Edward Canby Edward Richard Sprigg Canby ( November 9 , 1817 – April 11 , 1873 ) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War , Reconstruction era , and the Indian Wars . He was the only United States general to be killed during the later wars , and he died when assassinated at a peace talk with the Modoc in Northern California . Early life . Canby was born in Piatt ' s Landing , Kentucky , to Israel T . and Elizabeth ( Piatt ) Canby . He attended Wabash College , but transferred to the United States Military Academy , from which he graduated in 1839 . He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U . S . Infantry and served as the regimental adjutant . Although often referred to as Edward Canby , a biographer has suggested that he was known as " Richard " during childhood and to some friends for most of his life . He was called " Sprigg " by fellow cadets at West Point , but during most of his career , he was generally referred to as E . R . S . Canby , sometimes signing his name " Ed . R . S . Canby . " Marriage and family . He married Louisa Hawkins at Crawfordsville , Indiana , August 1 , 1839 . She came from a family of three sisters and a brother , with whom she remained close . The Canbys had several children together . Early military career . During his early career , Canby served in the Second Seminole War in Florida and saw combat during the Mexican - American War , where he received three brevet promotions , including to major for Contreras and Churubusco , and lieutenant colonel for Belén Gates . He also served at various posts , including Upstate New York and in the adjutant general ' s office in California from 1849 until 1851 , covering the period of the territory ' s transition to statehood . Against his wishes , he was assigned to what was supposed to be the civilian post of custodian of the California Archives from March 1850 until he left California in April 1851 . The Archives included records of Spanish and Mexican governments in California , as well as Mission records and land titles . Evidently , Canby had some knowledge of the Spanish language , which was extremely useful as the government was trying to unravel land titles . ( The Filson Historical Society in Louisville , Kentucky holds what appears to be a document written in Canby ' s hand in Spanish , in which he identifies himself as " Edwardo Ricardo S . Canby . " ) Canby served in Wyoming and Utah ( then both part of the Utah Territory ) during the Utah War ( 1857 – 1858 ) . During this period , he served on the panel of judges for the court martial of Captain Henry Hopkins Sibley . Sibley was acquitted . Subsequently , Canby wrote an endorsement for a teepee - like army tent which Sibley had adapted from the American Indian style . Both officers were later assigned to New Mexico , where in 1860 Canby coordinated a campaign against the Navaho , commanding Sibley in a futile attempt to capture and punish Navajo for " depredations " against the livestock of settlers . The campaign ended in frustration , with Canby and Sibley rarely sighting Navajo raiders . Usually they saw the Navajo at a distance and never got close to them . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Canby commanded Fort Defiance , New Mexico Territory . He was promoted to colonel of the 19th U . S . Infantry on May 14 , 1861 , and the following month commanded the Department of New Mexico . His former assistant Sibley resigned to join the Confederate Army , becoming a Brigadier General . Although Sibley ' s Army of New Mexico defeated Canby and his troops in February 1862 at the Battle of Valverde , Canby eventually forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas after the Union strategic victory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass . Immediately following this battle , Canby was promoted to brigadier general on March 31 , 1862 . Recombining the forces he had earlier divided , Canby set off in pursuit of the retreating Confederate army , but he soon gave up the chase and allowed them to reach Texas . Shortly after the failure of the Confederate invasion of northern New Mexico , Canby was relieved of his command by Gen . James H . Carleton and reassigned to the east . Canby ' s achievement in New Mexico had largely been in his planning an overall defensive strategy . He and his opponent , Sibley , both had limited resources . Though Canby was a little better supplied , he saw that defending the entire territory from every possible attack would stretch his forces too thinly . Realizing that Sibley had to attack along a river , especially since New Mexico was in the middle of a long drought , Canby made the best use of his forces by defending against only two possible scenarios : an attack along the Rio Grande and an attack by way of the Pecos and Canadian rivers . He could easily shift the latter defensive force to protect Fort Union if the enemy attacked by way of the Rio Grande , which they did . Canby persuaded the governors of both New Mexico and Colorado to raise volunteer units to supplement regular Federal troops ; the Colorado troops proved helpful at both Valverde and Glorieta . In spite of occasional superior soldiering by Confederate troops and junior commanders , Sibley ' s sluggishness and vacillation in executing a plan with high risk led to an almost inevitable Confederate collapse . After a period of clerical duty , Canby was assigned as " commanding general of the city and harbor of New York " on July 17 , 1863 . This assignment followed the New York Draft Riots by ethnic Irish against blacks , which caused numerous deaths and extensive property damage . He served until November 9 , reviving the draft , and overseeing a prisoner of war camp in New York Harbor . He then went to work in the office of the Secretary of War , unofficially describing himself in correspondence as an " Assistant Adjutant General . " Looking back on Canby ' s record , a 20th - century adjutant general , Edward F . Witsell , described Canby ' s position as " similar to that of an Assistant to the Secretary of the Army . " In May 1864 , Canby was promoted to major general and relieved Nathaniel P . Banks of his command at Simmesport , Louisiana . He next was assigned to the Midwest , where he commanded the Military Division of Western Mississippi . He was wounded in the upper thigh by a guerrilla while aboard the gunboat " USS Cricket " on the White River in Arkansas near Little Island on November 6 , 1864 . Canby commanded the Union forces assigned to conduct the campaign against Mobile , Alabama in the spring of 1865 . This culminated in the Battle of Fort Blakely , which led to the fall of Mobile on April 12 , 1865 . Canby accepted the surrender of the Confederate forces under General Richard Taylor in Citronelle , on May 4 , 1865 , and those under General Edmund Kirby Smith west of the Mississippi River on May 26 , 1865 . Canby was generally regarded as a great administrator , but he was criticized as a soldier . Ulysses S . Grant thought him not aggressive enough . At one time , Grant sent Canby an order to " destroy [ the enemy ' s ] railroads , machine - shops , & c . " Ten days later , Grant reprimanded him for requesting men and materials to build railroads . " I wrote . . . urging you to . . . destroy railroads , machine - shops , & c . , not to build them , " Grant said . Canby could be a destroyer but appeared to prefer the role of builder . Today , he might be considered a " policy wonk " because he was expert in policy and law . If someone had a question about army regulations or Constitutional law affecting the military , Canby was the man to see . Grant came to appreciate this in peace time , once complaining vigorously when President Andrew Johnson proposed to assign Canby away from the capital where Grant considered him irreplaceable . John D . Winters in " The Civil War in Louisiana " ( 1963 ) writes that Canby " lacked the social amenities " of Banks and appeared to most people as stern and taciturn . " Winters quotes Treasury agent George S . Denison of New Orleans : " General Canby is very active , but his work makes no great show as yet , because it is conducted too quietly and without ostentation . Canby is a tall man of thoughtful and kind face - speaks little and to the point - thoroughly a soldier and his manner is very modest and unassuming and sometimes even embarrassed . " Canby ' s father had once owned slaves . Some of Canby ' s cousins fought for the Confederacy , and one was taken prisoner of war . The man ' s father wrote to Canby asking the general to use his influence to parole his son , but Canby declined , responding that he did not feel entitled to use his influence to benefit family members . Later , when Canby was a military governor during Reconstruction , he declined to favor relatives who had become carpetbaggers in his jurisdiction . Post - war assignments . After the war , Canby served as commander of various military departments during Reconstruction , as the government tried to manage dramatic social changes while securing peace . He commanded Louisiana from 1864 to May 1866 . He was next assigned as commander of the Department of Washington , which consisted of Delaware , Maryland , the District of Columbia , and Alexandria and Fairfax counties in Virginia , from June 1866 until August 1867 . He was assigned to the command of the Second Military District , comprising North and South Carolina . In August 1868 , he briefly resumed command in Washington . He was assigned to the Fifth Military District in November , where he focused primarily on the reconstruction of Texas . He left Texas for Virginia , the First Military District , in April 1869 , serving there until July 1870 . Each of these postings occurred during Reconstruction and put Canby at the center of conflicts between Republicans and Democrats , whites and blacks , state and federal governments . New state legislatures were writing constitutions , and the social climate was highly volatile , with insurgent attacks against freedmen and Republicans on the rise in numerous areas . Many of his districts had Ku Klux Klan chapters , which the US government was not able to suppress until the early 1870s . Canby sometimes alienated one side or the other and often both . Charles W . Ramsdell called Canby " vigorous and firm , but just . " Even political opponents , such as Jonathan Worth , governor of North Carolina , admitted that Canby was sincere and honest . Final assignment and death . In August 1872 , Canby was posted to command the Pacific Northwest . He soon faced problems with the Modoc tribe , who had traditionally lived in Northern California . Forced to remove to a reservation in Oregon which they had to share with their traditional enemies , the Klamath tribe , they had pleaded with the US government to return to California . When the US refused , the Modoc left the reservation and returned illegally . In 1872 , the US Army went to fight against them to force them back and the Modoc War broke out . The Modoc , entrenched in Captain Jack ' s Stronghold south of Tule Lake , resisted army attacks and fought US forces to a stalemate . General Canby had received conflicting orders from Washington as to whether to make peace or war on the Modoc . As war was not working , the US government authorized a peace commission and assigned Canby a key position on it . There were many lines of communication between the Modoc and whites . At one point , someone told the Modoc leader Captain Jack that the governor of Oregon intended to hang nine Modoc , apparently without trial , as soon as they surrendered . The Modoc broke off scheduled talks ; Canby was angered by the rumors and their action , as he believed that his federal authority trumped the governor ' s and made the threat irrelevant . Canby had no intention of allowing the Modoc to be punished without a trial . On April 11 , 1873 , after months of false starts and aborted meetings , Canby went to another parley , unarmed and with some hope of final resolution . Judge Elijah Steele of Yreka , California wrote later that when he warned Canby that the Modoc were volatile and he was at risk , Canby replied , " I believe you are right , Mr . Steele , and I shall regard your advice , but it would not be very well for the general in command to be afraid to go where the peace commissioners would venture . " The peace talks were held midway between the army encampment and Captain Jack ' s stronghold near Tule Lake . It was discovered later that two members of Canby ' s party brought concealed weapons and Modoc warriors were also armed . According to Jeff C . Riddle , the Modoc son of the US interpreter and the author of " Indian History of the Modoc War " ( 1914 ) , the Modoc had plotted before the meeting to kill Canby and the other commissioners , as they believed peace was not possible . They were determined to " fight until we die . " ( He was the son of " Winema " and Frank Riddle . ) Captain Jack had been reluctant to agree to the killings , believing it " coward ' s work , " but was pressured by other warriors to agree . He insisted on being given another chance to ask Canby to " give us a home in our country . " When Canby said he did not have the authority to make such a promise , Captain Jack attacked the general . With Ellen ' s Man , one of his lieutenants , he shot Canby twice in the head and cut his throat . The Modoc also killed Reverend Eleazar Thomas , a peace commissioner , and wounded others in the party . Canby was the only general to be killed during the Indian Wars . Aftermath . Following Canby ' s death , national outrage was expressed against the Modoc . Eastern newspapers called for blood vengeance , except for one in Georgia , which headlined the story : " Captain Jack and Warriors Revenge the South By Murdering General Canby , One of Her Greatest Oppressors . " E . C . Thomas , son of the murdered peace commissioner , recognized the inevitability of reprisals for the killings , but said : " To be sure , peace will come through war , but not by extermination . " Eventually , Captain Jack ( " Kintpuash " ) , Boston Charley , Schonchin John and Black Jim were tried for murder , convicted , and executed on October 3 , 1873 . The surviving Modoc were sent to reservations . The killing of Canby , and the Great Sioux War , undermined public confidence in President Grant ' s peace policy , according to the historian Robert Utley . There was growing public sentiment for full defeat of the American Indians . After memorial services were performed on the West Coast , Canby ' s body was returned to Indiana and buried in Crown Hill Cemetery , Indianapolis , Indiana on May 23 , 1873 . At least four Union generals attended his funeral there : William Tecumseh Sherman , Philip Sheridan , Lew Wallace , and Irvin McDowell , and the latter two served among the pall bearer s . A reporter noted that , although the funeral procession was generally reserved , " more than once , expressions of hatred toward the Modoc " marred the silence .