Stephen W. Kearny

Stephen Watts Kearny

Stephen Watts Kearny (born August 30, 1794 in Newark , New Jersey , † October 31, 1848 in St. Louis ) was an American officer whose name was mainly associated with military actions in the southwestern United States and in connection with the conquest of California is associated. He is also considered the father of the US cavalry .

Life

Early years

Kearny was born in Newark, New Jersey. He attended public schools, enlisted in the US Army during the War of 1812 and became a first lieutenant . There he did not succeed in asserting himself. Because of his obviously bad behavior, he was denied the promotion to captain ( captain ). He was briefly taken prisoner by the British.

In the western border region

Immediately after the end of the war, which was not very successful for him, he was assigned to the western military district under the command of General Henry Atkinson and promoted to captain in 1813 . In 1819 he became a member of the so-called Atkinson Expedition, which was to explore the area around the Yellowstone River in what is now Montana and Wyoming . The expedition got stuck in what is now Nebraska , where they later founded Fort Atkinson. In 1823 he became a Brevet Major. Another expedition took him to the mouth of the Yellowstone River in 1825. During these expeditions, Kearny kept records of the geographical conditions and the routes chosen.

In 1826 he was named first in command of the new Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis , Missouri . During this time he was often a guest of William Clark (who had become known through the Lewis and Clark expedition ). This is how he got to know his stepdaughter, whom he then married and with whom he had eleven children, although not all of them reached adulthood. In 1829 he became a major .

During his time in St. Louis, he reorganized a dragoon unit from 1833 and gave it the format from which the classic US cavalry emerged. It was then that he got his nickname: "Father of the Cavalry". The resulting regiment was moved under his command to Fort Leavenworth , Kansas in 1836 , at the same time Kearny was promoted to Colonel ( colonel ). With this promotion the supreme command of the third military district was connected, which had the task of securing the western border and keeping the peace among the various Indian tribes of the prairie.

At the beginning of the 1840s the time of the great treks to the west began, which also led through the area of ​​his command area. He granted the settlers military protection against possible Indian raids. This became part of the US Army's official military mission over the next few decades. Kearny had military posts and new forts built along the route to facilitate this task. In doing so, he was able to fall back on his notes from previous expeditions. One of these posts was named "Fort Kearny" after him. In 1845 he first led a US Army force to the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains .

The names of the city of Kearney and Kearney County in Nebraska are derived from Fort Kearny .

The war against Mexico

Kearny announced the incorporation of New Mexico into the United States on August 15, 1846 in Las Vegas

In 1846, when the war broke out, Kearny was ordered to be Brigadier General at the head of a 1700-strong force in Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico . His mission was to occupy and administer this area. On August 18, 1846, he was appointed military governor. He promised to set up a civilian government within a month.

After the end of his mission in Santa Fe, he was ordered on September 25th to march with 300 men to California. Since his troops were now considerably weaker, the advance was hindered by enemy attacks. It was not until the merger with the naval forces of Commodore Stockton that after several victorious battles in late 1846 and in the course of 1847 all of California was taken.

After the fighting over California was over, a dispute over the leadership of the new area developed. Kearny as the highest ranking army soldier claimed for himself the supreme command of California. Commodore Stockton also made this claim. To make matters worse, the Mexican troops had capitulated neither to Stockton nor to Kearney, but to Stockton's assistant, John Charles Fremont . Hence, Stockton named Fremont Military Governor of California. Kearny resisted this action, sought help in Washington and had Fremont arrested and tried before a military tribunal. He was convicted, but immediately pardoned by President James K. Polk . Kearny was now, however, military governor of California.

Governor of California and final years of life

Kearny initially remained governor of California. Then he was ordered back to Fort Leavenworth. He then became military governor of Vera Cruz and Mexico City. In September 1848, against the opposition of Senator Thomas Hart Benton (Fremont's father-in-law), he was awarded the rank of major general . But Kearny could not enjoy his new rank for long. Just a month later he died in St. Louis of a tropical disease that he contracted in Vera Cruz.

Web links

Commons : Stephen W. Kearny  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Biography of persons of Mexican-American War (English)
• Stephen W. Kearny in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John D. Unruh, Jr .: The Plains Across. The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 . University of Illinois Press, 1993 (first printed in 1979), p. 56