FROM COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE UNION FORCES IN NEW MEXICO, TO RECONSTRUCTION GENERAL, TO THE ONLY GENERAL KILLED IN THE INDIAN WARS. WHO AM I? by Steven W. Kohlhagen

No, not THAT guy!

THIS guy:

                                                        General Edward R. S. Canby

General Edward Canby was certainly not the most well known Civil War or Indian Wars General, but his quiet accomplishments were more interesting than many of his more notorious colleagues.
He cut his teeth fighting Navajoes and Apaches in the 1850's and 1860's with his brother-in-law, Colonel Henry Sibley and Kit Carson.
When the Civil War broke out, he found himself, again with Kit Carson, in charge of the Union Army and the New Mexico Volunteers in the Arizona and New Mexico Territories.
Now-General Sibley had convinced President Jefferson Davis to let him take the West for the Confederacy.

Sibley and his Texas Volunteers marched across Texas and up the Rio Grande, defeating Canby at Valverde on February 20-21, 1862. Canby, for his part, guessed correctly that Sibley would outrun his supplies and let him march on up the Rio Grande to the Battle of Glorieta on March 28. There, Sibley defeated a combination of Colorado Volunteers and the Union Army, thereby winning every battle that was to be fought out West for the Confederacy.
But at Glorieta, Colorado Methodist Minister and Major, and later heinous villain, John Chivington happened upon Sibley's supplies and destroyed his food and ammunition and slaughtered his mules and horses.
Canby then watched as Sibley and his Texans, having won every battle, marched back to Texas, barley able to avoid starvation, having lost the war.
Canby and Kit Carson, then turned back to the problem of the Navajoes and the Apaches.
But President Lincoln decided that General James Henry Carleton, in charge of the Californians who were arriving in New Mexico too late for the Civil War, were better suited to bring in the Apaches and the Navajo.
So Canby was called back to Washington to eventually become Commanding General of the city and harbor of New York after the New York Draft Riots.
In a not un-interesting aside, Canby brought his aide de camp, Augustyn P. Damours, back with him to Washington. Unbeknownst to Canby, Damours had led a group of con artists to steal millions (of today's) dollars from the Army, the Territory, and the Catholic Church, and soon disappeared with the money (for a riveting historical fiction account of this amazing con mystery, see my novel, Where They Bury You---I would like all my colleagues to please accept my apology for this blatant self-promotion!).
Canby went on to command Civil War combat units in Louisiana. Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama.
After the War, Canby commanded Reconstruction military departments in Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and the department of Washington itself.
In August 1872, he went back West to fight Indians. On this tour as Commander of the Pacific Northwest, charged with bringing in the Modocs.

On April 11, 1873, the unarmed Canby met with the Modocs. Their chief, Kintpuash, or as he was better known to California and Oregon whites, Captain Jack, leapt up in mid-negotiations and shot Canby in the head, killing him with a second shot as Canby tried to run away, then slitting his throat.
Thus, Canby became the only General in U.S. history to be killed in the Indian Wars. Captain Jack was hung on October 3, 1873 for the murder.
(Sorry, me again: for a riveting account of this murder, please be patient, and then read my June 15 forthcoming novel from Sunstone Press, Chief of Thieves, the sequel to Where They Bury You.)




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“Where They Bury You” can be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/Where-They-Bury-You-Novel/dp/0865349398/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1389914377
     

POLITICS, POWER, AND PROMISES by Tom Rizzo

The governor arose from a restful sleep, dressed, and headed for his office in a "contented and cheerful" frame of mind, even though he fell asleep believing he lost a bid for the presidency.

 

The 1876 election played out like a heavyweight boxing match with two gubernatorial heavyweights slugging away at each other with verbal jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. In the end, the match would be decided not by a knockout punch, but by the handlers in the corners of the two formidable political warriors. 

Rutherford B. Hayes, a former Union general wounded five times, emerged from the Civil War with a reputation for bravery under fire. 

Following the war, he served two terms as an Ohio  Republican congressman and then ran for the governor’s office, winning two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and then a third term from 1876 to 1877. 

His most valuable asset as a politician was a reputation for honesty and unquestioned character.

Samuel J. Tilden spent twenty-five years as reform-minded State Assemblyman. In 1866, he headed New York’s Democratic Party. 

Criticized for his reluctance to join the campaign to expose William “Boss” Tweed, the corrupt leader of the Tammany Hall political machine, Tilden named a committee to probe the activities of Tweed, who eventually was arrested and imprisoned for corruption. 

In 1874, Tilden won election as governor of New York, which led to his nomination as presidential candidate two years later.

The two candidates promised reform—platforms prompted by allegations of fraud and corruption that riddled the Republican presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, completing his second term as chief executive.

While Hayes slept on election night, former Democratic U.S. Congressman Daniel E. Sickles - an unlikely supporter - showed up at Republican National Committee headquarters in New York to review the election returns. According to the available information, Tilden won New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, as well as the entire South.

In addition to winning the popular vote in the nation's centennial year, Tilden appeared on his way to the White House with 203 electoral votes, with only 185 needed for victory. But Sickles spotted a glimmer of hope. All the returns weren’t yet in. He figured if Hayes could win the Pacific states, and if Republicans held strong in the South, Hayes would win. 

Earlier, a Democratic campaign official contacted the New York Times in an effort to verify the actual electoral vote count. When editor John Reid, who happened to be a Republican, got the message to clarify the tally, he concluded if the Democrats weren’t sure, then Hayes might still have a chance to pull out a victory.

At that moment, the actual electoral vote count stood at 184-166 for Tilden, raising doubt about 19 votes.

The struggle for the election, as shown in a political cartoon titled:

 "Where two ride a donkey, one must go afoot." 

N.Y.Daily Graphic Feb. 16, 1877 (Rutherford B. Hayes Center)

Sickles, according to historian Art Hoogenboom in The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, dispatched telegrams to Republican leaders in South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, and Oregon that read: “With your state sure for Hayes, he is elected. Hold your state.”

Stakes were so high in the 1876 election that both sides resorted to manipulating the results with a series of dirty tricks. Republican officials in Florida, for example, tossed out the right combination of precinct returns to give Hayes a 900-vote lead. 

At the same time, election returns in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida came under dispute. But, together, the votes in those states clinched the presidency for Hayes. Hoogenboom wrote, “With fraud rampant (widespread), it is impossible to determine who would have won a fair election.”

From N.Y.Daily Graphic June 26,1877:

 "Alas, the Woes of Childhood. Sammy Tilden, "Boo-Hoo! Ruthy Hayes's got my presidency, and won't give it to me."

(Rutherford B. Hayes Center)

Months dragged on before the election of 1876 was settled. Among the allegations: 

• Ballot boxes on both sides were stuffed with extra ballots. 
• In Florida, ballots for Democratic candidates were printed with Republican symbols to trick illiterate voters.
• In precincts where fraud was rampant, all the votes were discarded.
• Local leaders in the South used votes as bargaining chips. A backroom deal known as the Compromise of 1877 where those same states threw support to Hayes in exchange for a promise to remove federal troops from the South—a move that would end Reconstruction (1865-1877) and allow Southern whites to resume control of their states. 
• Angry Democrats vowed that Tilden would be inaugurated—by force, if necessary.

With inauguration scheduled for March 5, 1877, Congress appointed a special Electoral Commission to deal with the controversy.

The panel, made up of eight Republican and seven Democrats, voted along straight party lines to accept all of Hayes' electoral votes and declared him the winner.

The Election of 1876 was one of four elections where the winner of the popular vote lost—1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000.

The final vote count in 1876:

Hayes:  185 Electoral Votes - 4,034,311 popular votes
Tilden:  184 Electoral Votes - 4,288,546 popular votes.

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