Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/96

 CURTIS

CURTIS

lie was sent with the first expedition to Fort Fislier. His troops, after the Federal landing north of Fort Fisher, Ciiristnias. 18G4, invested the fort, oajitured the garrison flag, two guns and tlio caissons of a battery, and a battalion of in- fantry, wlien he was ordered to fall back and the expeilition returned to Hampton Roads. For his part in this assault he was brevetted brigadier- general U.S. volunteers to date from Oct. 28, lS(i4. His reiKirt to General Grant largely deter- mined a second assault which he led with his coMimand Jan. L"). 18."», in which successful en- gagement he received six wounds, one causing the loss of his left eye. The following morning lie received by the hand of General Terry an a]>pointment as brigadier-general, U.S. volunteers, written on a sheet of foolscap and signed by the .secretary of war on the field of battle. Later he was brevetted major-general, U.S. volunteers, anil performed military duty under that rank during the last year of his service as chief of statT to General Ord and to General Terry, com- manding the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina: and later while in command of the dis- trict of Southwestern Virginia with headquarters a.t Lynchburg, where he was mustered out of the U.S. volunteer service Jan. 15, 1866. His promo- tions were each given for di.stinguished and meritorious services and he received a congres- sional medal of honor for personal bravery in the battle of Fort Fisher. In civil life he held the oftices of collector of customs; special agent of the U.S. treasury department; member of the New York assembly, 1884-90; and representative in the 52d, 53d and 54th congresses, 1891-97. He was a breeder of Ayrshire and short horn cattle, president of St. Lawrence county and the New York state agricultixral societies; one of the com- mittee to locate and establish the New York state experiment station at Geneva; and for six years secretary and for five years president of its board of control. He introduced the assembly bill for state care of the insane at the request of the State charities association, and his own bills: to require a sane woman to be in the escort with every insane woman when travelling under orders of a court; to change the titles of tiie lunatic and state asylums for the insane to state hospitals; and to establi.sh the State hos- pital at Ogdensburg, N.Y. His most important bills in congress which became laws were: to regulate enlistments in the regular army in time of peace, providing that recruits shall be under thirty years of age, citizens of the United States who can read, write and speak the Englisli lan- guage; to transfer the military pri.sons to Leaven- worth, Kan., from the war department to the department of justice; providing that soldiers convicted of military offences shall be retained

and disciplined at army po.sts and prisoners con- victed in the civil courts of violations of the LT.S. statutes shall be retained under federal jurisdic- tion and not be confined in states })risons and county jails; and to abolish the penalty of death for eighteen specified offences, approved Jan. 15, 1897.

CURTIS, Samuel Ryan, soldier, was born in Clinton county, N.Y., Feb. 3, 1807. His parents removed to Ohio when he was an infant and he was graduated from the U.S. military academy in 1831. After serving one year in the army he resigned to engage in civil engineering. He afterward superintended the Muskingum river improvements on which he was employed, 1837- 39. He then studied law, became an active mili- tary officer, and was promoted captain in 1833, colonel in 1843, and adjutant-general in 1846. He served in the Mexican war as colonel of the 2d Oiiio volunteers, and while in charge of the army stores at Camargo defeated an attempt of General Urrea to capture the place, driving his force through the mountains to Ramos and thus opening communication with General Taylor. He sub.sequently served on the staff of General Wool and was governor of Saltillo, 1847-48. He afterward went west and in 1855 opened a law office in Keokuk, Iowa. He was a representative from Iowa in the 35th, 36th and 37th congresses, resigning from the 37tli congress before the ex- traordinary session of July 4, 1861, to command the 2d Iowa volunteers. He was one of the first western officers to receive a commission as brig- adier-general, May, 1861, and organized and had charge of a camp of instruction near St. Louis, Mo. , during the summer. He was in charge of the southwestern district of Missouri from De- cember, 1861, to February, 1862, and commanded the army of the Southwest from February to August, 1862, taking possession of Springfield, Mo., February 13, and defeating the Confeder- ates under Price and McCuUoch at Pea Ridge, March 8, 1862. for which action he was promoted major-general. He continued his march 1000 miles south and occupied Helena, Ark., in July. He commanded the department of Mis.souri, 1862- 63, and the department of Kansas, 1864-65. He checked the raid of General Price and helped to drive his army back into Arkansas. He com- manded the department of the Northwest in 1865, and was U.S. Indian commissioner the lat- ter part of the year. He was mustered out of the volunteer .service, April 30, 1866. He was early interested in the Pacific railroad and in September. 1862, olitained leave of alisence to l)reside over the convent ion that met in Chicago, 111., to inaugurate the enterprise, and wa.^: a com- missioner to examine the road in 1866. He died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, Dec. 26, 1866.