Joseph P. Sanger | |
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| Born | (1840-05-04)May 4, 1840 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | March 15, 1926(1926-03-15) (aged 85) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | Union United States |
| Service | Union Army (1861–1865) United States Army (1865–1904) |
| Service years | 1861–1904 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Unit | U.S. Army Field Artillery Branch |
| Commands | Battery D,1st Regiment of Artillery Battery E,3rd Artillery Light Battery, 1st Artillery 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division,First Army Corps 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, First Army Corps 3rd Division, First Army Corps 2nd Division, First Army Corps District ofMatanzas Director of the Census ofPuerto Rico andCuba Director of the Census of thePhilippines |
| Wars | American Civil War Spanish–American War Philippine–American War |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan (attended) |
| Spouse | Frances (Kent) Sanger (m. 1877–1926, his death) |
| Children | 3 |
Joseph P. Sanger (May 4, 1840 – March 15, 1926) was a career officer in theUnited States Army. AUnion Army veteran of theAmerican Civil War, after the war he served as anaide-de-camp for generalsEmory Upton andJohn Schofield, and was secretary and military assistant for PresidentAbraham Lincoln and PresidentBenjamin Harrison. He was very good friends withJohn Hay, Secretary of State underWilliam McKinley andTheodore Roosevelt. After service inCuba during theSpanish–American War, in 1903, he was assigned to supervise the first census of thePhilippines following the end of thePhilippine–American War. Sanger attained the rank ofmajor general, and retired in January 1904.
Sanger was from an old New England family, and was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended theUniversity of Michigan for two years before joining theUnion Army for theAmerican Civil War. After service in the1st Michigan Infantry Regiment, a unit enlisted for three months at the start of the war, Sanger joined the1st Regiment of Artillery, with which he served until the end of the war. Sanger remained in the army after the war, and served in a variety of assignments as he rose through the ranks in the 1870s and 1880s, including command of several batteries of the 1st Artillery.
In addition to his artillery assignments, Sanger also served as anaide-de-camp for GeneralEmory Upton during Upton's inspection and observation tour of Asia and Europe in the mid-1870s, and GeneralJohn Schofield during Schofield's command of theMilitary Division of the Atlantic and assignment asCommanding General of the United States Army. During the presidential administration ofBenjamin Harrison, Sanger served as his military aide and acted as his presidential secretary.
During theSpanish–American War andPhilippine–American War, Sanger commanded several brigades and divisions, then supervised censuses inPuerto Rico,Cuba, and thePhilippines. He was promoted tomajor general on January 20, 1904, and retired the following day. In retirement, Sanger resided in Washington, D.C. He died there on March 15, 1926, and was buried atArlington National Cemetery.
Joseph Prentice Sanger was born in Detroit, Michigan on May 4, 1840, a son of Henry Kirkland Sanger and Caroline (Prentice) Sanger.[1] Sanger's parents were from New York originally, and came from old New England families. His cousins includedGeorge P. Sanger (Harvard, 1840), President of John Hancock Mutual Fund, his sonCharles Robert Sanger, andWilliam Cary Sanger (Harvard 1870), Assistant Secretary of War (1901-1903). He attended the schools of Detroit and was a student at theUniversity of Michigan from 1858 to 1860.[2] He enlisted in theUnion Army in April 1861 and was appointed afirst lieutenant in the1st Michigan Infantry Regiment, a unitorganized in response to PresidentAbraham Lincoln's call at the start of the war for troops to serve three-month enlistments.[3]
When the 1st Michigan mustered out in August 1861, Sanger joined the1st Regiment of Artillery as commander of Battery D, and later commanded Battery E,3rd Artillery.[4][5] He served until the end of the war, and received promotion tocaptain andmajor bybrevet in recognition of his heroism in theBermuda Hundred campaign and thefirst andsecond battles of Deep Bottom, Virginia.[6]
Sanger remained in the army after the Civil War, and was assigned as adjutant of the 1st Artillery in 1866.[6] He was the honor graduate of hisArtillery School course in 1869, and afterwards remained atFort Monroe,Virginia to serve as the school's adjutant.[6] When whiskey distillers in New York City refused to pay the federal tax on their product, a riot against federal authorities resulted.[6] This civil disturbance became known as the Brooklyn Whiskey War of 1871, and Sanger commanded a battery in the army response that ended the riot.[6]
From 1872 to 1875, Sanger was professor of military science atBowdoin College, and he was promoted to captain in February 1875.[6] From 1875 to 1877, he was anaide-de-camp to GeneralEmory Upton during Upton's observation and inspection of armies in several Asian and European countries, including Japan and England.[6] From 1877 to 1884, he commanded batteries of the 1st Artillery, including the regiment's Light Battery, which was posted toFort Adams,Rhode Island.[7]
From 1884 to 1888, Sanger was an aide-de-camp to Major General John Schofield during Schofield's command of theMilitary Division of the Atlantic.[6] He was promoted to major in February 1891, and during the presidential administration ofBenjamin Harrison, he served as Harrison's military aide and acting presidential secretary.[6] In the mid-1890s, he served as military secretary for Schofield during Schofield's term asCommanding General of the United States Army.[6] In September 1895, Sanger was detailed to theInspector General's office, and he served first as inspector of the South Atlantic District, then as principal assistant to the army'sInspector General.[6]
In March 1898, Sanger was appointed inspector general ofUnited States Volunteers and promoted tolieutenant colonel.[6] In July 1898, he was promoted tobrigadier general of volunteers, and inCuba he successively commanded 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division,First Army Corps, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, First Corps, 3rd Division, First Corps, and 2nd Division, First Corps.[6] In January 1899, Sanger was appointed commander of the District ofMatanzas.[6] He was discharged from the volunteers in June 1899, and performed staff duty in the office of theAssistant Secretary of War.[6]
In August 1899, Sanger was appointed director of the U.S. census ofPuerto Rico and Cuba, which was necessitated by the U.S. establishing governments there after defeating Spain.[6] He was promoted to the permanent ranks ofcolonel in February 1901, and brigadier general in July 1902.[6] From 1901 to 1903, he served in thePhilippines during thePhilippine–American War, holding simultaneously the positions of chief of staff and inspector general forAdna Chaffee, themilitary governor.[8] From 1903 to 1904, Sanger was director of the U.S. census of the Philippines.[6] On January 20, 1904, he was promoted to major general in accordance with a law permitting Union veterans still on active duty to be advanced one grade before retiring.[6] He retired on January 21, two months before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64.[6]
In retirement, Sanger was a resident of Washington, D.C. He had authored articles for professional journals during his career, and after retirement, he was responsible for completingThe Military Policy of the United States.[9] This history of the army's doctrine and policy had been begun by Emory Upton, and it was edited for publication in 1904 by Sanger,William Dorrance Beach, andCharles Dudley Rhodes.[9] He remained active in military and veterans' affairs, including serving on theArmy of the Potomac committee that arranged the 1907 design and placement of Washington'sEquestrian statue of George B. McClellan.[10] In 1910, he was a member of the panel that investigated theBrownsville affair.[2] In 1917, he was a member of the board chaired byNelson A. Miles that reviewed awards of theMedal of Honor beginning with the Civil War and made recommendations on which had been awarded under questionable circumstances and should be revoked.[11]
Sanger was a member of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)[12] andMilitary Order of Foreign Wars.[13] He also belonged to theGeneral Society of Colonial Wars andSons of the Revolution.[14][15] He died atWalter Reed Army Medical Center on March 15, 1926.[16] He was buried atArlington National Cemetery.[16]
In 1877, Sanger married Frances Kent (1850–1938) ofBrooklyn, New York.[1] They were the parents of two children, Edith Sanger (1879–1975) and Walter Prentice Sanger (1881–1964).[1] Edith Sanger was the wife of attorney James Mandeville Carlisle (1879–1922).[1][17] Walter Prentice Sanger, known as Prentice, was a prominent New York City architect and landscape designer.[18] Sanger's sister Frances Caroline Sanger (1848–1917) was the wife of Brigadier GeneralJohn M. K. Davis.[19]
In 1872, Sanger received the honorary degree of Master of Arts fromBowdoin College.[20] Joseph P. Sanger Camp No. 15 (Lynn, Massachusetts) of theUnited Spanish War Veterans was named for Sanger.[21]
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