SEDGWICK, John, soldier, born in Cornwall, Connecticut, 13 September, 1813 ; died near Spottsylvania Court House, Virginia, 9 May, 1864. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1837, 24th in a class of fifty members, among whom were General Joseph Hooker, General Braxton Bragg, and General Jubal A. Early. Immediately after his graduation he served in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians. His first engagement was a skirmish near Fort Clinch, 20 May, 1838. The same year he was employed in removing the Cherokees to their new home beyond the Mississippi. He was made 1st lieutenant of artillery, 19 April, 1839. In the Mexican war he was successively brevetted captain and major for gallant conduct at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. He also distinguished himself at the head of his command in the attack on tile San Cosmo gate of the city of Mexico. He was made captain, 26 January, 1849, major of the 1st cavalry, 8 March, 1855, and served in Kansas and on the western frontier At the beginning of the civil war he was lieutenant-colonel of the 2d cavalry. On 25 April, 1861, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 4th cavalry, and on 31 August was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers and placed in command of a brigade of the Army of the Potomac, which in the subsequent organization of the army was assigned to the 2d corps, under General Sumner, General .Sedgwick assuming command of the 3d division. In this capacity he took part in the siege of Yorktown and the subsequent pursuit of the enemy up the peninsula, and rendered good service at the battle of Fair Oaks. In all the seven days' fighting, and particularly at Savage Station and Glendale, he bore an honorable part, and at the battle of Antietam he exhibited conspicuous gallantry, exposing himself recklessly. On this occasion he was twice wounded, but refused for two hours to be taken from the field. On 23 December he was nominated by the president a major-general of volunteers, and in the succeeding February he assumed command of the 6th army corps. At the head of these troops he carried Marye's Heights in the rear of Fredericksburg during the Chancellorsville campaign in May, 1863, and, after the retreat of General Joseph Hooker across the Rappahannock, succeeded only by very hard fighting in withdrawing his command in the face of a superior force, against which he had contended for a whole day, to the left bank of the river. He commanded the left wing of the Army of the Potomac during the advance from the Rappahannock into Maryland in June, and also at the succeeding battle of Gettysburg, where he arrived on the second day of the fighting, after one of the most extraordinary forced marches on record, his steady courage inspiring confidence among his troops. During the passage of Rapidan river on 7 November, 1863, he succeeded, by a well-executed maneeuvre, in capturing a whole Confederate division with guns and colors, for which he was thanked by General Meade in a general order. In command of his corps he took part in the spring campaign of the Wilderness under General Grant, and on 5 and 6 Nay had position on the National right wing, where the hardest fighting of those sanguinary engagements took place. Three days later, while directing the placing of some pieces of artillery in position in the intrenchments in front of Spottsylvania Court-House, he was struck in the head by a bullet from a sharpshooter and instantly killed. General Sedgwick was one of the oldest, ablest, and bravest soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, inspiring both officers and men with the fullest confidence in his military capacity. His simplicity and honest manliness endeared him, notwithstanding he was a strict disciplinarian, to all with whom he came in contact, and his corps was in consequence one of the best in discipline and morale in the army. He declined the command of the Army of the Potomac just before it was given to Gem Meade, but several times held it temporarily during that general's absence. A tine bronze statue of General Sedgwick stands on the plateau at West Point.