EDWIN VOSE

See also:

• SUMNER, CHARLES (1811--1874)
• SUMNER, CHARLES RICHARD (1790-1874)
• EDWIN VOSE SUMNER (1797-1863)
• SUMNER, JOHN BIRD (1780-1862)
• SUMNER, WILLIAM GRAHAM (1840-1910)

SUMNER (1797-1863)  , American soldier, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and entered the United States army in 1819 . He served in the Black Hawk War and in various Indian campaigns . In 1838 he commanded the cavalry instructional establishment at Carlisle, Pennsylvania . He took part in the Mexican War as a major, and for his bravery at Moline del Rey he received the brevet rank of colonel . In 1857 he commanded an expedition against the Cheyenne Indians . At the outbreak of the Civil War, four years later, Sumner had just been promoted brigadier-general U.S.A. and sent to replace Sidney Johnston in command on the Pacific coast . He thus took no part in the first campaign of the Civil War . But in the autumn he was brought back to the East to command a division, and soon afterwards, as a major-general U.S.V., a corps in the army that was being organized by McClellan . This corps, numbered II., retained its independent existence throughout the war, and under the command of Sumner, Couch, Han-cock and Humphreys it had the deserved reputation of being the beat in the Union army . Sumner, who was by far the oldest of the generals in the army of the Potomac, led his corps through-out the peninsular campaign, was wounded during the Seven Days' Battle, and received the brevet of major-general U.S.A., and was again wounded in the battle of Antietam . When 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 the old cavalry soldier took part in the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, in which the II. corps suffered most severely .

Soon afterwards, on

Hooker's appointment to command the army, Sumner was relieved at his own request . He died suddenly, on the 21st of March 1863, while on his way to assume supreme command in Missouri .