John Sedgwick was a military officer and Union Army general during the American Civil War.
24 Facts About John Sedgwick
2.
John Sedgwick was wounded three times at the Battle of Antietam while leading his division in an unsuccessful assault against Confederate forces, causing him to miss the Battle of Fredericksburg.
3.
John Sedgwick was named after his grandfather, John Sedgwick, who was Lieutenant Colonel of the 14th Regiment of Connecticut Militia during the American Revolutionary War.
4.
In March 1855, John Sedgwick accepted a transfer promotion to the rank of major with the United States Cavalry.
5.
John Sedgwick served in Kansas, in the Utah War, and in the Indian Wars, participating during 1857 in a punitive expedition against the Cheyenne.
6.
At the start of the American Civil War, John Sedgwick was serving as a colonel and assistant inspector general of the Military Department of Washington.
7.
John Sedgwick missed the early action of the war at the First Battle of Bull Run, recovering from cholera.
Related searches
Benjamin Butler 8.
The II Corps and John Sedgwick's division were not involved in the Northern Virginia Campaign.
9.
John Sedgwick's division was engaged by Confederate forces under Maj.
10.
John Sedgwick himself was shot three times, in the wrist, leg, and shoulder, and was out of action until after the Battle of Fredericksburg.
11.
John Sedgwick was slow to take action, but eventually crossed the Rappahannock River and assaulted Maj.
12.
John Sedgwick narrowly missed the chopping block, being that he was unpopular with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton for being a vocal admirer of departed Army of the Potomac commander George McClellan and for having shown insufficient enthusiasm for abolitionism and the Radical Republican platform.
13.
John Sedgwick had made enemies among the Radical Republicans by criticizing General Benjamin Butler, one of their favorites.
14.
John Sedgwick himself acknowledged that he was war-weary by this point and would have welcomed reassignment to a post where not much fighting was expected.
15.
John Sedgwick died at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, on May 9,1864.
16.
John Sedgwick's corps was probing skirmish lines ahead of the left flank of Confederate defenses and he was directing artillery placements.
17.
John Sedgwick was shot by a Whitworth rifle bullet moments later under the left eye and mortally wounded.
18.
John Sedgwick fell in my direction and I was so close to him that my effort to support him failed, and I went to the ground with him.
19.
John Sedgwick was the highest-ranking general officer in the US Volunteers to be killed in the war.
20.
However, McPherson was a brigadier general in the Regular Army and outranked John Sedgwick, who was a colonel.
21.
John Sedgwick's reputation was that of a solid, dependable, but relatively unaggressive general.
22.
John Sedgwick was well-liked by his soldiers, who referred to him affectionately as "Uncle John".
23.
John Sedgwick's death was met by universal sorrow; even Robert E Lee expressed his sadness over the fate of an old friend.
24.
John Sedgwick is buried near his birthplace of Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut.