Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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CANBY’S CROSS



Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby is best known for being the only general ever to get himself killed in an Indian War. He was murdered on April 11, 1873 in peace negotiations by Captain Jack during the Modoc War. His death was viewed in the world of white men as an act of treachery. Canby himself would most probably have viewed his death as the least of many noteworthy accomplishments in a long and distinguished military career. He was an able officer of the parade ground variety, but not much of a fighting man. Throughout his career Canby’s path crossed that of Henry Hopkins Sibley with annoying regularity. Sibley graduated from West Point in 1838 and Canby in 1839. Sibley was a dragoon officer and Canby was an engineer. Both men served in the Seminole War in 1841 and chewed the dirt of the same battlefields in the Mexican War. Canby was a man of proven organizational ability and attained rank more quickly than Sibley did. They served together again in the Mormon War, where Sibley got himself court-martialed. Canby sat on the officer’s board that acquitted him. By 1860 Colonel Canby was the commanding officer of the Department of New Mexico headquartered at Fort Defiance. Captain Sibley commanded a troop of cavalry there, and both men rode in pursuit of the wily Navajo but failed to catch them. When Sibley invented his famous tent Canby endorsed it for use. The Sibley stove for heating the tent was in use by the army until WWII. For that inventiveness Canby promoted Sibley to the rank of major, but on the day the promotion went through Sibley resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy. When the confederate army marched into New Mexico in 1862 Sibley rode at its head. His men defeated Canby all the way up the Rio Grande Valley, and were on the brink of routing the federals again at Glorietta Pass when the federals captured the entire confederate supply train forcing the confederates to retreat back to Texas. After the federal victory Canby was replaced in New Mexico by Carleton and went on to serve with distinction in a variety of administrative postings throughout the Civil War and during Reconstruction. General Grant valued him very highly. The picture shows Canby’s Cross. It was erected during the 1880’s on the site where he was murdered.

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