Philip Kearny (1 June 1815 – 1 September 1862) was a Union Army Major-General during the American Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Chantilly in 1862, and the city of Kearny, New Jersey is named in his honor.
Biography[]
Philip Kearny was born in New York City, New York in 1815 to a wealthy Irish-American family; he was the grandson of congressman John Watts and the nephew of Stephen W. Kearny. His parents died when he was young, and he graduated from Columbia College in 1833 to become a lawyer as his new guardian, his grandfather, wished. When his grandfather died in 1836, Kearny was left with $1 million (now $27 million), and he chose to join the US Army dragoons. He traveled to France in 1839 to study cavalry tactics, and he attended the Saumur cavalry school before serving with the French Army in the French conquest of Algeria and being nicknamed "Kearny the Magnificent" by his French comrades. He returned to the United States in 1840 and prepared a cavalry manual for the US Army based on his expreinces overseas. When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, he purchased 120 gray horses with his own money and raised a dragoon unit which would come to serve as Winfield Scott's bodyguards. Kearny suffered a grapeshot wound to the arm at the Battle of Churubusco, leading to his arm being amputated; Scott saw him as the perfect soldier and the bravest man he ever knew. Kearny had the distinction of being the first US soldier to enter Mexico City upon its fall, and he was brevetted to Major after the war. In 1851, he fought against Native Americans in Oregon, but he resigned his commission due to the slow rate of promotions. He went on to travel the world, including China, Sri Lanka, and France, and he and his lover Agnes Maxwell moved into a new mansion over the Passaic River in New Jersey called Bellegrove, a short distance from his old family's manor in Newark. In 1858, after his first wife finally agreed to a divorce, Kearny and Agnes married in Paris. Kearny rejoined the French Army and fought at the Battle of Solferino while serving in Napoleon III's Imperial Guard. He then became the first US citizen to receive the Legion d'honneur.
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Kearny was promoted to Brigadier-General and given command of a New Jersey brigade. On 30 April 1862, he received command of a division, leading it into the Battle of Williamsburg and the Battle of Fair Oaks. Kearny distinguished himself in battle, riding into battle with his horse's reins in his mouth (as the French cavalry did) and his sword in his left hand, and he told his men to charge without worry, as the enemy would be targeting him. At the Battle of Malvern Hill, he refused to follow George B. McClellan's orders to withdraw, saying that any such order came from either cowardice or treason. In the summer of 1862, he developed the first insignia patches for the army, and he was promoted to Major-General on 4 July 1862. In August 1862, he led his men at the disastrous Second Battle of Bull Run, and he led a rearguard action at the Battle of Chantilly as the army withdrew towards Washington DC. He assured his men that the Confederate bullet which could kill him had not yet been moulded, but, when he was surrounded by Confederate troops while investigating a gap of his line, he ignored a demand to surrender and tried to escape, followed by a vollet of bullets which killed him. Opposing Confederate general A.P. Hill told his men that they had killed Phil Kearny, and that he deserved a better fate than to die in the mud. Robert E. Lee also ordered that his belongings be respected, and he burned Kearny's letters to his wife after finding no useful military papers among them. The town of Kearny, New Jersey, located near his manor, is named for him.