A
soldier for three and a half decades, Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
(1813-1873) was the only full rank Regular Army general to die in hostilities against native-Americans. Born in Kentucky,
and raised in Indiana, he was appointed to West Point and graduated second to last (30/31) in 1833.
He fought in the Second Seminole War (1840) and participated in the forced
evacuation of the Creeks, Cherokees, and Choctaws to
Arkansas, known as the
“Trail of Tears.”Fighting with great
distinction under Winfield Scott in the Mexican War, he won brevets to major
and lieutenant colonel, and then served on the western frontier, including
participation in the Mormon Expedition of 1857-8 under highest ranking Fallen
Star Albert Sydney Johnson.
Trail of Tears
The outbreak of the Civil War found him at
Fort Defiance, New
Mexico Territory, There, on May 14, 1861, he was
appointed colonel of the 19th Infantry Regiment and put in command
of the Department of New Mexico, defending the west, especially
California, against any
Confederate incursion. With most regular army units committed to the battles in
the East, he had precious little with which to hold the vast territories under
his command.
Battle of Glorietta Pass
On January 1862, in one of the
larger – and completely overlooked - battles in the far west, Canby was
defeated at
Valverde New Mexico by Confederate General Henry H.
Sibley his one-time second in command. Canby was driven from the field but
retained control of his forces and initiated a “Fabian” hit-and-run campaign,
isolating Sibley from his lines of communication and finally bringing him to
battle at
Glorieta Pass where Sibley was decisively beaten and forced
to withdraw to
Texas.
Historians refer to the victory as the “
Gettysburg
of the West.”
Battle of Mobile Bay
He was then recalled to
Washington where he
served on the adjutant general’s staff in the War Department. In July 1863, he
was the officer ordered to
New York
City to restore order after the draft riots.
Promotions and greater responsibilities followed. In fact, at one point he held
three separate commissions as a general officer! After recovering from a
serious wound received late in 1864, he returned to the field and was the
architect of the capture of
Mobile,
Alabama on April 12, 1865 for
which he received the “Thanks of the President and Congress”. A few days later,
he accepted the surrender of the armies of Generals Richard Taylor and Edmund
Kirby Smith.
The Murder of Canby
Now promoted to brigadier
general in the regular army, he worked on various Reconstruction efforts, but
his sympathy for the defeated south angered his superiors, especially Army
Commander Philip Sheridan, who ordered him back to the west. At the height of
the bitter struggle with the Modoc tribes, Canby arranged a parley on April 11,
1873 to discuss peace. Anxious to show his good will, and sincere in his desire
to end the war, he went to the meeting unarmed. The Modoc Chief Captain Jack
suddenly pulled a gun and killed Canby in the midst of the negotiations. It
shocked the entire country. The senior officers of the army were outraged and Captain
Jack was hunted down and hanged and in an appalling act of collective punishment, his
people were deported to
Arkansas
en masse. It is certain that Canby would have opposed such an unjust action.
No fallen American flag officer
killed in battle ever served longer as a general – 11 years.
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