General Edwin V. Sumner

“General Sumner, born in Boston Mass., January 30th, 1797, died in Syracuse, N. Y., March 21st, 1863, was educated at Milton (Mass.) Academy, and entered the army in 1819 as second lieutenant of infantry. In 1838 he was placed in command of the School of Cavalry Practice at Carlisle, Pa. He was promoted major in 1846, and in the Mexican War led the cavalry charge at Cerro Gordo in April, 1847. In March, 1861, he was appointed brigadier general in the regular army and sent to relieve General Albert Sidney Johnston, in command of the Department of the Pacific, but was recalled in the following year to the command of the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He served with gallantry at the siege of Yorktown and Fair Oaks. In the Seven Days’ Battles he was wounded twice. In 1862 he was appointed major general of volunteers, led the Second Corps at the battle of Antietam, where he was wounded, and commanded one of the three grand divisions of Burnside’s army at Fredericksburg."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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