General John Sedgwick

GEN John Sedgwick, Esq. BIRTH 7 Mar 1742 West Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA DEATH 28 Aug 1820 (aged 78) Cornwall Hollow, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA BURIAL Cornwall Hollow Cemetery Cornwall Hollow, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA MEMORIAL ID 34612841 · View Source

MEMORIAL PHOTOS 3 FLOWERS 6 At Cornwall, (Con.) on the 28th of August, Gen. JOHN SEDGWICK, aged 79 years - an old and respectable inhabitant of that town, and an officer of the Revolution. On the 30th his remains were interred - a very numerous concourse attended, to whom was delivered an appropriate discourse by the Rev. Timothy Stone, from the words of King David - "Know ye not that a great man has fallen in Israel this day." Berkshire Star (Stockbridge, MA), 7 Sep 1820

Family Members Parents Photo Benjamin Sedgwick 1716–1757

Photo Anne Thompson Sedgwick 1719–1793

Spouse Photo Abigail Andrews Sedgwick unknown–1811 (m. 1763)

Siblings Photo Sarah Sedgwick Gold 1739–1766

Photo Theodore Sedgwick 1746–1813

Photo Mary Ann Sedgwick Swift 1749–1828

Children Photo Lauraine Sedgewick Parsons 1755–1823

Photo John A. Sedgwick 1764–1831

Photo Henry Sedgwick 1767–1811

Photo Roderic Sedgwick 1771–1783

Photo Benjamin Sedgwick 1781–1857

Photo Abigail Sedgwick 1783–1783

Stephen Sedgwick 1783–1830

Photo Roderick Sedgwick 1785–1864

Inscription Revolutionary War. Age 79.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34612841/john-sedgwick ____________________________________________________

The Baldwin genealogy from 1500 to 1881 (1881)

Author: Baldwin, C. C. (Charles Candee), 1834-1895

Subject: Baldwin family

Publisher: Cleveland, O, [Leader printing company]

Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT

Pg. 573
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"The road to Gettysburg in the summer of 1863 was extremely hot and dusty. The Union Sixth Corps, the largest in the Army of the Potomac, marched from 10 p.m. on the night of July 1st to 5 p.m. in the afternoon of July 2, the last of the infantry in blue to reach the battlefield. As Meade’s largest corps containing about 16,000 men, they were “ a splendid corps ” and the rest of the Federals were glad they had arrived. Their commander, John Sedgwick, did not waste time with rest – although it would have been welcome after a nineteen-hour march in such conditions. Instead, he sent his men where they were needed. Some rushed to the Wheatfield to aid Crawford’s Pennsylvania Reserves. Some were dispatched to Culp’s Hill. The men with the Greek crosses on their jackets or caps were among the best of the veteran fighters. They were led by an equally exceptional commander, who expected nothing less. He was a man “but whom few can equal.” His men just called him “Uncle John”.
John Sedgwick was born on September 13, 1813, in Cornwall Hollow, a hamlet in the northwestern corner of Connecticut, the second son of Benjamin and Olive Sedgwick. He was named for an uncle who was a Major General in the American Revolution. Three sisters followed him, and the family, though not wealthy, was greatly respected in the small community. One youth, who often visited the family, remembered that John Sedgwick “like his father, was a large-hearted, large bodied man, with a large nature…There was a kindly, familiar, approachable way about the general…He kept in touch with the common people. He was big without dignity or artificial airs.”
Perhaps it was because he was named for a great military ancestor that John Sedgwick decided upon a military career. He taught school upon graduation from a local school, then at age twenty entered West Point Military Academy. He graduated there in 1837, with classmates Joe Hooker, Jubal Early, and Braxton Bragg. He spent the next several years fighting against the Seminole uprisings, and his sense of honor chafed at the way the tribes were often treated. In a letter to his only surviving sister, Emily, he wrote: “Half the murders that are committed on the plains and laid to the Indians, are committed by white men.” The nefarious and unjust dealings incensed the young soldier.
Sedgwick fought with distinction in the Mexican War, being brevetted twice for gallantry at the Battles of Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. He ended the war with the rank of major. After that war, he transferred to the Federal Cavalry.
When the Civil War erupted, Sedgwick was the colonel of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, and was soon engaged at the Battle of First Manassas. Appalled at the behavior of his army, he protested in a letter to his sister that the men were “most disgraceful! We have lost everything, even our honor…whole regiments fled without giving a shot.” He, however, fought bravely, and was promoted to brigadier general in the U.S. Second Corps the following month. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign, also with distinction."
[https://www.thegettysburgexperience.com/general-john-sedgwick-belov...]
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Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick was one of the most experienced and competent officers in the Army of the Potomac. He was also greatly respected and beloved by his men. Born in 1813, he graduated from West Point in 1837, later serving in the Seminole War, the Mexican War, and at various posts in the West. He became a brigadier general at the beginning of the Civil War and led a division at Antietam, where he was seriously wounded. Returning to duty in 1863, Sedgwick was placed in command of the Sixth Corps, which he led at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. By the Overland Campaign, he was the army’s highest ranking officer after only Meade.
The Sixth Corps arrived at Spotsylvania on the afternoon of May 8 after a severe march. After dark, it took its place in the center of the Union line, its right flank resting on the Brock Road. Warren’s Fifth Corps was on Sedgwick’s right, and Hancock’s Second Corps would eventually extend the line to the left. Sedgwick established his headquarters 100 feet or so from this spot. Two guns of Battery H, 1st New York Artillery, stood where two branches of the Brock Road met.
Confederate sharpshooters had been peppering the area all morning on May 9, wounding, among others, General William Morris. Staff officers cautioned Sedgwick not to approach the road, but he forgot their warnings a few minutes later when he walked over here to untangle a snarl in his line. When his men warned him to take cover, Sedgwick responded by joking, "They couldn’t hit an elephant at that distance." Just then, a sharpshooter’s bullet crashed into his skull, right below his left eye, killing him instantly. When Grant heard the news, he could hardly believe it. "Is he really dead?" he asked, later remarking that Sedgwick’s death was "greater than the loss of a whole division of troops."
[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/death-john-sedgwick]