James Gillpatrick Blunt (1826 - 1881)

Born 21 Jul 1826 in Trenton, Hancock, Maine

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Died 27 Jul 1881 at age 55 in Washington, District of Columbia

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Biography

James Blunt is Notable.

James Gillpatrick Blunt was born July 21, 1828 in Trenton, Hancock county, Maine. At the age of fifteen he went to sea for five years. Subsequently he studied medicine and in 1849 a degree was granted him from Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. Afterward he practiced in New Madison, Ohio. He was married there to Nancy Carson Putnam.

In 1858 he moved to Kansas and settled at Greeley as a physician. His strong antipathy toward slavery soon drew him actively into politics. As a constitutional delegate from Anderson county Blunt attended the convention held at Wyandotte, July 5, 1859, and helped write the constitution of Kansas. He served as chairman of the committee on militia. At the first call to arms in the Civil War he volunteered for service, and later became Kansas' first major general.

After the war General Blunt settled in Leavenworth, where he resumed the practice of medicine. About 1889 he removed to Washington, D. C., and for twelve years solicited claims before the federal departments. On April 9, 1873, Bunt and others were charged by the Department of Justice with conspiracy to defraud the government and a body of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, but the case was dismissed two years later.

Toward the end of his life Blunt became ill with what was diagnosed as softening of the brain. On February 12, 1879 he was admitted as a patient to St. Elizabeth's, a government hospital for the insane. He died there July 26, 1881.

Source: "General Blunt's Account of His Civil War Experiences" - Kansas Historical Quarterlies, May, 1932 (Vol. 1, No. 3), pages 211 to 265 - http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1932/32_3_blunt.htm

At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Blunt was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Second Kansas Volunteer regiment. On April 18, 1862, he was made a brigadier general of volunteers and given command of the Department of Kansas. His division was later renamed the Army of the Frontier. Blunt’s division consisted of Kansas volunteers as well as Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole Home Guard units. He saw the need to raise volunteers among the Native American tribes that remained loyal to the United States. Three Indian regiments were organized. One of these regiments, the Third Indian Home Guard, consisted of 1,200 men and was formed from a Confederate regiment of Cherokee that had defected to the Union cause.

The high point of Blunt’s army career most likely came when he served as a division commander at the Battle of Prairie Grove. While still at Cane Hill (Washington County) on December 7, 1862, Blunt could hear the roar of battle and ordered his troops to march to the sound of the guns. Instead of marching along the roads, the Union soldiers advanced at the double quick across farm fields and fences. Using this unorthodox maneuver, Blunt’s forces arrived on the field just in time to help Brigadier General Francis Herron’s Federal troops, who found themselves being attacked on three sides. Blunt’s troops surprised the Confederates and drove them back. The general was later credited with saving Herron’s divisions. Even though the battle was a tactical draw, the Union remained in control of the battlefield.

Blunt was appointed major general of volunteers on March 16, 1863. He was the only Kansan to attain that rank during the war. He personally commanded the victorious Union forces at the Battle of Honey Springs in Indian Territory. After the battle, Fort Gibson was renamed Fort Blunt in his honor.

On October 6, 1863, after Blunt had turned command of Fort Smith (Sebastian County) over to Colonel James N. Johnson, a Confederate guerrilla force led by William C. Quantrill attacked a wagon train led by Blunt near Baxter Springs, Kansas, killing more than eighty of the 100-man detachment. Blunt barely escaped. Among the dead was his adjutant, Major Henry Curtis, son of Major General Samuel Curtis. Due to this debacle, Blunt was removed as commander of the Army of the Frontier.

In 1864, Blunt redeemed himself as the commander of the First Division of the Army of the Border. His unit, along with Alfred Pleasanton’s cavalry, fought to delay Major General Sterling Price’s Confederate advance into Missouri. Several battles followed, but Gen. Curtis was able to gather his forces and defeat Price at the Battle of Westport, Missouri. Blunt’s cavalry then attacked Price at the Second Battle of Newtonia, causing a Confederate retreat.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture - James G. Blunt (1826–1881) aka: James Gilpatrick Blunt - http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5767

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX3R-P4S : 12 April 2016), James G Blunt in household of Rufus Gillpatrik, Harrison, Darke, Ohio, United States; citing family 1, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5767

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baxter_Springs

• "General Blunt's Account of His Civil War Experiences" - Kansas Historical Quarterlies, May, 1932 (Vol. 1, No. 3), pages 211 to 265 - http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1932/32_3_blunt.htm

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6CQ-WYL : 11 August 2017), James G Blunt in household of Wm E Stanton, Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district ED 91, sheet 183C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0121; FHL microfilm 1,254,121.

• https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Blunt&GSfn=James&GSmn=G.&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=12017&df=all&

• "United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4BP-4JH : 24 March 2016), James G. Blunt, 1888.

• "United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6WY-48C : 12 December 2014), James G Blunt, 1907-1933; citing NARA microfilm publication M850 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,634,230.