894 (1904); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register U.S. Military Academy (1891); Biographical Directory American Cong; (1928); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), see index; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 14, 16, 1894.]

O. L. S., Jr.



SMITH, ANDREW JACKSON (April 28, 1815- January 30, 1897), soldier, was the son of Samuel Smith, who had been a lieutenant under Montgomery at the assault on Quebec and a captain at the siege of Yorktown. Samuel Smith marri ed a daughter of one John Wilkinson and spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, except while commanding a brigade of militia during the War of 1812. When his youngest son was born in the township of Buckingham soon after the battle of New Orleans, he "had no other means in his power of Showing his regard for the Hero, who achieved the Victory, than calling his son for him" (War Department records post). This son, who is described as "intelligent and sprightly" (Ibid.), was appointed a cadet at West Point, July 1, 1834, and on his graduation, July 1, 1838, was commissioned second lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons (now the 1st Cavalry). His early service was practically all in the West, including some minor Indian campaigns. He was promoted first lieutenant, March 4, 1845; captain,  February 16, 1847; and major, May 13, 1861, all in the 1st Dragoons.  

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was stationed in California. He was appointed colonel of the 2nd California Cavalry, October 2, 1861, but resigned, November 3, 1861, and was sent to Missouri, where he became chief of cavalry under Henry Wager Halleck [q.v.] and served as such through the Corinth campaign in 1862. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, March 17, 1862. He commanded a division in the expeditions against Chickasaw Bluffs and Arkansas Post in the following winter, and throughout the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. In the Red River campaign, March to May, 1864, he had a command made up of troops drawn from the XVI Corps (his own) and the XVII Corps. He was appointed major-general of volunteers, May 12, 1864. He spent the next few months in Tennessee and Mississippi in service which, overshadowed by the great Atlanta campaign, would have been as inconspicuous as it was necessary, had it not been illuminated by his defeat of Nathan Bedford Forrest [q.v.] at Tupelo, July 14, 1864. His command was then sent to Missouri for the defense of that state, and returned in haste to reinforce George Henry Thomas [q.v.] and take part in the battle of Nashville in December. Its wanderings had become so extensive that Smith now referred to his troops as the "lost tribes of Israel." As commander of the XVI Corps he took part in the Mobile campaign of 1865. He was mustered out of the volunteer service,  January 15, 1866, and reverted to his regular army rank of lieutenant-colonel, to which he had been promoted, May 9, 1864; but on July 28, 1866, he was appointed colonel of the 7th Cavalry. He resigned from the army, May 6, 1869, when he was appointed postmaster at St. Louis, Missouri; he was city auditor from 1877 to 1889, and commanded a brigade of militia during the strikes in St. Louis in 1877. Under a special act of Congress he was appointed colonel on the retired list of the regular army,  January 22, 1889. His wife was Ann Mason Simpson, daughter of Dr. Robert Simpson of St. Louis. Smith "was of small stature, with rather brusque, abrupt manners, sometimes verging on irascibility, yet was popular with his troops, and shunned none of the hardships to which they were subjected" (Perry, Twenty-Eighth Annual Reunion (post, p. 53). Constantly shifted from place to place to meet emergencies, he did not remain long enough with any one army to become identified with it, and as a consequence the confidence his superiors had in him did nothing to enhance his popular reputation.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887-88), volumes III, IV; G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891); L. J. Perry, in Twenty-Eighth Annual Reunion  Assoc. Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1897) and New York Sun, February 21, 1897; St. Louis Globe Democrat,  January 28, 31, 1897; unpublished records in the War Department]

T. M. S.



SMITH, CHARLES FERGUSON (April 24, 1807-April 25, 1862), soldier, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel Blair Smith, surgeon in the United States Army, and Mary (Ferguson) Smith. He was admitted to the United States Military Academy as a cadet, July 1, 1820, and was graduated and appointed second lieutenant, 2nd Artillery, July l, 1825. After four years of garrison service he returned to the Military Academy as an instructor in 1829, and remained there for more than thirteen years as instructor of infantry tactics, adjutant, and finally commander of cadets. It was there, under · Sylvanus Thayer [q.v.], that the qualities of discipline and precision, and the martial bearing and spirit that so distinguished his later career were developed and fixed. He was promoted first lieutenant in 1832 and captain in 1838. He was married, March 24, 1840, to Fanny Mactier of Philadelphia. After 1842 he served at Fort Columbus, Governors Island, New York, and the arsenal at Frankford, Pennsylvania, until 1845, when impending war with Mexico called him to duty with General Zachary Taylor's army in Texas. In command of a battalion of artillery serving as infantry he participated in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Texas, and was brevetted major for gallant conduct in those battles, May 9, 1846. With the same "red--legged infantry" at Monterey he stormed the works on Loma Federacion, a key position commanding the city. For this action he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, September 23, 1846. Transferred to General Winfield Scott's army in command of an independent battalion composed of two artillery and two infantry companies, which became known as Smith's Light Infantry, he took prominent part in all the operations of that army from the siege of Vera Cruz to the capture and occupation of Mexico city. For gallant and meritorious conduct at Contreras and Churubusco he received his third brevet, that of colonel, August 20, 1847.

From 1849 to 1855, in addition to garrison duties, he served on important boards dealing with the training and administration of the army. Promoted major, 1st Artillery, November 25, 1854, and lieutenant-colonel, 10th Infantry, March 3, 1855, in 1856 he led an expedition to the Red River of the North. The next year he served in the Utah expedition, and was in command of the Department of Utah, 1860-61. At the outbreak of the Civil War, after temporary service in Washington, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers (and colonel, regular army) and assigned to command the District of Western Kentucky. He commanded the 2nd Division of Grant's army in the operations against Fort Henry, Tennessee, Fort Heiman, Kentucky, and Fort Donelson, Tennessee. At a critical stage of the battle at Fort Donelson he personally led an assault against -the Confederate outworks and secured a position with-in the defenses, the immediate cause of the surrender of the garrison. For this he was promoted major-general of volunteers, March 21, 1862. He was placed in command of the expedition up the Tennessee River, but an injury resulting from an accident developed into an illness that caused his death at Savannah, Tennessee, a month later. He was survived by his wife and three children.

[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register ..Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1891), volume I;  J. H" Smith, The War with Mexico (2 volumes, 1919); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume I (1887); unpublished records of the War Department, 1845-62; records of U. S. Pension Office, for name of wife and date of marriage; J. H. Wilson, Under the Old Flag (1912), volume II, for remarks about Smith attributed to Sherman and Grant; obituaries in Phila. Inquirer, Pub. Ledger (Phila.), and Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D. C.), April 28, 1862.]

 T. F. M.



SMITH, CHARLES HENRY (November 1, 1827- July 17, 1902), soldier, the son of Aaron and Sally (Gile) Smith, was born in Hollis, Maine. He was graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College at Waterville, Maine, in 1856, and three years later received the A.M. degree from that institution. From 1856 to 1860 he was principal of the high school at Eastport, Maine, and studied law there. When the Civil War broke out he volunteered and became a captain in the 1st Maine Cavalry. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac early in 1862, and during that year he fought on a reconnaissance to Front Royal, Virginia, in the battle of Cedar Mountain, and in the second battle of Bull Run. From September 1862 to January 1863 he was provost-marshal at Frederick, Maryland, remaining thereafter on almost continuous duty with the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. He was rapidly promoted in 1863 through the grades of major and lieutenant-colonel to colonel. During this year he commanded the 1st Maine Cavalry on Stoneman's raid into Virginia, in the Gettysburg campaign where he was cited for distinguished conduct, and in the Mine Run campaign.

The year 1864 was an active one for the cavalry; skirmishes, reconnaissances, raids, and long marches were the order of the day. Two horses were shot from under him at St. Mary's Church, Virginia, on June 24, 1864, and Smith was himself shot through the thigh early in the afternoon, but he did not relinquish command of his regiment until the day was over. For his heroism on this occasion he was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, and was awarded the Congressional medal of honor in 1895. He commanded a cavalry brigade through most of the Richmond campaign from August to December 1864 and again received special mention for distinguished service. In 1865 he fought through the Appomattox campaign to the end of the war and won renown at Sailor's Creek, Virginia, on April 6, for a bold attack with his brigade against the flank of a retreating Confederate column. He was mustered out of the army on August 11, 1865, returned to Machias in his native state, was admitted to the bar, practised law, and in 1866 became a state senator. On July 28, 1866, he accepted the appointment of colonel of the 28th Infantry in the regular army. He served at various posts in Missouri, Louisiana, Colorado, and Texas until November 1, 1891, when he retired from active duty and settled in Washington, D. C. He was married to Mary Richards Livermore of Eastport, Maine, on July 28, 1864. Beside s the brevet rank already mentioned, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers in 1865, brigadier-general in the regular army, 1867, for his action in the battle of Sailor's Creek, and major-general for gallant service during the war. This modest officer fought in sixty-three battles and skirmishes and was three times wounded. He died in Washington, D. C., and was survived by a son and a daughter.

[Who's Who in America, 1901-02; W. E. Thwing, The Livermore Family of America (1902); General Cat. of Officers and Graduates of Colby Univ. (1882); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), see index; F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory, U. S. Army (1903); Men of Progress ... State of Maine (1897); Army and Navy Register, July 19, 1902; Washington Post, July 18, 20, 1902.]

S. J. H.



SMITH, GILES ALEXANDER (September 29, 1829-November 5, 1876), Union soldier, was born in Jefferson County, New York. He was the son of Cyrus and Laura (Wales) Smith and a brother of Morgan Lewis Smith [q.v.], and was descended from Ignatius Smith, who emigrated to Cape Cod probably in the first half of th e eighteenth century. About 1847 he went to London, Ohio, but soon afterwards moved to Cincinnati, where he engaged in the dry-goods business. Shortly after his marriage, July 31, 1856, to Martha McLain of London, Ohio, he removed to Bloomington, Illinois, continuing in the dry-goods business until 1859, when he became the proprietor of a hotel. On June 4, 1861, he entered the military service as captain of Company D, 8th Missouri Volunteers, his brother's regiment, and took part in the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, in the battle of Shiloh, and in the siege of Corinth. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, June 12, 1862, and, on the promotion of his brother to brigadier-general, succeeded him, June 30, as colonel of the regiment. In Sherman's expedition against Vicksburg, December 1862, the command of a brigade devolved upon Smith during the assault on Chickasaw Bluffs, and he retained that command during the operations terminating in the capture of Arkansas Post, his soldierly conduct in that capacity drawing commendation from Sherman. In Grant's operations against Vicksburg he particularly distinguished himself by the rescue of the gunboat flotilla which, while trying to force a passage to the Yazoo, had been trapped in Steele's Bayou by the Confederate". He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, August 4, 1863, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field. On November 24, 1863, at Chattanooga, he seized a position on the south bank of the Tennessee River by a skilful maneuver and covered the crossing of Sherman's corps. Later in the day, in the first assault on Missionary Ridge, he was severely wounded. In the Atlanta campaign he distinguished himself at Resaca, and on July 20, 1864, he was transferred to command the 2nd Division, XVII Corps. When two days later the battle of Atlanta was fought, the brunt of the attack fell on his division, and the repulse of the Confederates was largely due to its heroic conduct. He led his division in the march to the sea and in the Carolina campaign, and was brevetted major-general of volunteers, September 1, 1864. After the collapse of the Confederacy he was stationed in Texas. He was promoted major-general of volunteers, November 24, 1865. When the volunteer forces were disbanded he declined a commission as colonel of cavalry in the regular army and returned to his home in Bloomington.

He was appointed second assistant postmaster general in 1869 but resigned in 1872 because of failing health. Though he removed to California in 1874 in the hope of checking the progress of disease, he returned to his old home in Bloomington two months before his death. He possessed a natural soldierly aptitude. Under the tutelage of his brother and the experience of war he advanced rapidly by merit alone, and won esteem for his gallantry and completeness as an officer. His superiors generally took it for granted that any mission assigned him would be well performed, and there was no occasion when this confidence was not justified by the result.

[F. A. Virkus, The Compendium of American Genealogy, volume V (1933); F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory of the U. S. Army (1903); Report of Proc. Society of the Army of the Tennessee Eleventh Annual Meeting, 1877 (1885); Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (2 volumes, 2nd ed., revised, 1886); War of the Rebellion: Off. Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1 888); U. S. Pension Office records, for name of wife and date of marriage; obituaries in St. Louis Globe Democrat and Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), November 6, 1876; family records.]

T. F. M.



SMITH, JOHN EUGENE (August 3, 1816- January 29, 1897), soldier, was born in the canton of Berne, Switzerland. His father, John Banter Smith, was an officer in one of the Swiss regiments which accompanied Napoleon from his ill-fated Moscow campaign to Waterloo. Before John Eugene was a year old his parents emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he received an elementary education and learned the jeweler's trade. In 1836, after having followed his trade for a few years in St. Louis, Missouri, he removed to Galena, Illinois, and established a jewelry business. During the same year he was married to Aimee A. Massot of St. Louis. In 1860 he was elected treasurer of Jo Daviess County, Ill. When the Civil War broke out he at once offered his services to Governor Yates, and, after serving on the staff of the latter for a few months, he organized the 45th Illinois Infantry, known as the "Washburne Lead mine Regiment," and became colonel on July 23, 1861. During 1862 he led his regiment with bravery and distinction in the operations against Forts Henry and Donelson, was in the thickest of the fight at Shiloh, and temporarily commanded a brigade at the siege of Corinth. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on November 29, 1862. In the spring of 1863 he was given command of a division, under General Grant, which he led ably throughout the Vicksburg campaign, participating in the expedition to Yazoo Pass, the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion's Hill, Big Black River, and the final siege and capture of Vicksburg. Smith, with his division, was then transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, made a brilliant charge at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, and accompanied General Sherman on his march to the sea. A prompt and effective deployment of his division at Savannah, Georgia, on December 20, 1864, was instrumental in causing the Confederates to evacuate the city. In June 1865 he was assigned to command the district of western Tennessee where he remained until he was mustered out of the service on April 30, 1866. The following July he was commissioned colonel of the 27th Infantry in the regular army. He served at various frontier posts, and by his coolness and prompt action at Fort Laramie, Wyo., helped to quell an outbreak of the Sioux Indians under Spotted Tail [q.v.]. Smith retired from active service in May 1881, and settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he died. His body was taken to his old home at Galena for interment. He had been three times honored with brevet rank: in 1865, as major-general of volunteers for service and gallantry in action; in 1867, as brigadier-general in the regular army for gallantry at the siege of Vicksburg; and again in the same year, as major-general in the regular army for action at Savannah, Georgia. He was survived by three sons.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), volumes I, VII, X, XVII, XXII, XXIV, XXX-XXXII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIV, XL VII-XLIX, LII; F. B. Heitman, Historical Register .... U.S. Army (1903); Memorials of Deceased Companions ... Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion (1901); The Forty-Fifth Illinois (1905); Newton Bateman, Paul Selby, J. S. Currey, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, volume I (1925); Army and Navy Register, February 6, 1897; Chicago Tribune, Chicago Times-Herald, January 30, 1897.]

S. J. H.



SMITH, MORGAN LEWIS (March 8, 1821- December 28, 1874), Union soldier, was born in the town of Mexico, Oswego County, New York, the son of Cyrus and Laura (Wales) Smith, and elder brother of Giles Alexander Smith [q.v.]. His father, a farmer, soon afterwards moved to Jefferson County, New York, with his family. Leaving home in 1842, Smith settled in Meadville, Pennsylvania, but before long went to New Albany, Indiana, and there taught school for about two years. He enlisted in the United States army in July 1845 under the name of Mortimer L. Sanford, and served for the five-year period of his enlistment as sergeant and drill instructor at the recruit depot, Newport, Kentucky. From 1850 to 1861 he held various positions on steamboats running between Cincinnati, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the outbreak of the Civil War he organized the 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry, composed mainly of rivermen and recruits from the rough element in the population of St. Louis. Appointed colonel, July 7, 1861, he soon brought his regiment to a high state of discipline, training, and combat efficiency. After conducting an expedition against guerrillas in southern Missouri, he joined the army of Ulysses Simpson Grant [q.v.], and at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in command of a brigade compose d of his own and another regiment, he successfully stormed a strong position held by the enemy. General Lew Wallace, in reporting Smith's conduct of this attack, wrote: "Words cannot do justice to his courage and coolness" (War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), l series, volume VII, p. 240). He commanded a brigade in the expedition up the Tennessee River, and in the Shiloh and Corinth campaigns. His command bore the principal part in the battle at Russell's House, May 17, 1862, where his conduct won commendation from General William Tecumseh Sherman [q.v.]. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, July 16, 1862. He took part in Sherman's expedition against Vicksburg after active service in Tennessee and northern Mississippi. While reconnoitering the enemy's position on Chickasaw Bluffs, December 28, 1862, he received a gunshot wound that disabled him until October 6, 1863. On that date he returned to duty as commander of the 2nd Division, XV Corps, and bore a distinguished part in the assault and capture of Missionary Ridge, and the subsequent movement for the relief of Knoxville. He further distinguished himself for skill and gallantry in the operations against Atlanta, and was temporarily in command of the XV Corps, July 23-28, 1864. The rigors of this campaign caused such irritation of his old wound as to permanently incapacitate him for field service. He was on sick leave from August 17 to September 27, 1864, when he was placed in command of the District of Vicksburg. There his firm administration of martial law quickly stopped the disorders that had become prevalent. He remained at Vicksburg until the close of the war, resigning his commission, July 12, 1865. For about two years after his marriage to Louise Genella, December 18, 1866, he was United States consul general in Honolulu. Resigning, he declined the governorship of the Colorado Territory and engaged in business in Washington, D. C. He acted as counsel for the collection of claims, held contracts for the delivery of United States mails on various southern and western routes, and at the time of his death was connected with a building association. He died suddenly at Jersey City, New Jersey, where he was a visitor. He was survived by two daughters. He was a natural leader, magnetic, resolute, and extraordinarily brave and cool in battle, and he had in an unusual degree the ability to establish discipline in volunteer troops. The official records show that such distinguished generals as Grant, Sherman, and Wallace held him in high esteem as an able and dependable officer.

[F. A. Virkus, The Compendium of American Genealogy, volume V (1933); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); unpublished records of the War Department; Report of Proc. Society of the Army of the Tennessee ... September 29, 1875 (1877); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1888); U. S. Pension Office records; obituaries in Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), Washington Chronicle, and National Republican (Washington), December 30, and New York Times, December 31, 1874; family records.] T.F. M.

J R. E. B.



SMITH, WILLIAM FARRAR (February 17, 1824-February 28, 1903), Union soldier, engineer, was born at St. Albans, Vermont, the son of Ashbel and Sarah (Butler) Smith. Family tradition held that in colonial days the name had been Smithson, the last syllable having been dropped before the family moved to Vermont from Barre, Massachusetts. John Gregory Smith [q.v.] was a cousin. William received a common school education and was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1845 as a second lieutenant of topographical engineers, standing fourth in a class of forty-one members. He was engaged in making surveys and · in teaching mathematics at West Point for the next fifteen years. During a tour of duty in Florida in 1855 he suffered a severe attack of malaria which shattered his health temporarily and made him subject to recurrent seizures which at various times during his life caused him great pain and mental depression. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Vermont Volunteers, and was present in the Manassas campaign. In August 1861 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general and was assigned to the command of the 2nd Division of the IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, which opened the Peninsular campaign in 1862. He led his division in the battle of Williamsburg and the Seven Days' battles, and, in June 1862, was brevetted lieutenant-colonel in the regular army for his services at White Oak Swamp. In July he became a major-general, commanded the 2nd Division; VI Corps, at Antietam, and was brevetted colonel for this service. After the disasters of Fredericksburg, in which he had taken part, Smith indulged in the indiscretion of writing a letter, signed also by William Buel Franklin [q.v.], directly to President Lincoln, expressing the dissatisfaction of the subordinate officers and the common soldiers in their leadership, objecting to the proposed advance on Richmond as impracticable, and offering an alternative plan (Official Records, Army, XXI, 868). Lincoln saved him from being relieved from duty, but the incident occasioned his transfer to the IX Corps. The Senate having refused to sanction to the promotion of major-general on March 4, 1863, he reverted to the rank of brigadier-general. The great call for troops to rescue Rosecrans' army after the disaster at Chickamauga took Smith to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in October 1863, as chief engineer. The problem of supplying the starving army by restoring a short line of communication with Bridgeport challenged Smith's extraordinary engineering skill. The unquestioned excellence of his work in constructing pontoon bridges won extravagant praise from Grant, Sherman, and Thomas, and Jed to a reappointment as major-general in March 1864, but made it especially difficult for Smith to bear with equanimity an acrid controversy which was later waged over the question as to whom credit was due for opening the famous "cracker-line." Rosecrans had been occupied with the problem before Smith's arrival, but, unfortunately, was relieved by Thomas before his plan could be executed. Consequently Smith, until his death, labored under the impression that the plan, as it was successfully carried out by Thomas, was original with him. The matter was finally disposed of for all but Smith with the publication of the findings of an investigating committee in 1901. Rosecrans was credited with having planned the recovery of Lookout Valley and was said to have been long aware of the strategic importance of Brown's Ferry. At Missionary Ridge Smith took charge of the preparations for the assault, of moving troops, and of building bridges and defenses. Grant took Smith east with him in 1864 and assigned him to the XVIII Corps under Benjamin Franklin Butler [q.v.]. He participated in the bloody and fruitless action at Cold Harbor and was once more moved to criticize the actions of Meade to Grant. His complaints were justified in the light, of later changes of policy, but struck too close to Grant to make him acceptable as a subordinate. Smith led the attack on Petersburg in June. His delay in pushing the movement because of the fatigue of his men, and a sudden return of his old illness, lost for him some of the reputation he had justly earned and, on July 19, Grant relieved him of his command. The confidence which Grant had demonstrated toward Smith in the west was prob ably never shaken, but his hand was forced by the circumstances, particularly the difficulty of keeping Butler, who was very popular, and Smith, at peace with each other. Smith was brevetted brigadier-general and major-general on March 13, 1865, for distinguished services at Chattanooga, and in the Virginia campaign of 1864. Smith resigned as a major-general of volunteers in 1865 and, two years later, from the regular army. He had, meanwhile, become president of the International Ocean Telegraph Company which was operating a cable to Cuba, and remained in this position until the controlling interest was sold in 1873. He then spent two years in Europe with his family, and returned to th e United States to become president of the Board of Police Commissioners in New York City. He resigned in 1881 and for the next twenty years was employed by the government on engineering projects for river and harbor improvements, being restored to the army with the rank of major in 1889. Smith wielded a vigorous pen in support of his "cracker-line" claims in his Military Operations Around Chattanooga (copyright 1886), his articles for Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887--88), The Relief of the Army of the Cumberland (1891), and From Chattanooga to Petersburg (1893). The last ten years of his life were spent in Philadelphia. His wife was Sarah Ward Lyon, to whom he had been married on April 24, 1861. Two of their five children survived their parents.

[Who's Who in America, 1901-02; J. H. Wilson, article in Annual Reunion, Association of Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1903), and Heroes of the Great Conflict (1904); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register U.S. Military Academy (1891); Report of a Board of Army Officers upon the Claim of Major General William Farrar Smith (1901); Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (2nd ed., 1886), volume I; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series, volumes XI, XVIII, XIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXVI, XL; House Report No. 1813, 50 Congress, 1 Session; Public Ledger, Philadelphia, March 2, 1903.]

C.H. L.



SMITH, WILLIAM SOOY (July 22, 1830- March 4, 1916), civil engineer, Union soldier, was born in Tarlton, Pickaway County, Ohio, the son of Sooy and Ann (Hedges) Smith. His father was a local magistrate. William worked his way through Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, graduating with distinction in 1849. He immediately obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1853, ranking sixth in his class. On June 19, 1854, he resigned his commission to become an assistant on construction for the Illinois Central Railway, but his career was soon interrupted by a desperate illness and he subsequently spent two years teaching in Buffalo, New York. Resuming engineering practice in 1857, he organized the firm of Parkinson & Smith, and made the first surveys for an international bridge at Niagara Falls. In 1859 he began the construction of a large bridge over the Savannah River for the Charleston & Savannah Railroad. In connection with this structure he made the first use in America of the pneumatic process for sinking foundations, then but recently developed in France. Finding the method cumbersome and ill-suited to his requirements, he made many fundamental changes in the design of apparatus and in construction procedure. The project was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War, whereupon Smith immediately returned to his native state and enlisted in the volunteer army. On June 26, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 13th Ohio Infantry, and on April 15, 1862, he was made a brigadier-general. He served with distinction until 1864, when a serious attack of inflammatory rheumatism completely disabled him. Resigning from the army July 15, 1864, he regained his health slowly, occupied as a farmer at Oak Park, Cook County, Ohio, and it was not until 1866 that he again took up civil engineering practice. His next project was that of building a protection for the Wagoschance lighthouse on the Straits of Mackinac. In connection with this enterprise he further developed his pneumatic caisson process for sinking foundations, and later perfected it on several railroad bridges which he constructed in the early seventies. For this work he received a prize award from the American Centennial Exposition in 1876. In 1876 he prepared plans for a tunnel under the Detroit River, which he proposed to build by sinking a continuous series of pneumatic caissons across the river. His plan received the approval of the advisory board of engineers, but it was too far in advance of the times to secure financial support. For the next twelve years, Smith specialized in bridge construction and deep foundations. He was successively engaged, either as chief engineer or consulting engineer, on important railroad bridges over the Missouri River at Omaha, Leavenworth, Boonville, Glasgow, Plattsmouth, Sibley, and Kansas City. During this period steel was perfected to the point of competing with wrought iron, and Smith was one of the first to champion the use of the new material. Owing to his influence, it was decided to use steel throughout in the trusses of the Glasgow bridge, which became the first all-steel truss bridge in the world. About 1890 Smith settled in Chicago and gave most of his professional attention to the subject of building foundations, which presented an extraordinarily difficult problem in that vicinity because of the great depth of rock and bad soil conditions. He was one of the first to advocate carrying the piers of high buildings to rock instead of supporting them on rafts or grillages. He was consulted in regard to the foundations of nearly all the large buildings constructed in Chicago during the period from 1890 to 1910, in which year he retired from active practice. The remainder of his life he spent quietly in the village of Medford, Oregon. His professional labors never ceased, however; at the time of his death, which followed an attack of pneumonia in his eighty-sixth year, he was completing plans for a new-type fireproof building. He was one of the founders of the Western Society of Engineers, of which he was president from 1877 to 1880, and thereafter for a number of years chairman of its committee on iron and steel. He was also an influential member of a similar committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers. To this society he contributed two important papers: "Pneumatic Foundations" (Transactions, volume II, 1874) and "The Hudson River Tunnel" (Ibid., volume XI, 1882). He was married in 1854 to Elizabeth Haven of Buffalo, New York, by whom he had one son, Charles Sooy Smith [q.v.]. His first wife died in 1860, and in 1862 he married Anna Durham of Bowling Green, Kentucky, who died in 1882; in 1884 he married Josephine Hartwell of St. Catharines, Ontario, by whom he had a son.

[G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1891); Engineering News, March 30, 1916; Journal Western Society of Engineers,  January 1917; Who's Who in America, 1914-15; Morning Oregonian (Portland), March 6, 1916.]

J. I. P.



STAHEL, JULIUS (November 5, 1825-December 4, 1912), soldier and consular officer, son of Andreas and Barbara (Nagy) Stahel (Hungarian name Szamvald), was born in Szeged, Hungary. He received a classical education at Budapest. In the struggle for Hungarian independence in 1848 he espoused the patriotic cause, became a lieutenant in the forces of Louis Kossuth, was wounded and decorated for bravery. With the triumph of Austrian arms in 1849, however, he was forced to flee the country. He then maintained himself in Berlin and London by teaching and journalism until 1856, when he came to America and settled in New York City. There he continued a journalistic career until the outbreak of the Civil War, at which time he was on the staff of the New York Illustrated News. When Lincoln called for volunteers in April 1861, Stahel at once responded, helped organize the 8th New York Infantry, and became its lieutenant-colonel. On July 21, 1861, when the Union army was routed at Bull Run, Stahel, then in command of his regiment, was with a brigade in reserve at Centerville; ordered to cover the retreat, the brigade performed its task so well that the Confederate commander, General Johnston, in his report on the battle stated that "the apparent firmness of the U. S. troops at Centreville ... checked our pursuit" (War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Army, 1 series II, 478). The following month Stahel was promoted to colonel and soon thereafter assigned to command a brigade. On November 12, 1861, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He fought under General Fremont in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862, particularly distinguishing himself at Cross Keys on June 8, when his brigade bore the brunt of the fighting. At the second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862, he temporarily commanded a division and was commended for gallantry. In October 1862 he was assigned to command a division in the Army of the Potomac, and for a short time during the next winter he commanded the XI Corps. Promoted to major-general on March 14, 1863, he was given command of the cavalry division in front of Washington. In the spring of 1864 he was transferred to a cavalry division in the department of West Virginia and led General Hunter's advance in the Shenandoah Valley gallantly until June 5, 1864, when he was badly wounded in the arm while personally leading a successful charge against the Confederate flank. For his bravery on this occasion he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1893. After recovering from his wound he served on court-martial duty in Washington, and in the Middle Department until February 8, 1865, when he resigned his commission. He was soon given opportunity to s how his abilities in a new field of public service, being appointed in 1866 consul at the important post of Yokohama. He returned to the United States in 1869, and for the next eight years engaged in mining operations. On October 25, 1877, he was nominated as consul to Osaka and Hiogo, the nomination being confirmed on February 6, 1878. He held this post until 1884, when he was made consul at Shanghai, China. The next year he resigned because of ill health, thus ending an eventful public career which throughout was characterized by ability and the highest standards of honor and duty. He returned to New York, where for a number of years he held an executive position with the Equitable Life Assurance Company. He was never married.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Eugene Pivany, Hungarians in the American Civil War (1913); The Union Army (1908), volume VIII; A Record of the Commissioned Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Privates of the Regiments ... Organized in the State of New York (1864); F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory U. S. Army (1903); Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U. S. ... State of New York, Circular 19, Series of 1913; Who's Who in America, 1912-13; New York Times, December 5, 1912; New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, December 5, 1912.]

S. J. H.



STANLEY, DAVID SLOANE (June 1, 1828-March 13, 1902), soldier, was born at Cedar Valley, Ohio, the son of John Bratton and Sarah (Peterson) Stanley, and a descendant of Thomas Stanley who came to Massachusetts from England in 1634. David was educated in a log school house until he was fourteen years old, when he was apprenticed to study medicine. In 1848 he entered the United States Military Academy, at West Point, New York; graduating in 1852 as second lieutenant of dragoons. His first assignments were in Texas and California. On April 2, 1857, he married Anna Maria, daughter of J. J. B. Wright, an army surgeon. In 1856 he was active in the Kansas disturbances, and the next year in operations against Cheyenne Indians. The commencement of the Civil War found him a captain of cavalry at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was offered the colonelcy of an Arkansas regiment in the Confederate service, but declined and in May 1861 escaped from Southern territory by a hazardous march to Kansas. Later in the same year he served in the Missouri campaign, receiving and accepting a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers in October 1861. In November he broke his leg and was forced to quit the field. The following spring he took a prominent part in the battles of New Madrid and Island No. 10. He next participated in the capture of Corinth, Mississippi. When the Confederates attempted to retake that city in October, Stanley counter-attacked at the head of his troops, and drove the enemy back. For this victory, he was given command of a cavalry division in Tennessee, becoming a major-general in April 1863, his commission being dated November 29, 1862. He ably seconded the campaigns of 'Rosecrans during 1863. At the end of that year, he was assigned to the 1st Division, IV Corps, guarding communications. In 1864 he took part in Sherman's Atlanta operations, being particularly commended for gallant conduct at Resaca, Georgia. On July 27 he succeeded to the command of the IV Corps, and in September was wounded at Jonesboro, Georgia. Although criticized by Sherman (see B. H. Liddell Hart, Sherman, 1930, p. 301), Stanley led his troops with vigor. In November 1864 his corps arrived at Pulaski, Tennessee, just in time to save Thomas' army from the advance of Hood. Falling back, Stanley next fought the battle of Spring Hill, enabling the balance of the army to retreat north. On November 30, Thomas was heavily attacked by Hood at Franklin, Tennessee. Once again Stanley personally led a counter-attack, restoring the battle to the Federals. He was painfully wounded and his active career in the Civil War came to an end. In June 1865 Stanley's IV Corps was sent to Texas to support diplomatic representations against French interference in Mexico. In February 1866 Stanley was mustered out of the volunteer service as a major-general, and on July 28, 1866, became colonel, 22nd Infantry, in the Regular Army. He was now sent to the Indian frontier. In 1873 he led the expedition into the Yellowstone area (see his Report on the Yellowstone Expedition, 1874), and between 1879 and 1882 he settled several Indian disturbances in Texas. On March 24, 1884, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, United States Army, and subsequently commanded in Texas until he retired, June 1, 1892. He was governor of the Soldiers' Home, Washington, from September 13, 1893 to April 15, 1898, and thereafter lived in Washington until his death. His great service was his thirty-four years spent in the opening of the West. He was a master in handling Indians. He possessed the esteem of his associates, but was disliked by some on account of his deep prejudices, which his kindly appearance failed sometimes to conceal. He contributed an article to Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (volume II, 1888), edited by R. U. Johnson and C. C. Buel, and an incomplete autobiography, Personal Memoirs of Major-General D. S. Stanley, U. S. A., was published in 1917. His wife died in 1895, and of seven children four daughters and a son survived him.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1891); I. P. Warren, The Stanley Families of America (1887); Who's Who in America, 1901-02; Evening Star (Washington), March 13, 1902; Washington Post, March 14, 1902; family information from Stanley's son, Colonel D. S. Stanley. ]

c. H. L.



STEEDMAN, JAMES BLAIR (July 29; 1817-0ct. 18, 1883), soldier and politician, was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, the son of Mellum and Margaret (Blair) Steedman. He was left an orphan in childhood, and his education was limited to a few months in the district school. Learning the printer's trade, he worked in newspaper offices in Lewisburg, Pa., and Louisville, Kentucky; later he served for a time in the Texan army and finally settled in Ohio. There he took an active part in politics; he was elected in 1847 to the state legislature, where he served two terms, and was frequently a delegate at party conventions. In the gold rush of 1849 he went to California but returned the next year to Toledo, where he made his permanent home, and resumed newspaper work. He was appointed public printer in 1857 during Buchanan's administration. A strong Douglas Democrat, he was a delegate at the Charleston and Baltimore conventions in 1860, and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress that year. He entered the military service, April 27, 1861, as colonel of the 14th Ohio Infantry, which he raised in Toledo; he was mustered out, August 13, 1861, and again mustered in, September 1, 1861. On March 1, 1862, Lincoln nominated him to be brigadier-general of volunteers, but objection to his confirmation was made in the Senate on account of an editorial in his newspaper, the Toledo Times, which presented arguments in favor of the right of secession. Though these arguments were published only that they might be refuted in a later issue, the incident caused a long delay in Steedman's confirmation, and it did not take place until July 17, 1862. He commanded a brigade first in the (old) Army of the Ohio, and then in the Army of the Cumberland (Perryville and Murfreesboro), and finally a division in the latter (Tullahoma campaign). His greatest distinction was earned in the battle of Chickamauga, where he commanded a division of Granger's corps which came to the rescue of George Henry Thomas [q.v.], standing as the "rock of Chickamauga" when all the rest of the army had been swept away. In twenty minutes Steedman's division lost a fifth of its strength. Though his horse was shot under him and he was severely bruised, he retained command and himself headed the attack, carrying the colors of one of his regiments. One moment he gave to personal concerns, when he directed a staff officer to see that the newspaper obituaries spelled his name Steedman and not Steadman, a form he hated. He was appointed major-general of volunteers, April 20, 1864. At the battle of Nashville he commanded a "detachment" of troops from various sources, the equivalent of a division. Resigning from the army, August 18, 1866, he was collector of internal revenue at New Orleans, Louisiana, until 1869, when he· returned to Toledo. He edited the Northern Ohio Democrat, served in the state Senate, was chief of police of the city, and was otherwise active in public affairs up to the time of his death. A man of great size and strength, he was aggressive, determined, fearless of responsibility, at his best in great emergencies. He was married three times: first, in 1838 at Napoleon, Ohio, to Miranda Stiles, recently of New Jersey; second, to Rose Barr; and third, September 16, 1878, at Monroe, Michigan, to Margaret, daughter of John Gildea. A

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88); J.C. Smith, Oration at the Unveiling of the Monument Erected to the Memory of Major General James B. Steedman (1887); J.M. Kiilits, Toledo and Lucas Comity, Ohio (1923), volume I; Clark Waggon.er, History of the City of Toledo and Lucas County (1888); Harvey Scribner, Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo (1910), volume II; obituary in Cincinnati Enquirer, October 19, 1883; unpublished records in the War Department; letter from Steedman's widow confirming statements as to full name, date of birth, parentage, and marriages.]

T.M.S.



STEELE, FREDERICK (January 14, 1819-January 12, 1868), soldier, was born at Delhi, Delaware County, New York, the son of Nathaniel Steele, and a descendant of John Steele of Essex, England, who emigrated to Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts, in 1631 /32 and was later one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Frederick was appointed a cadet at West Point, July 1, 1839, and upon his graduation, July 1, 1843, was commissioned second lieutenant in the 2nd Infantry, with which he served in the Mexican War, in action at Ocalaca, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. He was twice brevetted for gallant conduct (Contreras and Churubusco). Promoted first lieutenant on June 6, 1848, he served in California for the next five years, and from 1853 to 1861 in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas. He was promoted captain, 2nd Infantry, February 5, 1855, and on May 14, 1861, was appointed major in the 11th Infantry, one of the new regular regiment s created by presidential Proclamation and later confirmed by act of Congress. (Out of it, in later reorganizations, were formed the 16th and 20th Infantry of the present army; the present 11th Infantry has no connection with the older regiment so designated.) During the first year of the Civil War Steele commanded a brigade at the battle of Wilson's Creek and in the other operations in Missouri. He was appointed colonel, 8th Iowa Infantry, September 23, 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers,  January 29, 1862. As a division commander in Curtis' Army of the Southwest he participated in the Arkansas campaign of 1862, and was appointed major-general of volunteers, November 29, 1862. He commanded a division of the XIII Corps in the operations against Chickasaw Bluffs and Arkansas Post, and a division of the XV (Sherman's) Corps in the Vicksburg campaign. Immediately after the surrender of the city he was placed in command of the forces in Arkansas and charged with completing the conquest of that state. This task he substantially accomplished within a few months, defeating or driving back the small Confederate forces which might have menaced the flank of the greater operations east of the Mississippi. The portion of the state remaining in Confederate hands was too remote to affect the course of the war in any respect. When Banks started on his Red River campaign, Steele was directed to assist by operating against the Confederate forces before him, which orders he carried out at a heavy cost in men and animals and without other result. In actual combat he was successful enough, but it was impracticable to maintain the long line of communications which was necessary. The responsibility rests with the superiors who ordered the impossible, and not with Steele. He remained in charge in Arkansas through 1864, and then took part in Canby's campaign against Mobile, which ended with the capture of that city in April 1865. Though a good division commander, Steele was never entrusted with a large command. The Army of Arkansas, though operating independently, never exceeded about fourteen thousand men. After the war he commanded the Department of the Columbia, in the northwest, until shortly before his death. He was not mustered out as major-general of volunteers until March 1, 1867, having meanwhile been promoted lieutenant-colonel in the regular army, August 26, 1863, and colonel, July 28, 1866. While on leave at San Mateo, California, he was stricken with apoplexy, fell from the carriage in which he was driving, and died instantly.

[D. S. Durrie, Steele Family (1859); War of the Rebellion : Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891); Evening Bulletin (San Francisco), January 14, 1868; unpublished records in the War Department]

T.M.S.



STEVENS, ISAAC INGALLS (March 25, 1818-September 1, 1862), soldier, governor of Washington Territory, was born at Andover, Massachusetts, the son of Isaac and Hannah (Cummings) Stevens, and a descendant of John Stevens who was living in Andover as early as 1641. During his boyhood he helped on the farm and outstripped all his fellows in study. After a year and four months at Phillips Academy, where he excelled in mathematics, he entered the United States Military Academy, graduating first in his class in 1839. Commissioned a second lieutenant of engineers, he was engaged for several years in the construction or repair of fortifications on the New England coast. While stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, he met Margaret Hazard, whom he married September 8, 1841. A son and four daughters were born to them. During the Mexican War he was engineer adjutant on Scott's staff in Mexico, and at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec displayed a combination of judgment and cool daring for which he was brevetted captain and major. After the war, while recovering from wounds received in the capture of the city of Mexico, he was assigned once more to engineering duties in coastal fortifications until 1849, when Alexander D. Bache [q.v.] appointed him executive assistant in the United States Coast Survey at Washington. Here he demonstrated high talent for administration. He remained till 1853, meanwhile taking a deep interest in army reorganization and other questions calling for arguments before the departments, congressional committees, and the president. His clarity and breadth of thought, sound practical judgment, dignity, and power of statement made him an ideal worker for such ends. In 1851, partly as a critique of Major Roswell S. Ripley's The War with Mexico (1849), he published Campaigns of the Rio Grande and of Mexico. He desired to see historical justice done to Generals Scott and Taylor, who at the time were the victims of partisan prejudice. Yet, as a Democrat, in 1852 he campaigned for Pierce. Early in Pierce's administration, upon the enactment of the law providing for Pacific Railway surveys, Stevens sought and secured appointment as director of exploration for the northern route. Just previously he had secured the governorship of Washington Territory, resigning from the army (March 16, 1853) in order to accept it. Under the circumstances, precedent would have denied him assistants from the army; nevertheless, several young officers, including George B. McClellan [q. v.], volunteered for his survey and were permitted to serve under him. This survey, and the later effort to get the route he recommended accepted by government and people, constituted thereafter Stevens' most engrossing interest. Secretary Davis withheld the funds required for completing the work but Stevens used his meager resources as governor to bring it gradually to perfection, and in 1858 he dictated his final report, which is considered his masterpiece (House Executive Document 56, volume XII, bks. I, II). Meanwhile, the governorship of the Territory had proved a nightmare. Faced with the problem of opening 100,000 square miles of land to white settlement, Stevens began by making a series of Indian treaties. He was probably lacking in the requisite patience, and as usual, the negotiations caused restiveness among the tribes which eventuated in widespread and desolating Indian wars. General John E. Wool [q.v.], commander of the army on the Pacific, refused to cooperate with the people of Washington and Oregon and even thwarted their military undertakings. The correspondence between Stevens and the General was long and bitterly controversial. A stormy episode resulting from the Indian troubles was the Governor's proclamation of martial law, the subsequent arrest of a federal judge, Edward Lander [q.v.], and the arrest of the Governor for contempt of court. In his great work, however, the endeavor to pacify the Indians, he succeeded partially. Although subjected to a flood of criticism, from both within and without the Territory, Stevens was elected territorial delegate to Congress for the term beginning March 4, 1857. Here he urged the ratification of his Indian treaties, winning against the bitter opposition of Wool's friends. He was returned to his delegate's seat for the following term. In 1860 he assumed the chairmanship of the Breckinridge and Lane national committee, Lane being a close personal friend. This action alienated the Douglas Democrats so that he failed of renomination as delegate to Congress, and when on the outbreak of the Civil War he proffered his services to the Federal government, the response was slow and grudging He finally accepted the colonelcy of the 79th Regiment of New York Volunteers ("The Highlanders"), was promoted to brigadier-general in September, and major-general as of July 4, 1862. He was gallantly leading a charge at Chantilly when a bullet in the temple instantaneously terminated his career. In appearance Stevens was slight and undersized, but with a massive head, and great dignity both of bearing and speech. He was deeply serious and somewhat deficient in humor. Politically, he once called himself a "Democratic Abolitionist." He sincerely believed that Breckinridge's success in the election of 1860 would prevent a rupture of the Union. His loyalty was never questioned. In addition to the Campaigns and the report mentioned above, he published A Circular Letter to Emigrants Desirous of Locating in Washington Territory (1858) and Address on the Northwest (1858), delivered before the American Geographical and Statistical Society.

[Hazard Stevens, The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens (2 volumes, 1900) is the best biography, though somewhat eulogistic; see also S. H. Paradise, "Isaac I. Stevens," Phillips Bull., October 1932; O. J. Victor, Men of the Time (3 volumes, 1862-63); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates, U.S. Military Academy (1891), volume I; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Harper's Weekly, September 20, 1862; Daily National Intelligencer, September 8, 1862; Ezra feeker, Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound (1905), contains a criticism of Stevens as a negotiator of Indian treaties.]

J. S.



STONE, CHARLES POMEROY (September 30, 1824- January 24, 1887), soldier, was born at Greenfield, Massachusetts, the son of Dr. Alpheus Fletcher Stone and Fanny (Cushing) Stone, widow of George Arms. He was a descendant of Gregory Stone who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635. Graduating at West Point in 1845, he served with the siege train throughout Scott's campaign in Mexico. Resigning in 1856, being then a first lieutenant, he was employed by a private association as chief of a commission for the exploration of the Mexican state of Sonora. His Notes on the State of Sonora was published in 1861. On April 16 of that year he was mustered into service as colonel, District of Columbia Volunteers; he was reappointed to the regular army as colonel, 14th Infantry, in July, and in August was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, both commissions antedated to May. His reputation stood high, and he had every prospect of a brilliant career, until the disaster at Ball's Bluff, near Leesburg, Virginia, October 21, 1861. With the recklessness common in brave but inexperienced officers, Colonel Edward D. Baker [q.v.] involved a regiment of Stone's command in a skirmish with the Confederates under General Nathan G. Evans [q.v.], which resulted in numerous casualties and Baker's death. The public was seized with a "victim-hunting mania" (Blaine, post, I, 382), and as Baker was a senator many of his colleagues were eager to avenge his death upon somebody. Their choice was Stone. Hints of incompetency were succeeded by whispers of treason. The display of credulity and cruelty which followed was hardly surpassed even in the World War. An investigator could solemnly set down, for example, the statement of a witness that he had heard the Confederate adjutant general say that General Evans said that Stone was a fine man and a gentleman. It is recorded that Stone "is too well spoken of in Leesburg to be all right" (War Department records). The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War heard many witnesses, but refused their names to Stone, refused him their testimony, refused to tell him what acts were charged against him. He was arrested at midnight, February 8, 1862, and conveyed to Fort Lafayette, rising from the waters of New York harbor, where he was held in solitary confinement for fifty days. On the representations of his physician he was then transferred to Fort Hamilton, on land, where he was still kept in solitary confinement but was allowed to exercise under guard. His appeals to the War Department to know the charges against him were unanswered. Shame at last began to stir in Congress, though not in the War Department. He was released, August 16, 1862, in reluctant compliance with an act of Congress, general in terms, but passed with this particular case in mind. The Joint Committee, the Secretary of War, and General McClellan have mutually blamed each other for the imprisonment. There is guilt enough for all. Stone was left unemployed until May 1863, when he was sent to General Banks, at the latter's request, and served under him at Port Hudson and in the Red River campaign. On April 4, 1864, for no cause stated or now known, he was mustered out of his volunteer commission and as a colonel of the regular army was again left unemployed. He was finally assigned to the Army of the Potomac; but, sick and despairing he resigned from the army, September 13, 1864. From 1865 to 1869 he was engineer and superintendent for the Dover Mining Company, Goochland County, Virginia. From 1870 to 1883 he served in the Egyptian army, becoming chief of staff and lieutenant-general. After his return home he was chief engineer for a year of the Florida Ship Canal Company. Later, he was constructing engineer for the foundations of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He was twice married: first, to Maria Louisa Clary, daughter of General Robert E. Clary; and, second, to Annie Jeannie Stone, daughter of John H. Stone of Louisiana. He died in New York City.  

[Bartlett, Gregory Stone Genealogy (1918): War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of th e Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88); J. G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, volume I (1884); Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, pt. 2. 1863; Speech of Hon. J. A. McDougall ... on the Arrest of General Stone and the Rights of the Soldier and Citizen (1862): Fiqhtee>1th Annual Reunion, Graduates U. S. Military Academy (1887): G. W. Cullum. Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U.S. Military Academy volume II (1891); New York Tribune, January 25, 1887; unpublished records in the War Department; for a hostile view, J. D. Baltz, Hon. Edward D. Baker (1888).]

T. M. S.



STONEMAN, GEORGE (August 8, 1822-September 5, 1894), soldier, governor of California, was born at Busti, Chautauqua County, New York, the eldest of ten children of George and Catherine (Cheney) Stoneman. He was a descendant of Richard Stoneman, who came to New Berlin, New York, after the Revolution. He received his preparatory education at an academy in the neighboring village of Jamestown and was appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy where he was graduated in 1846. He was commissioned brevet second lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons (now the 1st Cavalry) and was detailed as quartermaster of the "Mormon Battalion," a volunteer unit which formed part of General Kearny's expedition to California. He served in the Southwest until 1855, having risen to the rank of captain in the newly organized 2nd (now 5th) Cavalry. At the opening of the Civil War he was in command at Fort Brown, Texas. Refusing to surrender to General D. E. Twiggs, his immediate superior, who had cast in his lot with the Confederacy, he escaped with part of his command, and was assigned to temporary duty at the cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On May 9, 1861, he was promoted major in the 1st (now 4th) Cavalry, and later in the month was in command of the advance across the Long Bridge from Washington to Alexandria. He the n served in West Virginia on the staff of General McClellan, who, when he took command of the armies, made him chief of cavalry of the Army of the Potomac with the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. After the Peninsular campaign of 1862 he was assigned to command the 1st Division, III Corps, and in November of the same year took command of the corps as major-general of volunteers, serving with it through the Fredericks burg campaign. For gallantry in this battle he received the brevet rank of colonel in the regular army. When Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac he formed his cavalry into a separate corps of more than 10,000 men and gave the command to Stoneman. At the opening of the Chancellorsville campaign he sent him with most of this force to make a great raid toward Richmond and to operate against Lee's rear. This operation continued from April 13 to May 2 and caused great alarm in Richmond; but since the main army was unsuccessful at Chancellorsville it had no influence upon the course of the campaign. In July 1863 Stoneman became chief of the Cavalry Bureau in Washington, but the next winter he joined the we stern armies, commanding the XXIII Corps. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 3rd Cavalry in the regular army on March 30, 1864. In April he was assigned to the cavalry corps of the Army of the Ohio, and with this command took part in the Atlanta campaign. Sherman sent him with his corps to break the railway at Jonesboro near Atlanta, and at Stoneman's request these orders were broadened to include also a raid by part of his force to release the prisoners of war at Macon and Andersonville. Early in August he was cut off at Clinton, Georgia. He held the attention of the enemy, with one brigade, and was finally forced to surrender, but the rest cut their way back to the army with heavy loss. He remained a prisoner of war until he was exchanged and returned to duty in October. In December he made another raid, with considerable success, into southwestern Virginia, later operating in east Tennessee and the Carolinas in cooperation with Sherman. He received the brevet ranks of brigadier-general and major-general in the regular army in March 1865, and commanded in Petersburg and Richmond for the next four years. He became colonel of the 21st Infantry upon muster out of the volunteer service, joined that regiment in Arizona, and commanded it and the Department of Arizona until his retirement for disability in August 1871. He then established himself near Los Angeles on his magnificent estate, "Los Robles" (see Archduke Ludwig Salvator, Eine Blu·me aus deni Goldenen Lande, 1878, pp. 214,215). In 1883 he resigned his commission in the army to accept the Democratic nomination for governor of California. He was elected by a large majority and served until 1887. As a railway commissioner from 1879, he had opposed the increasing power of the Pacific railways in state affairs and in business, and had gained a strong popular following. He continued the same policies as governor, particularly in regard to railway taxation matters. He also favored legislation encouraging irrigation projects. These policies, involving highly controversial issues, made his administration a stormy one; the legislature was twice in extra session, and generally in deadlock over his recommendations. In 1891, by special act of Congress, he ·was restored to the army list as colonel, retired. At the end of the war he had married Mary Oliver Hardisty, of Baltimore, Maryland. She, with their four children, survived him when he died in Buffalo, New York. He was buried with military honors at Lakewood, on Chautauqua Lake, New York.

 [Information from the family; G. E. Cullum, Biographical Register .... U.S. Military Academy (1891); D. N. Couch, obituary article, Annual Reunion. Association Graduates, U. S. Military Academy, 1895 (1895); J. H. McClintock, Arizona (1916), volume III; William Bushong, The Last Great Stoneman Raid (1910); T. H. Hittell, History of California, volume IV (1897); Buffalo Courier, September 6, 1894.]

O. L. S., Jr.



STROTHER, DAVID HUNTER (September 26, 1816-March 8, 1888), soldier, writer, illustrator, son of Colonel John and Elizabeth Pendleton (Hunter) Strother, was born at Martinsburg in what is now West Virginia. The Strothers, since their arrival in Virginia from Northumberland, England, about 1650, had been a family of soldiers. David's grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, his father in the War of 1812, David himself in the Civil War, and one of his sons in the Spanish-American War. He was educated at the Old Stone Schoolhouse in Martinsburg, and at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, studied art in Philadelphia, and continued his studies in France and Italy during the years 1840-43. On his return to America in 1844 he began making drawings for magazines, He illustrated the 1851 edition of Swallow Barn, by his cousin John P. Kennedy [q.v.], who had assisted him in · his artistic endeavors. Next he made the drawings for The Blackwater Chronicle (1853), by Pendleton Kennedy, a brother of John P. Kennedy; this book has sometimes been attributed to Strother himself. In December 1853 he contributed to Harper's New Monthly Magazine an article called "The Virginian Canaan," in which he gave an account of a vi sit to the Blackwater region of Randolph County. This was the first of a series of sketches dealing with life in the South which, with numerous pen drawings. appeared from time to time in Harper's under his pseudonym, "Porte Crayon." In 1857 some of these sketches were gathered into a volume, Virginia Illustrated, by Porte Crayon, containing 138 pen drawings. At this time Strother was one of the highest-paid contributors to Harper's. having a roving commission to travel and write for the magazine. Three characteristic series of articles, appearing at irregular intervals, were "North Carolina Illustrated" (1857), "A Winter in the South" (1857-58), "A Summer in New England" (186o-61). At the outbreak of the Civil \Var, Strother, a Unionist, offered his services to the North, and because of his knowledge of the Shenandoah Valley and his skill with the pen was assigned to the topographical corps. He served at different times on the staffs of Generals McClellan, Banks, Pope, and Hunter, went through thirty battles unwounded, and received one promotion after another until his resignation in September 1864. After the close of the war, he was brevetted brigadier-general. He now made his home at Berkeley Springs, W. Virginia, devoting his time to literature and art. During the years 1866-68 he contributed to Harper's a series of articles entitled "Personal Recollections of the War, by a Virginian," based on his diary and pen sketches made on the battlefields. Between 1872 and 1875 he contributed to the same magazine a series on "The Mountains," but by this time a change in the literary taste of the reading public had reduced the demand for writings of the sketchbook and diary type. He was appointed United States consul-general in the city of Mexico in 1879, returned to West Virginia in 1885-making his home at Charles Town and at the time of his death was writing a book on the Mexicans. In 1849 he married Anne Wolfe, by whom he had a daughter, Emily, who married John Brisben Walker [q.v.]; in 1861 he married Mary Hunter, by whom he had two sons. Strother's writings are in the Irving tradition -slow-moving, humorous, picturesque accounts of people and places, with numerous quotations from other writers. Illustrated with copious pen drawings, they preserve a record of the old South, portraying such places as Hot Springs, White Sulphur Springs, and the University of Virginia as they appeared in the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century.

[H. T. Tuckerman, The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy (1871); Library of Southern Literature, volume XI (1909); T. C. Miller and Hu Maxwell, West Virginia and Its People (1913), III, 1098-99; F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory U. S. Army (1903), volume I; New York Times and New York Tribune, March 9, 1888.]

F. M. S.



STURGIS, SAMUEL DAVIS (June 11, 1822-September 28, 1889), soldier, was born at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, the son of James and Mary (Brandenburg) Sturgis, and a descendant of William Sturgis who came to Pennsylvania from Ireland about 1745. Samuel entered West Point, July r, 1842, graduated July 1, 1846, and joined the 2nd Dragoons, with which he fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Before the battle of Buena Vista he volunteered for a reconnaissance which resulted in his capture but also in gaining essential information about the enemy. He remained a prisoner eight days. After the Mexican War he served in the West with the 1st Dragoons, in which he was promoted first lieutenant, July 15, 1853, and the 1st (now 4th) Cavalry, in which he was appointed captain, March 3, 1855. At West Ely, Missouri, July 5, 1851, he married Jerusha Wilcox, daughter of Jeremiah Wilcox of Akron, Ohio. He took part in an Indian campaign in New Mexico in 1855, the Utah expedition of 1858, and a campaign against the Kiowas and Comanches in 1860, after which he was charged with settling difficulties between white settlers and Indians on the "neutral lands" of the Cherokee border. In 1861 he was in command at Fort Smith, Arkansas. All his officers resigned to join the Confederate army and the post was surrounded by hostile militia. Sturgis brought off his troops, however, with most of the government property under his care. He was promoted major, May 3, 1861. He fought at Wilson's Creek, succeeding to the command when General Nathaniel Lyon [q.v.] was killed, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers with rank from August 10, 1861, the date of the battle. He was in charge of the district of Kansas for a time and then commanded the defenses of the city of Washington until sent into the field for the second battle of Bull Run. He commanded a division of the IX Corps at South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. At Antietam it was his division that carried the famous bridge, Sturgis himself leading the charge. He was transferred to the West with the IX Corps, and later had small commands in Tennessee and Mississippi, suffering a severe defeat by General N. B. Forrest [q.v.] at Brice's Cross Roads (Guntown) in June 1864. Grant wrote to Stanton (October 14, 1865): "Notwithstanding his failure at Guntown, Mississippi, I know him to be a good and efficient officer, far above the average of our cavalry colonels. From the beginning of the war he has suffered from having served in Kansas, and coming in contact with, and in opposition to, civilians, Senator Lane probably in the lead" (War Department records). He was mustered out of the volunteer army, August 24, 1865, and went to duty as lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Cavalry, having been promoted October 27, 1863. He became colonel of the 7th Cavalry, May 6, 1869, saw considerable service in Indian campaigns, was governor of the Soldiers' Home from 1881 to 1885, and retired in 1886. Criticism of his conduct at Brice's Cross Roads having been revived in 1882 he published The Other Side as Viewed by Generals Grant, Sherman, and Other Distinguished Officers, Being a Defence of his Campaign into N. E. Mississippi in the Year 1864. He died at St. Paul, Minnesota. His son, Samuel Davis Sturgis, Jr., became a major-general in the regular army in 1921.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army): Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887- 88); Twenty-first Annual Reunion Association Grad. U. S. Military Academy (1890); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891, volume II; Army and Navy Journal, October 5, 1889; Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.), September 29, 1889; unpublished records in the War Department; information from son.]

T. M. S.



SUMNER, EDWIN VOSE (January 30, 1797- March 21, 1863), soldier, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Elisha and Nancy (Vose) Sumner, and a descendant of William Sumner who came to Massachusetts about 1635 and settled at Dorchester. He was commissioned second lieutenant in the 2nd Infantry, March 3, 1819, promoted first lieutenant,  January 25, 1823, and served in that regiment until he was appointed captain, March 4, 1833, in the newly organized 1st Dragoons (now the 1st Cavalry). His service was chiefly on the frontier until the outbreak of the Mexican War, when he was appointed major of the 2nd Dragoons, June 30, 1846, and joined General Winfield Scott's army in Mexico. Scott's faith in Sumner was such that he wished to relegate the latter's senior, Colonel William S. Harney [q.v.], for whom he had no liking, to an unimportant command in Taylor's army. In the end, both Harney and Sumner remained, but the relations between them were permanently strained. The regiment of Mounted Riflemen (now 3rd Cavalry) had just been organized, most of its officers being wholly without military training. It needed an exceptionally strong man to command it, and Sumner was detached from the dragoons for that purpose. His service throughout the campaign was distinguished, at first in command of the Mounted Riflemen and later of his own regiment. He was wounded at Cerro Gordo and received brevets for his conduct there and at Molino del Rey. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Dragoons, July 13, 1848, and colonel of the 1st (now 4th) Cavalry, March 3, 1855. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1852, after the death of the civil governor, J. S. Calhoun, Sumner as military commandant of the region was acting governor of New Mexico. In September 1855, under orders from General Harney, Sumner's regiment left Fort Leavenworth for Fort Laramie, to arrive there ready for a spring campaign, but after marching west four hundred miles he turned back to Leavenworth, declaring that to continue would sacrifice most of the horses. Harney preferred charges for disobedience of orders, but Sumner was supported by the War Department. As commander of the post at Fort Leavenworth in 1856 during the struggle between Free-Soilers and proslavery men for the control of Kansas, he attempted to preserve order, dispersing armed bands of partisans of both sides, and under the direction of Governor Wilson Shannon [q.v.], the "pretended" Topeka legislature. In 1857 he was engaged in a campaign against the Cheyennes in Kansas and the following year he assumed command of the Department of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. Sumner was of Northern birth; his wife also was a Northerner: Hannah W. Forster, daughter of Thomas Forster of Erie, Pennsylvania, whom he married March 31, 1822. There is no apparent reason why anyone should suspect him of sympathy with secession-except, possibly, the marriage of his daughter to a Southerner, Armistead Lindsay Long [q.v.]-but such sentiment was strong in St. Louis, and it is suggestive that on  January 5, 1861, he wrote, in a personal letter to General Scott: "I have belonged to the general government over forty years, and I consider it my government,. and so long as it lasts, the only government to which I owe fealty. As I view this obligation, I feel bound in honor to devote myself to the preservation of the Union." (Unpublished letter.) Scott's opinion is indicated by his selection of Sumner to accompany the president-elect to Washington. Sumner was appointed brigadier-general, March 16, 1861. He commanded the II Corps in the Peninsular campaign, at South Mountain, and at Antietam. McClellan recommended his promotion, writing to the War Department of his "extreme gallantry" and of "the judgment and energy he displayed in saving the day at the battle of Fair Oaks," and he was accordingly appointed major-general of volunteers with rank from July 4, 1862. He commanded the right grand division at the battle of Fredericksburg, and was then relieved from duty with the Army of the Potomac at his own request. He died at Syracuse, New York, while on the way to his new command in Missouri. One son, Edwin Vose Sumner, Jr., became a brigadier-general in the regular army; and another, Samuel Storrow Sumner, a major-general.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88); J. H. Smith, The War with Mexico (2 volumes, 1919); W. S. Appleton, Record of the Descendants of William Sumner (1879); Kansas Historical Collections, volumes VI (1904), XVI (1923-25); G. B. Grinnell, The Fighting Cheyennes (1915); P. G. Lowe, Five Y ears A Dragoon (1906); H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume XII (1888); F. A. Walker, History of the Second Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac (1887); Sen. Executive Documents No. 8, and No. 10 and House Executive Documents No. 4 (part 2), 34 Congress, 3 Session (1856); New York Herald, March 22, 1863; unpublished records in the War Department]

T.M.S.



SWAYNE, WAGER (November 10, 1834-December 18, 1902), soldier and lawyer, was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Noah Haynes Swayne [q.v.] and Sarah Ann (Wager). He was graduated at Yale in 1856, after losing a year on account of serious illness, and at the Cincinnati Law School in 1859. Having been admitted to the Ohio bar he commenced the practice of law in partnership with his father, then a leading attorney in Columbus and later as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. On August 31, 1861, he entered the army as major, 43rd Ohio Infantry, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel, December 14, 1861. Until February 1862 the regiment was in training in Ohio. It then joined the army under Pope and took part in the actions at New Madrid and Island No. 10 which opened the upper Mississippi. Later it was present at the siege of Corinth; in the battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862, Swayne, already known as an efficient regimental commander, displayed such distinguished courage in the face of threatened panic among the troops, that upon General D. S. Stanley's urgent recommendation he received the award of the medal of honor, the highest American decoration for heroism in action. On October 18, 1862, he was promoted colonel. He commanded a brigade of the XVI Corps, Army of the Tennessee, in the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, attracting favorable notice from General O. O. Howard [q.v.], a circumstance which had important consequences later. He was in action at Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw, and Atlanta. At Rivers Bridge, South Carolina, he received a shell wound, February 2, 1865, which caused the amputation of his right leg. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers in April, with rank from March 8, 1865. Later in that year he was selected by General Howard, then organizing the Freedmen's Bureau, as an assistant commissioner in charge of the bureau's operations in Alabama; he was also in military command, and in order that he might have appropriate rank was appointed, in May, 1866, major-general of volunteers, with commission dated back to June 20, 1865. He was not finally mustered out of the volunteer army until September 1, 1867. Meanwhile, he had been appointed, July 28, 1866, colonel in the regular army, for the newly organized 45th Infantry. His service in Alabama with the Freedmen's Bureau continued until January 1868, and was especially marked by the establishment of numerous schools, some of which are still in existence. He married Ellen, daughter of Alfred Harris of Louisville, December 22, 1868. The drastic reduction of the regular army in 1870 required the removal of all officers suffering from any form of physical disability, and Swayne was accordingly placed on the retired list in July. He took up the practice of Jaw in Toledo, in partnership with John R. Osborn, also serving for some years as a member of the board of education. In 1881 he removed to New York, where, in partnership with John F. Dillon [q.v.] and others, he continued to practise law until shortly before his death. His firm acted as counsel for the Associated Press, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Wabash Railway, and other important corporations. A distinguished lawyer and a successful commander of troops, Swayne was also a most public-spirited citizen, always interested in philanthropic activities, particularly church and educational work.

[N. W. Swayne, The Descendants of Francis Swayne and Others (1921); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory U. S. Army (1903), volume I; G. M. Dodge, in Loyal Legion, Commandery of New York, Circular No. 10 (1903); Obit. Record Graduates Yale Univ., 1903; 0. 0. Howard, Autobiography (1907), volume II; Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen: Report of the Assistant Commissioner for Alabama (1866, 1867); The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century (1876); Who's Who in America, 1899-1900; New York Times, December 19, 1902.]

T. M. S.



SWEENY, THOMAS WILLIAM (December 25, 1820-April 10, 1892), soldier, Fenian leader, was born in County Cork, Ireland, the son of William and Honora (Sweeny) Sweeny. He emigrated to the United States in 1832. About 1843 he joined the "Baxter Blues" of New York City, and in 1846 became second lieutenant of New York volunteers in the Mexican War. He was with General Scott from Vera Cruz to the capture of Churubusco, where he received a wound that necessitated the amputation of his right arm. Following the war, as lieutenant in the 2nd United States Infantry, Sweeny was engaged almost continuously in operations against the Yuma Indians of the Southwest or the Sioux of the Nebraska region until January 1861, when he was promoted captain and ordered to the federal arsenal at St. Louis. After serving under General Nathaniel Lyon [q.v.] in the capture of Camp Jackson, Sweeny was commissioned brigadier-general of the three months' Missouri volunteers, May 20, 1861, and sent with Franz Sigel [q.v.] into Southwest Missouri to prevent the junction of the state troops under General Sterling Price and Governor C. F. Jackson [q.v.] with the Confederate army under General Ben McCulloch [q.v.]. Sigel's rash attempt with 1,100 men to stop Jackson's 4,000 at Carthage resulted in a rout, and the expedition failed of its objective. On August 14, 1861, four clays after receiving a severe wound in the battle of Wilson's Creek (McElroy, post, p. 183), Sweeny was mustered out of the Missouri volunteers, but he returned to the volunteer service as colonel of the 52nd Illinois on  January 21, 1862, and under Grant aided in the capture of Fort Donelson. He was given outstanding credit by Sherman for helping save the day at Shiloh, April 6 (Battles and Leaders, post, I, 5u), and rendered praiseworthy service in the battles of Corinth, October 3-4, 1862, Kenesaw Mountain, June 27, 1864, and Atlanta, July 20-22, 1864. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers November 29, 1862, and was honorably discharged from the volunteer service in August 1865. As the result of a quarrel with his superior officer, General G. M. Dodge, after the battle of Atlanta, Sweeny was arrested and court-martialed, but acquitted. On December 29, 1865, he was dismissed from the army for absence without leave, but on November 8, 1866, was reinstated. Although a quick thinker and an aggressive fighter, he apparently lacked coolness and sound judgment. While out of the service he received much notoriety as the leader of the ill-starred Fenian raid on Canada in 1866. An ardent Irish partisan, he was made secretary of war of the "Irish Republic" when William R. Roberts [q.v.] was elected president by the Fenian Congress in 1865. With Roberts he urged that Canada be conquered as a step toward freeing Ireland, and in 1866, superintended the details of the invasion of June 1-2 at Niagara and the simultaneous attempts to cross the border at Potsdam, New York, and St. Albans, Vermont. The " invasion" was a fiasco. Sweeny, with some others, was arrested by United States authorities but was soon released without trial, and thereafter his interest and influence in the Fenian movement declined. Following this interlude he returned to the regular army until his retirement in 1870 with the rank of brigadier-general. Sweeny was married twice: first, to Eleanor Swain Clark of Brooklyn, and second, to Eugenia Octavia Reagan of Augusta, Georgia. He died at his home in Astoria, Long Island, survived by his second wife, three sons, and a daughter.

[Sketch by a son, W. M. Sweeny, in American-Irish Historical Society Journal, volume II (1899); Sweeny 's report of the Fenian raid, Ibid., volume XXIII (19 24); F. B. Heitman, Historical Register and Directory U.S. Army (1903), volume I; War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), I series III, XXXVIII (pts. 1-5); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88); R. J. Rombauer, The Union Case in St. Louis in 1861 (1909); J. Fairbanks and Edwin Tuck, History of Greene County, Missouri (1915), volume I; T. L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri (1886); John McElroy. The Struggle for Missouri (1909); J. A. Macdonald, Troublous Times in Canada: A History of the Fenian Raids (1910); C. P. Stacey, "Fenianism and the Rise of National Feeling in Canada," Canadian A History Rev., September 1931; Army and Navy Journal, April 16, 1892; New York Times, April 12, 1892; name of Sweeny's mother from his son, W. M. Sweeny.]

H. E. N.



SYKES, GEORGE (October 9, 1822-February 8, 1880), soldier, was born at Dover, Delaware, the son of William Sykes and the grandson of James Sykes, noted physician and governor of Delaware, 1801-02. Sykes received his early education in Dover and was sent to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1838. He was graduated in 1842 as a second lieutenant, 3rd Infantry, and went immediately to Florida where he took part in the Seminole War. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1846, served in the war with Mexico during the entire campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico city, and was brevetted captain for gallant conduct at Cerro Gordo. After the war he served mostly in the Southwest. At the outbreak of the Civil War Sykes became a major, and, at the first battle of Bull Run, he commanded a battalion of regulars which particularly distinguished itself by protecting the disordered retreat of the Federal troops. For this service he was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers. In the spring of 1862, Sykes commanded a brigade, subsequently the 2nd Division, V Corps, composed mostly of regulars, in the Peninsular campaign in Virginia. He valiantly defended his position at the battle of Gaines's Mill, checking the Confederate attack until darkness enabled the Union army to be withdrawn. At Malvern Hill on July l, 1862, he again assisted in repulsing the enemy. In the second Manassas campaign, Sykes's division, part of Porter's V Corps, experienced heavy fighting, especially on August 30, but held its ground until ordered back. Sykes was only lightly engaged at Antietam and at Fredericksburg. Late in the year he was promoted to the rank of major-general. At Chancellorsville, while Stonewall Jackson was fighting the main Federal forces, Sykes operated towards Fredericsburg against Lee's army. In the Gettysburg campaign Sykes commanded the V Corps. It did not arrive on the battle-field until July 2, when it was ordered to hold the Round Tops, threatened by an enemy attack. Severe fighting occurred in which Sykes bravely led his men to hold these hills for the Federal army. At a council of war that night, he advised remaining on the defensive for one more day. This plan was adopted by Meade. When the Confederates made their famous charge on July 3, he was not directly engaged, although his troops suffered from artillery fire. An opportunity existed after the repulse of the enemy for a counter-attack by the V Corps and there seems to have been some controversy between Sykes and Meade as to whether Sykes had been ordered to do this. Sykes denied that he had been so directed, but, in any case, the chance passed without being utilized. He was brevetted brigadier- general in the regular army for his conduct in this battle. Upon the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac early in 1864, Sykes was relieved from the V Corps, and sent to Kansas, where he remained on unimportant duties until the end of the war. In 1866 he was mustered out of the volunteer service as a major-general and reverted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 5th Infantry, in the regular army. The rest of his service was mainly in the West. He became colonel of the 20th Infantry in 1868, and died at Fort Brown, Texas, while commanding that regiment. Serious illness and great suffering marred the last years of his life. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Robert Goldsborough of Cambridge, Maryland. Sykes as a general was excellent on the defensive, but he lacked initiative. He was nicknamed "Tardy George," but his tardiness was mental, not physical.

[War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series, volumes X, part 2, XI, parts 1, 2, XXVII, part 1 (1884-89); Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 4 volumes (1887-88); G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register... Officers and Graduates, U.S. Military Academy (1891); article by Henry Coppee in Annual Reunion, Association Graduates, U.S. Military Academy (1880); G. J. Cross, The Battlefield of Gettysburg (1866); J. T. Scharf, History of Delaware (1881), volume I; Galveston Daily News, February 10, 1880.]

C.H.L.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume IX, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.