Edwin Vose Sumner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nickname(s) | Bull, Bull Head |
| Born | (1797-01-30)January 30, 1797 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | March 21, 1863(1863-03-21) (aged 66) Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance | United States Union |
| Service | United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1819–1863 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | 1st U.S. Cavalry Department of the Pacific II Corps,Army of the Potomac |
| Battles / wars | |
| Spouse(s) | Hannah W. Foster |
| Children | 6, includingEdwin Jr. andSamuel |
Edwin Vose Sumner (January 30, 1797 – March 21, 1863) was a careerUnited States Armyofficer who became aUnion Armygeneral and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during theAmerican Civil War.[1] His nicknames "Bull" or "Bull Head" came both from his great booming voice and a legend that a musket ball once bounced off his head.
Sumner fought in theBlack Hawk War, with distinction in theMexican–American War, on the Western frontier, and in theEastern Theater for the first half of the Civil War. He led theII Corps of theArmy of the Potomac through thePeninsula Campaign, theSeven Days Battles, and theMaryland Campaign, and the Right Grand Division of the Army during theBattle of Fredericksburg. He died in March 1863 while awaiting transfer.
Sumner was born inBoston, Massachusetts, to Elisha Sumner and Nancy Vose Sumner. His early schooling was inMilton Academy inMilton, Massachusetts.[2] He was a first cousin once removed ofCharles Sumner, the abolitionist, and a distant cousin of the statesman,Increase Sumner, and his son, the historianWilliam H. Sumner.
In 1819, after losing interest in amercantile career inTroy, New York, he entered theUnited States Army as asecond lieutenant in the2nd US Infantry Regiment on March 3, 1819. He was promoted tofirst lieutenant on January 25, 1825.
Sumner's military appointment was facilitated by Samuel Appleton Storrow, Judge Advocate Major on the staff of GeneralJacob Jennings Brown of the Northern department. (Storrow had previously served as a mentor to Sumner in Boston.) In recognition of their long-standing friendship, Sumner would later name one of his sons Samuel Storrow Sumner.[3]
He married Hannah Wickersham Foster (1804–1880) on March 31, 1822. They had six children together: Nancy, Margaret Foster, Sarah Montgomery, Mary Heron,Edwin Vose Jr., andSamuel Storrow Sumner. His son Samuel was a general during theSpanish–American War,Boxer Rebellion, and thePhilippine–American War. Sumner's daughter, Mary Heron, married GeneralArmistead L. Long in 1860.
Sumner later served in theBlack Hawk War and in variousIndian campaigns.[4] On March 4, 1833, he was promoted to the rank ofcaptain and assigned to command B Company, theUnited States Regiment of Dragoons (later First US Dragoons), immediately upon its creation byCongress.
In 1838, he commanded thecavalry instructional establishment atCarlisle Barracks inPennsylvania.[4] He was assigned to Ft. Atkinson, Iowa Territory, from 1842 until 1845. He was the fort's commander during most of that period. He was promoted tomajor of the 2nd Dragoons on June 30, 1846. During the Mexican–American War, Sumner was brevetted for bravery at theBattle of Cerro Gordo (tolieutenant colonel). It was here that he gained the nickname "Bull Head" because of a story about a musket ball that bounced off his head during the battle. At theMolino del Rey he received the brevet rank ofcolonel. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 1st US Dragoons on July 23, 1848. He served as the military governor of theNew Mexico Territory from 1851 to 1853 and was promoted to colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry on March 3, 1855.
In 1856 Sumner commandedFort Leavenworth, Kansas, and became involved in the crisis known asBleeding Kansas. In 1857, as commander of the1st Cavalry Regiment (1855), he led apunitive expedition against the Cheyenne,[5] and in 1858 he commanded the Department of the West. On January 7, 1861, Sumner wrote toPresident-electAbraham Lincoln, advising him to carry a weapon at all times.Lt. Gen.Winfield Scott assigned Sumner as the senior officer to accompany Lincoln fromSpringfield, Illinois, toWashington, D.C., in March 1861.[6]
_(14739902876).jpg)
In February 1861,Brig. Gen.David E. Twiggs was dismissed from the Army for treason by outgoing U.S. PresidentJames Buchanan, and on May 12, 1861, Sumner was nominated by the newly inaugurated Lincoln to replace Twiggs as one of only three brigadier generals in theregular army, with date of rank March 16.[7] Sumner was thus the first new Union general created by the secession crisis. He was then sent to replace Brig. Gen.Albert Sidney Johnston, then in command of theDepartment of the Pacific inCalifornia, and thus took no part in the 1861 campaigns of the war.[8] When Sumner left for California, his son-in-lawArmistead Lindsay Long resigned his commission and enlisted with the Confederate Army eventually becoming Robert E. Lee's military secretary and an artillery brigadier general.
In November 1861, Sumner was brought back east to command a division.[9] When Maj. Gen.George B. McClellan began organizing theArmy of the Potomac in March, Sumner was given command of one of its newcorps. McClellan had not originally formed corps within the Army; Sumner was selected as one of four corps commanders by President Lincoln, based on his seniority. TheII Corps, commanded during the war by Sumner,Darius N. Couch,Winfield Scott Hancock, andAndrew A. Humphreys, had the deserved reputation of being one of the best in theEastern Theater. Sumner, who was the oldest of the generals in the Army of the Potomac, led his corps throughout thePeninsula Campaign and theSeven Days Battles.[8]
McClellan originally formed a poor opinion of Sumner during theBattle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. During McClellan's absence, Sumner directed the inconclusive battle, which failed to impede the Confederate withdrawal up the Peninsula, and McClellan wrote to his wife, "Sumner had proved that he was even a greater fool than I had supposed & had come within an ace of having us defeated."[10] At theBattle of Seven Pines, however, Sumner's initiative in sending reinforcing troops across the dangerously rain-swollenChickahominy River prevented a Union disaster. He received the brevet of major general in the regular army for his gallantry at Seven Pines. Sumner was struck in the arm and hand by spent balls at theBattle of Glendale. Despite his old-fashioned ideas on discipline and respect for commanding officers, the II Corps troops generally had a positive opinion of him. Sumner was promoted to major general of volunteers on July 4, 1862, with the rank dated to May 5.
In the fall of 1862, at theBattle of Antietam, Sumner was the center of controversy for ordering Brig. Gen.John Sedgwick's division to launch an attack into the West Woods on the morning of the battle. The assault was devastated by a Confederate counterattack, and Sedgwick's men retreated in great disorder to their starting point with over 2,200 casualties. Sumner has been condemned by most historians for his "reckless" attack, his lack of coordination with the other corps commanders, accompanying Sedgwick's division personally and losing control of his other attacking division, failing to perform adequate reconnaissance prior to launching his attack, and selecting an unusual line of battle formation that was so effectively flanked by the Confederate counterattack. Historian M. V. Armstrong's recent scholarship, however, has determined that Sumner did perform appropriate reconnaissance and his decision to attack where he did was justified by the information available to him.[11]
Sumner's other divisions drove the weak Confederate center back, but Sumner was badly shaken by the disaster to Sedgwick and heavy casualties to other Union forces. Maj. Gen.William B. Franklin wanted to attack with his fresh VI Corps, but Sumner, who was senior to him, ordered him to hold back. McClellan sustained Sumner.
Shortly before being fired from command of the army in October, McClellan wrote to the War Department a letter recommending that Sumner be relieved of duty, as he doubted that his age and health would permit him to survive another campaign, but nothing came of this and when Maj. Gen.Ambrose Burnside succeeded to the command of the Army of the Potomac, he grouped the corps in "grand divisions" and appointed Sumner to command the Right Grand Division. In this capacity, he took part in the disastrousBattle of Fredericksburg, in which the II Corps, now commanded by Major GeneralDarius N. Couch, suffered heavy casualties in frontal assaults against Confederate troops fortified atMarye's Heights.[4]
Soon afterward, on Maj. Gen.Joseph Hooker's appointment to command the Army of the Potomac on January 26, 1863, Sumner was relieved of his command at his own request.[4] He was then reassigned to a new command in theDepartment of the Missouri, effective in the spring.[12] Before that, Sumner went to his daughter's home inSyracuse, New York, to rest, where he fell ill with fever. He died on March 21, 1863, and was buried in Syracuse's Oakwood Cemetery.
His two sons, Brigadier GeneralEdwin Vose Sumner, Jr. and Major GeneralSamuel S. Sumner, both served in the Civil War and theSpanish–American War.
Sumner is buried in Section 8, Lot 1 ofOakwood Cemetery in Syracuse. Part of the Teall family plot, the gravesite has some structural problems and issues of disrepair. The Onondaga County Civil War Round Table was raising funds to repair the grave and the general area.[citation needed]
Fort Sumner in theNew Mexico Territory was named in his honour.
 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sumner, Edwin Vose".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 83.
Texts on Wikisource:| Preceded by none | Commander of theII Corps March 13, 1862 – October 7, 1862 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
