View source for Samuel Ryan Curtis

{{Short description|American Union Army general (1805–1866)}}
{{Expand German|topic=bio|date=December 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Samuel Ryan Curtis
| office2             = Member of the<br />[[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br />from [[Iowa]]'s [[Iowa's 1st congressional district|1st]] district
| term_start2         = March 4, 1857
| term_end2           = August 4, 1861
| predecessor2        = [[Augustus Hall]]
| successor2          = [[James F. Wilson]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1805|2|3}}
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1866|12|26|1805|2|3}}
| birth_place         = [[Champlain, New York]], U.S.
| death_place         = [[Council Bluffs, Iowa]], U.S.
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| image               = SamuelCurtis01.jpg
| caption             = Samuel R. Curtis in 1864
| nickname            = 
| allegiance          = United States<br />[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]
| branch              = [[United States Army]]<br />[[Union Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1831–1832, 1846–1847, 1861–1865
| rank                = [[Major general (United States)|Major General]]
| commands            = [[2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment|2nd Iowa Infantry]]<br>[[Army of the Southwest]]<br />[[Department of the Missouri]]<br />[[Army of the Border]]
| unit                = 
| battles             = {{Tree list}}
* [[Mexican–American War]]
* [[American Civil War]]
** [[Battle of Pea Ridge]]
** [[Battle of Westport]]
{{Tree list/end}}
| awards              = 
| occupation          = Politician, railroad commissioner
}}
'''Samuel Ryan Curtis''' (February 3, 1805 – December 26, 1866) was an American military officer and one of the first [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] elected to Congress. He was most famous for his role as a [[Union Army]] general in the [[Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War]], especially for his victories at the Battles of [[Battle of Pea Ridge|Pea Ridge]] in 1862 and [[Battle of Westport|Westport]] in 1864.

==Early life, Mexican–American War and politics==
Born near [[Champlain, New York]], Curtis graduated from the [[United States Military Academy]] in 1831. He was stationed at [[Fort Gibson]] in the Indian Territories (present-day [[Oklahoma]]) before resigning from the Army in 1832.

He moved to [[Ohio]], where he worked as a civil engineer on the Muskingum River improvement projects and also became a lawyer in 1841. During the [[Mexican–American War]], he was appointed [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the 3rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers and served as military governor of several occupied cities.<ref>"[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/655*.html Samuel R. Curtis]," Cullum's Register of West Point Graduates</ref>
After the war in the 1850s, he served as chief engineer for river improvements in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], for public infrastructure works in St. Louis, as well as for the [[American Central Railroad]] in [[Iowa]]. He became Mayor of [[Keokuk, Iowa|Keokuk]] in 1856 and in the same year was elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to represent [[Iowa's 1st congressional district]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]]. Curtis and [[Timothy Davis (Iowa politician)|Timothy Davis]] (elected the same day to represent [[Iowa's 2nd congressional district]]) were the first Iowa Republicans elected to serve in the U.S. House. Curtis was re-elected in 1858 and 1860; during his time in Congress, he was a strong advocate of a transcontinental railroad.

==Civil War service==
[[File:Samuel Ryan Curtis monument, Keokuk.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Equestrian statue]] on the Keokuk riverfront in Keokuk, Iowa]]

He was a supporter of [[Abraham Lincoln]], and was considered for a cabinet position in the Lincoln administration.  However, after the Civil War broke out, Curtis was appointed [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the [[2nd Iowa Regiment|2nd Iowa Infantry]] on June 1, 1861, prompting him to resign his congressional seat on August 4 of that year.<ref>[http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=1502 Samuel Ryan Curtis (February 3, 1805 – December 26, 1866)] ''Ohio Civil War Central.'' February 14, 2015. Web. Retrieved March 5, 2016.</ref> He was subsequently promoted to [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]], with the promotion backdated to May 17, 1861.

After organizing the chaos in [[St. Louis, Missouri]], Curtis was given command of the [[Army of the Southwest]] on December 25, 1861, by [[Major general (United States)|Maj. Gen.]] [[Henry W. Halleck]]. The Army originally consisted of three divisions, the 1st commanded by Brig. Gen. [[Franz Sigel]], the 2nd by Brig. Gen. [[Alexander Asboth]], and the 3rd by Col. [[Jefferson C. Davis]]. However, Sigel, a native German who held significant influence amongst the many German immigrants in the army, threatened to resign over having not been appointed to command of the army himself. Curtis subsequently gave him overall command of the first two divisions, consisting mainly of German immigrants, while creating a 4th Division commanded by Col. [[Eugene A. Carr]].

Curtis moved his headquarters south to [[Rolla, Missouri]], to solidify [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] control in [[Arkansas]]. In March 1862, his army won the [[Battle of Pea Ridge]] in northwest Arkansas. His success made him pensive rather than triumphant. A few days after the battle he wrote, "The scene is silent and sad. The vulture and the wolf now have the dominion and the dead friends and foes sleep in the same lonely graves."<ref>Shea & Hess, p 275</ref> He was promoted to major general for his success, effective March 21, 1862. On the same day in late March that he heard about his promotion, he also found out that his twenty-year-old daughter Sadie died of [[typhoid fever]] in St. Louis.<ref>Shea & Hess, p 290</ref>

After Pea Ridge, Curtis' small army moved east and invaded northeast Arkansas, capturing the city of [[Helena, Arkansas]] in July. In September, Curtis was given command of the District of Missouri, but Lincoln was soon forced to reassign him, after Curtis's [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] views led to conflict with the governor of Missouri.<ref>[https://home.nps.gov/peri/learn/historyculture/curtis.htm National Park Service Biography]</ref>  He was reassigned to command the Department of Kansas & Indian Territory.

In October 1863, his son [[Major (United States)|Major]] Henry Zarah  Curtis, [[adjutant]] to [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brig. Gen.]] [[James G. Blunt]], was killed by [[Quantrill's Raiders]]. In this surprise attack at the [[Battle of Baxter Springs]], Quantrill's men wore Federal uniforms and gave no quarter.<ref>Boatner, p 51</ref> Samuel Curtis named [[Fort Zarah]] in memory of his son.

In 1864, Curtis returned to Missouri, fighting against the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] invasion led by Maj. Gen. [[Sterling Price]]. Curtis gathered the forces of his department together, including several regiments of Kansas State Militia, calling his force the [[Army of the Border]].  Price's incursion was halted by Curtis' victory at the [[Battle of Westport]]. Curtis was then reassigned to a completely different armed conflict, commanding the Army's "Department of the Northwest," which was in the closing phase of a military response to [[Dakota War|uprisings]] in southern [[Minnesota]] and [[Dakota Territory]] by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] against settlers.

==Later life and death==
In late 1865, he returned to Iowa where he was involved with the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] until his death the following year in [[Council Bluffs, Iowa]]. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, in [[Keokuk, Iowa|Keokuk]].

==See also==
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
* [[List of American Civil War generals (Union)]]
* [[Gen. Samuel R. Curtis House]], listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Lee County, Iowa|National Register of Historic Places in Iowa]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Boatner, Mark M. III. ''The Civil War Dictionary.'' New York: David McKay, 1959. {{ISBN|0-679-50013-8}}
* Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher|Eicher, David J.]], ''Civil War High Commands'', Stanford University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}
* Shea, William & Hess, Earl, ''Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West.'' University of North Carolina Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-8078-4669-4}}

==Further reading==
* Shea, William L., ''Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West.'' Potomac Books, 2023. {{ISBN|978-1-64012-518-6}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Samuel R. Curtis}}
* [https://home.nps.gov/peri/learn/historyculture/curtis.htm National Park Service Biography]
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.curtis|Samuel Ryan Curtis Papers.]] Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{CongBio|C001013}}

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{{US House succession box |
  state=Iowa|
  district=1 |
  before= [[Augustus Hall]] |
  after= [[James F. Wilson]] |
  years=1857–1861
}}
{{s-end}}

{{IARepresentatives}}

{{Missouri in the Civil War}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Samuel}}
[[Category:1805 births]]
[[Category:1866 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Champlain, New York]]
[[Category:Mayors of places in Iowa]]
[[Category:Politicians from Council Bluffs, Iowa]]
[[Category:People from Keokuk, Iowa]]
[[Category:People of Iowa in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]]
[[Category:Ohio lawyers]]
[[Category:Union army generals]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]