Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/478

Gen. Braxton Bragg, and Gen. Jubal A. Early. Im- mediately after his graduation he served "in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians. His first engagement was a skirmish near Fort Clinch. 20 Tin - yeai ; " was ' inpli 13 ed in re- moving the Cherokees to their new home beyond the Mississippi. He was made 1st lieutenant of artillery, 19 April, 1839. In the Mexican war he was sm-i-' - sively brevetted captain and ma- jor for gallant conduct at C'on- treras, Churu- busco. and Cha- pultepec. Heal- so 'li^tinguished himself at the head of his eorn- mand in the at- tack on the San

Cosmo gate of

the city of Mexico. He was made captain. 26 Jan., 1849. major of the 1st cavalry. 8 March, 1855, and served in Kansas and on the western frontier At the beginning of the civil war he was lieuten- ant-colonel of the 2d cavalry. On 25 April. lNi.il, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 1st cav- alry, and on 31 Aug. was commissioned a briga- dier-general of volunteers and placed in command of a brigade of the Army of the Potomac, which in the subsequent organization of the army was assigned to the 2d corps, under Gen. Sumner, Gen. Sedgwick assuming command of the 3d divis- ion. In this capacity he took part in the siege of Yorktown and the subsequent pursuit of the ene- my up the peninsula, and rendered good service at tlir liattle of Fair Oaks. In all the seven days' fighting, and particularly at Savap- Station and Glendale, he bore an honorable part, and at the battle of Antietam he exhibited conspicuous gal- lantry, exposing himself recklessly. On this occa- .-in In' was twice wounded, but refused for two hours to be taken from the field. On 23 Dee. he was nominated by the president a major-general of volunteers, and in the succeeding February he as- sumed command of the 6th army corps. At the In all of these troops he carried Marye's Heights in the rear of Fredericksburg during the Chancel- lorsville campaign in May, 1863, and, after the re- treat of Gen. Joseph Hooker across the Rappahan- nock, succeeded only by very hard fighting in with- drawing his command" in the face of a superior force, against which he had contended for a whole day. to the left bank of the river. He commanded the left wing of the Army of the Potomac during the advance from the Rappahannock into Mary- land in June, and also at the succeeding battle of Gettysburg, where he arrived on the second day of the fighting, after one of the most extraordinary forced marches on record, his steady courage in- spiring confidence among his troops. During the passage of Rapidan river on 7 Nov.. 1863, he suc- ceeded, by a well-executed manoeuvre, in captur- ing a whole Confederate division with guns and colors, for which he was thanked by Gen. Mradr in a general order. In command of his corp< In' took part in the spring campaign of the Wilderness under Gen. Grant, and on 5 and (i May had po-i- tion on the National right wing, where the hardest fighting of those sanguinary engagements took place. Three days later, while directing the placing of some pieces of artillery in position in the in- trenchments in front of Spottsylvania Court-House, he was struck in the head by a bullet from a sharp- shooter and instantly killed. Gen. Sedgwick was one of the oldest, ablest, and bravest soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, inspiring both officers and men with the fullest confidence in his military capacity. His simplicity and honest manliness endeared him, notwithstanding he was a strict dis- ciplinarian, to all with whom he came in contact, and his corps was in consequence one of the best in discipline and morale in the army. He declined the command of the Army of the Potomac just be- foi-e it was given to Gen. Meade, but several times held it temporarily during that general's absence. A fine bronze statue of Gen. Sedgwick stands on the plateau at West Point.

SEDGWICK, Robert, soldier, b. in England about 1600 ; d. in Jamaica, W. I., 24 May, 1656. He had been a member of the Artillery company in London, and settled in Charlestown, Mass., in 1636. He engaged in business, became a success- ful merchant, and was for many years a deputy from Charlestown to the general court. He was one of the founders of the Ancient and honorable artillery company in 1638, its captain in 1640, and commanded the castle in 1641. In 1643 he became colonel of the Middlesex regiment, and in 1652 commander of all the Massachusetts militia. He was associated with John Winthrop, Jr., in 1643-'4, in establishing the first furnace and iron-works in the country. He was employed to expel the French from Penobscot in 1654, was engaged in the expe- dition against the Spanish West Indies in 1655. when Jamaica was taken, and was one of three commissioners appointed by Cromwell to govern that island. Just before his death the protector advanced him to the sole command with the rank of major-general. His descendant, Theodore, statesman, b. in Hartford, Conn., in 1746 ; d. in Boston, 24 Jan., 1813, lost his fa- ther when he was thirteen years of age, and was aid- ed by his broth- er to enter Yale, which he left in , owing to a slight misdemean- or, without being graduated. He afterward studied divinity, but aban- doned it for law, was admitted to

the bar in April, , and practised in Great Barrington, and afterward in Sheffield, Mass.

Though always strongly attached to the mother country, he engaged in the war of the Revolution with ardor on the side of the colonies, served as aide to Gen. John Thomas in his expedition to Canada in 1776. and was subsequently actively engaged in procuring supplies for the

army. He represented Sheffield in the Massachusetts legislature both before and after the Revolution, and was a member of the Continental congress in 1785-'6. In the winter of I?s7 lie was active in the suppression of Shays's rebellion, and incurred the especial enmity of the insurgents, who frequently threatened his life. His house was