It was 210 years ago on this day (1813), the man for whom Sedgwick County, Kansas, is named, Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, was born in Connecticut.
Sedgwick was the highest-ranking general officer in the U.S. Volunteers to be killed in the Civil War. Although Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson was in command of an army at the time of his death and Sedgwick of a corps, Sedgwick had the most senior rank by date of all major generals killed.
There are statues dedicated to Gen. Sedgwick at Gettysburg, and on the West Point campus, but not in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
Gen. Sedgwick was wounded three times at the Battle of Antietam while leading his division in an unsuccessful assault against Confederate forces. His corps was the last to arrive at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Sedgwick was killed by a sharpshooter at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864; he is remembered for an ironic remark among his last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
In 1855, Sedgwick accepted a transfer promotion to the rank of major with the United States Cavalry; he served in Kansas.