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Samuel Ryan Curtis
Samuel R. Curtis in 1864
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromIowa's1st district
In office March 4, 1857 – August 4, 1861
Preceded by	Augustus Hall
Succeeded by	James F. Wilson
Personal details
Born	(1805-02-03)February 3, 1805 Champlain, New York, U.S.
Died	December 26, 1866(1866-12-26) (aged 61) Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Occupation	Politician, railroad commissioner
Military service
Allegiance	United States Union
Branch/service	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1831–1832, 1846–1847, 1861–1865
Rank	Major General
Commands	2nd Iowa Infantry Army of the Southwest Department of the Missouri Army of the Border
Battles/wars	Mexican–American War American Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge Battle of Westport

Samuel Ryan Curtis (February 3, 1805 – December 26, 1866) was an American military officer and one of the firstRepublicans elected to Congress. He was most famous for his role as aUnion Army general in theTrans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, especially for his victories at the Battles ofPea Ridge in 1862 andWestport in 1864.

Born nearChamplain, New York, Curtis graduated from theUnited States Military Academy in 1831. He was stationed atFort Gibson in the Indian Territories (present-dayOklahoma) before resigning from the Army in 1832.

He moved toOhio, where he worked as a civil engineer on the Muskingum River improvement projects and also became a lawyer in 1841. During theMexican–American War, he was appointedcolonel of the 3rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers and served as military governor of several occupied cities.^[1]After the war in the 1850s, he served as chief engineer for river improvements inDes Moines, Iowa, for public infrastructure works in St. Louis, as well as for theAmerican Central Railroad inIowa. He became Mayor ofKeokuk in 1856 and in the same year was elected as aRepublican to representIowa's 1st congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives. Curtis andTimothy Davis (elected the same day to representIowa's 2nd congressional district) were the first Iowa Republicans elected to serve in the U.S. House. Curtis was re-elected in 1858 and 1860; during his time in Congress, he was a strong advocate of a transcontinental railroad.

He was a supporter ofAbraham Lincoln, and was considered for a cabinet position in the Lincoln administration. However, after the Civil War broke out, Curtis was appointedcolonel of the2nd Iowa Infantry on June 1, 1861, prompting him to resign his congressional seat on August 4 of that year.^[2] He was subsequently promoted tobrigadier general, with the promotion backdated to May 17, 1861.

After organizing the chaos inSt. Louis, Missouri, Curtis was given command of theArmy of the Southwest on December 25, 1861, byMaj. Gen.Henry W. Halleck. The Army originally consisted of three divisions, the 1st commanded by Brig. Gen.Franz Sigel, the 2nd by Brig. Gen.Alexander Asboth, and the 3rd by Col.Jefferson C. Davis. However, Sigel, a native German who held significant influence amongst the many German immigrants in the army, threatened to resign over having not been appointed to command of the army himself. Curtis subsequently gave him overall command of the first two divisions, consisting mainly of German immigrants, while creating a 4th Division commanded by Col.Eugene A. Carr.

Curtis moved his headquarters south toRolla, Missouri, to solidifyUnion control inArkansas. In March 1862, his army won theBattle of Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas. His success made him pensive rather than triumphant. A few days after the battle he wrote, "The scene is silent and sad. The vulture and the wolf now have the dominion and the dead friends and foes sleep in the same lonely graves."^[3] He was promoted to major general for his success, effective March 21, 1862. On the same day in late March that he heard about his promotion, he also found out that his twenty-year-old daughter Sadie died oftyphoid fever in St. Louis.^[4]

After Pea Ridge, Curtis' small army moved east and invaded northeast Arkansas, capturing the city ofHelena, Arkansas in July. In September, Curtis was given command of the District of Missouri, but Lincoln was soon forced to reassign him, after Curtis'sabolitionist views led to conflict with the governor of Missouri.^[5] He was reassigned to command the Department of Kansas & Indian Territory.

In October 1863, his sonMajor Henry Zarah Curtis,adjutant toBrig. Gen.James G. Blunt, was killed byQuantrill's Raiders. In this surprise attack at theBattle of Baxter Springs, Quantrill's men wore Federal uniforms and gave no quarter.^[6] Samuel Curtis namedFort Zarah in memory of his son.

In 1864, Curtis returned to Missouri, fighting against theConfederate invasion led by Maj. Gen.Sterling Price. Curtis gathered the forces of his department together, including several regiments of Kansas State Militia, calling his force theArmy of the Border. Price's incursion was halted by Curtis' victory at theBattle of Westport. Curtis was then reassigned to a completely different armed conflict, commanding the Army's "Department of the Northwest," which was in the closing phase of a military response touprisings in southernMinnesota andDakota Territory byNative Americans against settlers.

In late 1865, he returned to Iowa where he was involved with theUnion Pacific Railroad until his death the following year inCouncil Bluffs, Iowa. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, inKeokuk.

• List of American Civil War generals (Union)
• Gen. Samuel R. Curtis House, listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in Iowa

• Boatner, Mark M. III.The Civil War Dictionary. New York: David McKay, 1959.ISBN 0-679-50013-8
• Eicher, John H., andEicher, David J.,Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001,ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
• Shea, William & Hess, Earl,Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. University of North Carolina Press, 1992.ISBN 0-8078-4669-4

• Shea, William L.,Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West. Potomac Books, 2023.ISBN 978-1-64012-518-6

Wikimedia Commons has media related toSamuel R. Curtis.

• National Park Service Biography
• Samuel Ryan Curtis Papers. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

• United States Congress."Samuel Ryan Curtis (id: C001013)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

• 1805 births
• 1866 deaths
• People from Champlain, New York
• Mayors of places in Iowa
• Politicians from Council Bluffs, Iowa
• People from Keokuk, Iowa
• People of Iowa in the American Civil War
• American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
• Ohio lawyers
• Union army generals
• United States Military Academy alumni
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives

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