Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg, 1817–73, Union general in the Civil War, b. Kentucky, grad. West Point, 1839. He fought in the Seminole War and in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, Canby commanded the Dept. of New Mexico, where he thoroughly repelled the Confederate invasion (1862). He was made a brigadier general of volunteers in Mar., 1862, and was on special duty in the War Dept. in Washington from Jan., 1863, to Mar., 1864, except for four months as the commander of New York City during the draft riots of 1863. Canby was promoted to major general in May, 1864, and assigned to command the Military Division of West Mississippi. He captured Mobile in Apr., 1865, and in May received the surrender of the last Confederate armies. After the war Canby held various commands in the South until 1870, when he was sent to the Dept. of the Columbia on the Pacific coast. He was killed during a peace conference with the Modoc.
See biography by M. L. Heyman, Jr. (1959).
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