34 Facts About Edward Canby

Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War.

Edward Canby served as a military governor after the war.

Edward Canby attended Wabash College, but transferred to the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1839.

Edward Canby was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd US Infantry and served as the regimental adjutant.

Edward Canby married Louisa Hawkins Canby at Crawfordsville, Indiana, August 1,1839.

Edward Canby came from a family of three sisters and a brother, with whom she remained close.

Edward Canby served at various posts, including Upstate New York and in the adjutant general's office in California from 1849 until 1851, covering the period of the territory's transition to statehood.

Evidently, Edward Canby had some knowledge of the Spanish language, which was extremely useful as the government was trying to unravel land titles.

Edward Canby served in Wyoming and Utah during the Utah War.

Subsequently, Edward Canby wrote an endorsement for a teepee-like army tent which Sibley had adapted from the American Indian style.

At the start of the Civil War, Edward Canby commanded Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory.

Edward Canby was promoted to colonel of the 19th US Infantry on May 14,1861, and the following month commanded the Department of New Mexico.

Immediately following this battle, Edward Canby was promoted to brigadier general on March 31,1862.

Recombining the forces he had earlier divided, Edward Canby set off in pursuit of the retreating Confederate forces, but he soon gave up the chase and allowed them to reach Texas.

Shortly after the failure of the Confederate invasion of northern New Mexico, Edward Canby was relieved of his command by Gen.

Edward Canby persuaded the governors of both New Mexico and Colorado to raise volunteer units to supplement regular Federal troops; the Colorado troops proved helpful at both Valverde and Glorieta.

In May 1864, Canby was promoted to major general and relieved Nathaniel P Banks of his command at Simmesport, Louisiana.

Edward Canby next was assigned to the Midwest, where he commanded the Military Division of Western Mississippi.

Edward Canby was wounded in the upper thigh by a guerrilla while aboard the gunboat USS Cricket on the White River in Arkansas near Little Island on November 6,1864.

Edward Canby commanded the Union forces assigned to conduct the campaign against Mobile, Alabama in the spring of 1865.

Edward Canby accepted the surrender of the Confederate forces under General Richard Taylor in Citronelle, on May 4,1865, and those under General Edmund Kirby Smith west of the Mississippi River on May 26,1865.

Edward Canby was generally regarded as a great administrator, but he was criticized as a soldier.

Edward Canby could be a destroyer but appeared to prefer the role of builder.

Edward Canby had to decide how to provide blacks access to health and mental health services without violating the racial pecking order that existed in the South.

Edward Canby accepted his recommendation and included it as the basis of his military order number 136, published in December 1869.

Edward Canby's order required continued utilization of a rented annex at Howard's Grove Hospital as the temporary psychiatric hospital for blacks until the state of Virginia could decide whether to maintain and expand it or construct a new facility.

Edward Canby should be credited with creating the first racially segregated mental hospital in the US for African Americans.

Edward Canby was next assigned as commander of the Department of Washington, which consisted of Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Alexandria and Fairfax counties in Virginia, from June 1866 until August 1867.

Edward Canby was assigned to the command of the Second Military District, comprising North and South Carolina.

Edward Canby left Texas for Virginia, the First Military District, in April 1869, serving there until July 1870.

Edward Canby sometimes alienated one side or the other and often both.

Edward Canby soon faced problems with the Modoc tribe, who had historically lived in Northern California.

General Edward Canby had received conflicting orders from Washington as to whether to make peace or war on the Modoc.

The Modoc broke off scheduled talks; Edward Canby was angered by the rumors and their action, as he believed that his federal authority trumped the governor's and made the threat irrelevant.