Edwin Vose Sumner

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Edwin Vose Sumner

Born	January 30, 1797 Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Died	March 21, 1863 Syracuse, New York, USA

Edwin Vose "Bull Head" Sumner (January 30, 1797 – March 21, 1863) was a U.S. Army officer who became a major general and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the American Civil War. His nickname "Bull Head" came from a legend that a musket ball once bounced off his head.

1 Early life and career
2 Civil War
3 Grave
4 References
5 External links
- 5.1 Historical documents

[edit] Early life and career

Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1797, to father Elisha Sumner and mother Nancy Voss. His middle name may have originally been Voss, from his mother's maiden name. In 1819, after losing interest in a mercantile career in Troy, New York, he entered the United States Army as a second lieutenant.

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., and Samuel Storrow Sumner. His son Samuel was a general during the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, and the Philippine-American War.

Sumner later served in the Black Hawk War and in various Indian campaigns. On March 4, 1833, he was promoted to the rank of captain and assigned to the 1st U.S. Dragoons Regiment, immediately upon its creation by Congress.

In 1838, he commanded the cavalry instructional establishment in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He took part in the Mexican-American War as a major, and for his bravery at Molino del Rey he received the brevet rank of colonel. In 1857, he commanded an expedition against the Cheyenne Indians.

[edit] Civil War

At the outbreak of the Civil War, four years later, Sumner had just been promoted to brigadier general and was sent to replace Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in command of the Department of the Pacific. He thus took no part in the 1861 campaigns of the war.

In autumn, he was brought back east to command a division, and soon afterwards, as a major general of volunteers, a corps in the Army of the Potomac, being organized by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. The II Corps, commanded during the war by Sumner, Darius N. Couch, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Andrew A. Humphreys, had the deserved reputation of being the best in the Eastern Theater. Sumner, who was by far the oldest of the generals in the Army of the Potomac, led his corps throughout the Peninsula Campaign, was wounded at Glendale during the Seven Days Battles, received the brevet of major general in the Regular Army, and was again wounded in the Battle of Antietam.

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, the old cavalry soldier took part in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg, in which the II Corps suffered heavy casualties.

Soon afterwards, on Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's appointment to command the army, Sumner was relieved at his own request. He was then appointed commander of the Department of the Missouri, although he was not to take command until the following spring. He traveled to his home in Syracuse, New York, where he suffered a fatal heart attack on March 21, 1863.

[edit] Grave

Sumner is buried in Section 8, Lot 1 of Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse. Part of the Teall family plot, the gravesite has some structural problems and issues of disrepair. The Onondaga Country Civil War Round Table is currently raising funds to repair the grave and the general area.