Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_P._Gaines

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mysouthernfamily/myff/d001...

Gen. Edmund Pendleton GAINES

3 Mar 1777 - 6 Jun 1849

ID Number: I21614

   * TITLE: Gen.

* OCCUPATION: War Of 1812; Arrested Aaron Burr On Charges Of Treason
* RESIDENCE: Culpeper Co. VA and NC and AL Territory and New Orleans, LA
* BIRTH: 3 Mar 1777, Culpeper Co. VA
* DEATH: 6 Jun 1849, New Orleans, LA
* RESOURCES: See: [S721] [S747] [S761] [S979] [S1286]
Father: James Taylor GAINES

Mother: Elizabeth STROTHER

Family 1 : Frances TOULMAIN

Family 2 : Myra CLARK

   * MARRIAGE: 1802, Philadelphia, PA 

Family 3 : Barbara G. BLOUNT

   * MARRIAGE: 7 Aug 1815, of South Carolina 

1. Edmund Pendleton GAINES Jr.
Notes

Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, Commander Fort Erie in the War of 1812 and the officer who arrested Aaron Burr on charges of treason. "Hero of Lake Erie".

Petition of the Inhabitants of the District of Washington, MS Territory: 11 FEB 1809

GAINES, Edmund P.

GAINES, George S.

GAINES, Young

"Edmund Pendleton Gaines was a distinguished General in the War of 1812 and was voted a sword by the Legislature of Tennessee for his victory over the British at Fort Erie, Canada, August 15, 1814; he was also voted swords by the Legislatures of New York and Virginia and a Medal by the United States Congress. General Gaines married three times: The last time to Myra Clark Whitney, the daughter of Daniel Clark, a native of Ireland who came to New Orleans in 1776 as Consul) and his wife, Zulime Carrier des Ganges, a Creole. Mrs Myra Clark Gaines became celebrated for her litigation with the city of New Orleans in order to inherit the property of her father, worth millions of dollars, much of which she recovered. By his marriage to Barbara Blount, General Gaines had a son, Edmund Pendleton Gaines Jr., of Washington D.C. Several towns are named after him, Gainesville, Florida."

from the DAR Application: Page one of the skethc of Gen E.P. Gaines in Vol IV of the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans. Also page 62 of the lives of Distinguished American Generals in the last war with Great Britain, by John S Jenkins, Auburn NY 1852 fr 286 Vol 1.

The History of the origination fo the army of the US by Fayette Robinson, Philadelphia 1848.

Also Lorings Pictorial field book of the Revolution Vol 2 fr 494, 495, & 497. Also Journal of Congress VII fr 167.

Silver, James Edmund Pendleton Gaines: Frontier General

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From Wikipedia:

Edmund Pendleton Gaines (March 20, 1777–June 6, 1849) was a United States army officer who served with distinction during the War of 1812, the Seminole Wars and the Black Hawk War.

Gaines was born in Culpeper County, Virginia on March 20, 1777. His father, James, had been captain of a company in the American forces during the Revolutionary War, and after the war his family moved to North Carolina where his father became a state representative. He enlisted in the army in 1799 and was a first lieutenant by 1807.

Mississippi Territory

In the early 1800s, Gaines surveyed routes and boundaries in the Mississippi Territory including parts of the Natchez Trace. In 1807, Gaines was the commandant of Fort Stoddert. During this time, he arrested Aaron Burr and testified at his trial. Gaines also surveyed the route that would become the portion of the Gaines Trace from the Tennessee River to Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi. He afterwards took a leave of absence from the army to practice law.

War of 1812

The War of 1812 brought Gaines back to the army and was appointed major of the Eighth U.S. Infantry and in July, 1812, was made a lieutenant colonel in the Twenty-Fourth U.S. Infantry. In 1813, he was promoted to colonel and commanded the Twenty-Fifth Infantry with distinction at the Battle of Crysler's Farm. He became adjutant general and was with General William Henry Harrison's army at the Battle of the Thames. He was promoted brigadier general of regulars on March 9, 1814 and commanded the post at Fort Erie after the U.S. capture. General Jacob Brown was wounded at the Battle of Lundy's Lane and when the U.S. Army of the Niagara returned to the fort, command was passed to Gaines. At the Siege of Fort Erie. Gaines was in command on the fortifications on 15 August 1814, when a British assault was bloodily repulsed. For this victory - the First Battle of Fort Erie - Gaines was awarded the Thanks of Congress, a Congressional Gold Medal, and a brevet promotion to major general. It should be noted, however, that the British assault had already been defeated before Gaines had the opportunity to issue a single order, so he had had no chance to influence the course of the Battle. A few days later, General Gaines was seriously wounded by artillery fire and General Brown, having recovered, returned to command. Gaines' wound ended his active field career for the rest of the war, and he was given command of the Military District Number 6.

Indian affairs

At the end of the war Gaines was sent of a commissioner to deal with the Creek Indians. The U.S. commanding general, Jacob Brown, died in 1828; and Gaines was one of two ranking generals who could have been considered for the post. However, he and the other general, Winfield Scott, had both publicly quarreled with each other, and Alexander Macomb was promoted over both of them. He commanded the Western Military Department during the Black Hawk War. He was still in command of the department during the Seminole Wars in which he personally led an expedition. At the Battle of Ouithlacoochie he was wounded in the mouth.

Southwest Frontier

In 1836, he was placed in command of the Southwest Military District. He was given instructions to fortify the border of the Louisiana Territory and Texas in the case that the Mexican army might threaten U.S. territory. He was also given orders to post guards preventing any U.S. soldiers from crossing into Texas and fighting in the rebellion. He was in command of the Army's Western Division at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War. He was reprimanded by the U.S. government for overstepping his authority by calling up Louisiana volunteers for Zachary Taylor's army. He nevertheless called up volunteers from other southwestern states and received a court-martial but was able to successfully defend himself.

Later life

In the years during and following the Mexican-American War, Gaines was in command of a series of military districts. He was in command of the Western Division when he died at New Orleans, Louisiana on June 6, 1849. He was interred in the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, Alabama.

A number of places in the United States were named in his honor, including Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville, Texas, Gainesville, Georgia, Gaines Township, Michigan and Gainesboro, Tennessee were all named in his honor, as was Gaines Street in Tallahassee, Florida and Gaines Street in Davenport, Iowa. Fort Gaines, a historic fort on Dauphin Island, Alabama was named for him.

See also

   * George Strother Gaines, his brother

United States Army portal

References

   * Elliott, Jack D. and Wells, Mary Ann. (2003). Cotton Gin Port : a frontier settlement on the Upper Tombigbee. Jackson, Mississippi: Quail Ridge Press for the Mississippi Historical Society. ISBN 0-938896-88-1

[edit] External links

   * http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fga3.html

* http://virtualology.com/apedmundpendletongaines/
wikipedia.com

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General Edmund Pendleton Gaines (1777-1849) was an officer in the U.S. Army who worked to preserve the precarious peace among the competing factions in the American Southeast during the colonial era.

Edmund Gaines was born to James and Elizabeth Strother Gaines in Culpeper County, Virginia, on March 20, 1777. James was a distinguished Revolutionary War veteran who moved his family from Virginia to North Carolina, where he served in the state legislature, and then finally to Sullivan County, Tennessee, where he prospered as a farmer and later served as a justice of the peace. Edmund Gaines was the seventh of 14 children. Gaines's younger brother, George Strother Gaines, became a federal trade agent whose work establishing trading posts and negotiating with Native Americans also influenced the western expansion of the United States. Nephew Francis Strother Lyon was a congressman in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Confederate Congress and wrote Alabama state constitution of 1875.

As a young man in Tennessee, Gaines educated himself in land surveying and the law while working on his father's farm. At 22, Gaines's four years of militia service earned him an appointment as an ensign in the U.S. Army, Sixth Infantry. In less than a year, he advanced to the rank of second lieutenant. In 1801, Gaines was assigned to improve the Natchez Trace road, an important federal project commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson. Gaines would spend the next three years surveying boundaries, mapping out and constructing roads in the wilderness, and working closely with the Native American groups in the region.

In 1804, Gaines was assigned to Fort Stoddert on the Old Federal Road in Alabama, near present-day Mount Vernon in Mobile County, and two years later he took command of the stockade. The fort was located only about 30 miles from the Mississippi Territory's border with Spanish Florida, and Gaines worked to maintain peace among white settlers loyal to the United States, white settlers loyal to Great Britain, Native American nations with varying loyalties, and the territorial government of Spanish Florida. These factions frequently fought violently over questions of commerce, criminal extradition, and land rights. However, Gaines often successfully intervened to prevent hostilities; for example, in 1810 he foiled the plans of the Mobile Society, a band of 200 white settlers who attempted to illegally capture Mobile from the Spanish. Gaines married Frances Toulmin, daughter of territorial judge Harry Toulmin, in 1806; they had one child, and Toulmin died in 1811.

In 1807, Gaines led the party that arrested former vice-president Aaron Burr in what is now Washington County. At the time, Burr was a fugitive wanted for fomenting war with Spain, according to charges levied by Pres. Thomas Jefferson. After an informant revealed that Burr was hiding at a Washington County home, Gaines quickly arrested him and eventually transported him to Richmond, Virginia, where he testified at Burr's trial.

Gaines served at Fort Stoddert until 1811, when he took a leave of absence with plans to abandon his military career and practice law. In 1812, at the outbreak of the War of 1812, Gaines re-enlisted as a major in the Eighth U.S. Infantry and then was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commander of the Twenty-fourth U.S. Infantry.

Gaines served with distinction in many battles with British forces along the Canadian border. In 1813, he was promoted to colonel and placed in command of the Twenty-fifth U.S. Infantry and then was named adjutant general under general and future U.S. president William Henry Harrison. In March 1814, Gaines was promoted to brigadier general and took command of Fort Erie, near present-day Ontario, successfully defending it from an attack by 3,000 British troops in the Siege of Fort Erie on August 15, 1814. During the battle, a British shell exploded in Gaines's quarters and injured him badly. He received an official "Thanks of Congress" for his service. Gaines remarried in 1815 to Barbara Blount and they had three children; she died in 1836.

Gaines returned to the southeastern frontier in 1816 and resumed his duties in keeping the peace, this time along the borders of Alabama, Georgia, and Spanish Florida. Gaines's headquarters were located at a stockade built under his direction in southern Georgia at a bend in the Chattahoochee River near the border with present-day Alabama. The soldiers named the post Fort Gaines in honor of their general, and it eventually grew into the town of Fort Gaines, Georgia. From 1816 until 1821, Gaines devoted much of his energy to arbitrating disputes arising from the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which was signed by Gen. Andrew Jackson and Creek leaders in the aftermath of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Squatting by white settlers and the forced cession of 23 million acres of Creek land led to violent clashes along the borders between Alabama and Georgia and Georgia and Spanish Florida. It was often Gaines's responsibility to forcibly evict white squatters and Native Americans from lands to which they had restricted access. Gaines also often corresponded with the governor of Spanish Florida to negotiate the policies of the southeastern frontier region.

Gaines often expressed in private correspondence and in letters to his commanders in Washington the view that the U.S. government should deal with Native Americans fairly and humanely. He opposed removal and war and instead advocated converting them to Christianity and allowing them to join the military. Throughout his career, Gaines supplied starving Native Americans with food, thoroughly investigated accusations of Native American violence rather than retaliating rashly, and refused to protect the rights of white squatters who settled on lands still held by Native Americans. His views were contrary to Andrew Jackson's policies, however, creating animosity between the two. Gaines also quarreled publicly with Gen. Winfield Scott about U.S. Native American policy, and as a result Gaines was denied promotion to major general despite aggressively campaigning for the position. Instead, Gaines shared command of the U.S. military's Eastern and Western Departments with Scott from 1821 to 1836.

In 1836, after the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, Gaines, now based in New Orleans, sent troops to assist Sam Houston and the Texan Army in their battle to take over Texas, which was at the time a territory of Mexico. Gaines married a third time in 1839 to Myra Clark Whitney. In 1846, Gaines issued calls for volunteer troops to assist Gen. Zachary Taylor's forces on the Rio Grande during the Mexican-American War. The federal government censured these efforts and reproved Gaines for proceeding without orders from Washington. Throughout the period in which he was based in New Orleans, Gaines worked to influence military policy and infrastructural planning in the frontier region surrounding the Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. Gaines supported establishing more military outposts in advance of civilian settlement as a method of preventing clashes between settlers, Native Americans, and foreign powers.

Gaines died in New Orleans of cholera on June 6, 1849. He is buried in Mobile in the historic Church Street Graveyard. A number of places bear his name, including towns named Gainesville in Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Fort Gaines, located at the mouth of Mobile Bay, is also named for Gaines.

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Edmund P. Gaines

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Edmund Pendleton Gaines (March 20, 1777–June 6, 1849) was a United States army officer who served with distinction during the War of 1812, the Seminole Wars and the Black Hawk War.

Contents

[hide]

   * 1 Early life

* 2 Mississippi Territory
* 3 War of 1812
* 4 Indian affairs
* 5 Southwest Frontier
* 6 Later life
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links
[edit] Early life

Gaines was born in Culpeper County, Virginia on March 20, 1777. His father, James, had been captain of a company in the American forces during the Revolutionary War, and after the war his family moved to North Carolina where his father became a state representative. He enlisted in the army in 1799 and was a first lieutenant by 1807.

[edit] Mississippi Territory

In the early 1800s, Gaines surveyed routes and boundaries in the Mississippi Territory including parts of the Natchez Trace. In 1807, Gaines was the commandant of Fort Stoddert. During this time, he arrested Aaron Burr and testified at his trial. Gaines also surveyed the route that would become the portion of the Gaines Trace from the Tennessee River to Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi. He afterwards took a leave of absence from the army to practice law.

[edit] War of 1812

The War of 1812 brought Gaines back to the army and was appointed major of the Eighth U.S. Infantry and in July, 1812, was made a lieutenant colonel in the Twenty-Fourth U.S. Infantry. In 1813, he was promoted to colonel and commanded the Twenty-Fifth Infantry with distinction at the Battle of Crysler's Farm. He became adjutant general and was with General William Henry Harrison's army at the Battle of the Thames. He was promoted brigadier general of regulars on March 9, 1814 and commanded the post at Fort Erie after the U.S. capture. General Jacob Brown was wounded at the Battle of Lundy's Lane and when the U.S. Army of the Niagara returned to the fort, command was passed to Gaines. At the Siege of Fort Erie. Gaines was in command on the fortifications on 15 August 1814, when a British assault was bloodily repulsed. For this victory - the First Battle of Fort Erie - Gaines was awarded the Thanks of Congress, a Congressional Gold Medal, and a brevet promotion to major general. It should be noted, however, that the British assault had already been defeated before Gaines had the opportunity to issue a single order, so he had had no chance to influence the course of the Battle. A few days later, General Gaines was seriously wounded by artillery fire and General Brown, having recovered, returned to command. Gaines' wound ended his active field career for the rest of the war, and he was given command of the Military District Number 6.

[edit] Indian affairs

At the end of the war Gaines was sent of a commissioner to deal with the Creek Indians. The U.S. commanding general, Jacob Brown, died in 1828; and Gaines was one of two ranking generals who could have been considered for the post. However, he and the other general, Winfield Scott, had both publicly quarreled with each other, and Alexander Macomb was promoted over both of them. He commanded the Western Military Department during the Black Hawk War. He was still in command of the department during the Seminole Wars in which he personally led an expedition. At the Battle of Ouithlacoochie he was wounded in the mouth.

[edit] Southwest Frontier

In 1836, he was placed in command of the Southwest Military District. He was given instructions to fortify the border of the Louisiana Territory and Texas in the case that the Mexican army might threaten U.S. territory. He was also given orders to post guards preventing any U.S. soldiers from crossing into Texas and fighting in the rebellion. He was in command of the Army's Western Division at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War. He was reprimanded by the U.S. government for overstepping his authority by calling up Louisiana volunteers for Zachary Taylor's army. He nevertheless called up volunteers from other southwestern states and received a court-martial but was able to successfully defend himself.

[edit] Later life

In the years during and following the Mexican-American War, Gaines was in command of a series of military districts. He was in command of the Western Division when he died at New Orleans, Louisiana on June 6, 1849. He was interred in the Church Street Graveyard in Mobile, Alabama.

A number of places in the United States were named in his honor, including Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville, Texas, Gainesville, Georgia, Gaines Township, Michigan and Gainesboro, Tennessee were all named in his honor, as was Gaines Street in Tallahassee, Florida and Gaines Street in Davenport, Iowa. Fort Gaines, a historic fort on Dauphin Island, Alabama was named for him.

[edit] See also

   * George Strother Gaines, his brother

United States Army portal

[edit] References

   * Elliott, Jack D. and Wells, Mary Ann. (2003). Cotton Gin Port : a frontier settlement on the Upper Tombigbee. Jackson, Mississippi: Quail Ridge Press for the Mississippi Historical Society. ISBN 0-938896-88-1

[edit] External links

   * http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fga3.html

* http://virtualology.com/apedmundpendletongaines/
wikipedia.com

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United States Army Major General. Arrested Aaron Burr for treason. Awarded a gold medal and special commendation from congress as well as commendations from the state legislatures of Virginia, Tennessee and New York for gallantry at Fort Erie in 1814. Surveyed the Gaines trace between Nashville and Natchez. Served under Andrew Jackson in the Creek and Seminole campaigns, and served in the Black Hawk War. Son of James Gaines and Elizabeth Strother. Brother of George Strother Gaines. Husband of Frances Toulmin, Barbara Blount, and Myra Clark. Cities of Gainesville Georgia, Florida, and Texas, named for him. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46781966" target="_blank Mark Gaines Jessop)]

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via Myra Gaines (born Clark) by SmartCopy: Apr 24 2015, 0:07:07 UTC