Major General Philip Kearny: A Soldier and His Time in the American Civil War

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A talented field commander, Union General Philip Kearny began his career as a lieutenant with the 1st U.S. Dragoons. He studied cavalry tactics in France and fought with the Chasseurs d'Afrique in Algeria, where his fearlessness earned him the nickname Kearny le Magnifique. Returning to America, he wrote a cavalry manual for the U.S. Army and later raised a troop of dragoons–using his own money to buy 120 matching dapple-gray mounts for his men–and led them during the Mexican War, where he lost an arm.

One of the most experienced officers at the outbreak of the Civil War, he commanded a division in the Army of the Potomac, famously leading a charge at the Battle of Williamsburg, saber in hand and reins in his teeth. He disliked and sometimes disobeyed General George McClellan, once protesting an order to retreat as prompted by cowardice or treason. Kearny was on the verge of higher command when he was killed in action in the Battle of Chantilly in 1862.