Edwin Vose Sumner (30 January 1797-21 March 1863) was a Major-General of the US Army during the American Civil War, serving as the oldest Union corps commander.
Biography[]
Edwin Vose Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and he joined the US Army in 1819. Sumner served in the Black Hawk War as a captain before serving in the Mexican-American War, being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel after the Battle of Cerro Gordo and being promoted to colonel after the Battle of Molino del Rey. From 1851 to 1853, he served as governor of the New Mexico Territory before fighting in Bleeding Kansas and leading an 1857 punitive expedition against the Cheyenne Native Americans. On 16 March 1861, he replaced David E. Twiggs as a Brigadier-General when Twiggs defected to the Confederate States Army before the start of the American Civil war, and Twiggs was promoted to Major-General on 5 May 1862 after commanding the Pacific department. Sumner commanded a corps of the Union Army of the Potomac, leading his corps with distinction during the Peninsula Campaign. His corps suffered heavy losses at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and he resigned from the army on 26 January 1863 due to his old age and his opposition to quarreling in the army. He died on 21 March 1863 in Syracuse, New York, and his son Samuel S. Sumner distinguished himself during the Spanish-American War.
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