Born to a wealthy Irish-American family in New York City, Philip Kearny Jr. (1815–1862) – who later earned the moniker ‘Kearny the Magnificent’ – was one of America’s most celebrated nineteenth-century warriors. Bequeathed an astronomical one million dollars after his parents and grandfather passed away, Kearny eschewed the family business of high finance and top hats for the thrill of battle and adventure at home and abroad. In 1839, when there was little glory to be gained on the frontier, Kearny went to France and attended the cavalry School at Saumur, after which he journeyed to Algeria to fight with the Chasseurs d’Afrique (‘Hunters of Africa’) to extend the French Empire’s control over the vast region. “Sicily was considered the training ground of the Roman and Carthaginian armies,” Kearny’s first biographer, John Watts DePeyster, wrote in 1869, “contending for the Empire of the Mediterranean. Algiers has been the training ground of the French Army – dreaming of another European career of conquest and spoliation like that which they enjoyed under the First Napoleon.” It was there he became known as Kearny le Magnifique, and due to his time with the French, he would ride into battle like the Chasseurs; with the reins in his teeth, while holding a saber in one hand and a pistol in the other.[1]

Right: Portrait of Gen. Phil. Kearny by John R. Chapin, watercolor on paper from 1863. Source: Wikimedia.

Mexican-American War (1846–8)

When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, Captain Kearny organized a troop of cavalry from Indiana known as Company F, which acted as General Winfield Scott’s personal bodyguard, and Kearny the commander’s his aid-de-camp. The veteran general, who organized a campaign to seize Mexico City in 1847, was once quoted as saying that Kearny was “the bravest and most perfect soldier I have ever known.” On August 20, 1847, at the Battle of Churubusco, just outside of Mexico City, Kearny lost his arm after he charged a city gate in an attempt to kill Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. In Scott’s words, Kearny “dashed up to the San Antonio gate, sabring [sic] in his way all who resisted.” For this effort Kearny lost his left arm, which was mangled from grapeshot and amputated. Even Santa Anna was flattered by Kearny’s berserker-style attempt on his life. “When I was informed of this declaration,” the general wrote, “I declared that far from being offended by his audacity, I admired his courage and paid him the homage due.” Despite losing his arm, Kearny continued the campaign to its conclusion, and returned home a hero for his daring actions.[2]

Antebellum Era

Kearny spent the pre-Civil War years fighting Indians on the Oregon frontier, traveling the world, and in 1859, returned to France to rejoin the Chasseurs d’Afrique. For his bravery against the Austrians at the massive Battle of Solferino – the last in which European monarchs ever personally took part – Kearny was awarded the Légion d'honneur, and was the first American to receive it. “When General Kearny returned from Italy,” DePeyster wrote, “he expressed the utmost admiration for the French army, and their doings at Solferino, he seemed to feel that the Austrians might have won the battle, or maintained their position, had they held out with greater tenacity or been aware of the condition and dislocation of the Allies.” DePeyster himself was not only a veteran of the Mexican War and military expert, but Kearny’s cousin, and he lamented the fact that much of Kearny’s correspondence had been lost to posterity:  

The campaign of 1859 displayed no genius, but a great amount of brilliant and desperate fighting, in which the talents of experienced officers could be brought to bear with combined power under the direction of a supreme authority, endowed with uncommon common-sense, or the faculty of profiting to the utmost by the peculiar gifts of counsellors and subordinates. Kearny joined the French army at Alexandria, and there, with his usual liberality, gave a grand dinner to the officers with whom he was associated – what the medieval war-hero might have termed a “festival of swords,” but those of the present era must more appropriately style the “festival of missiles.” As Kearny was attached to the Cavalry of the Guard, he took no personal part in the subordinate engagements, although he was an eye-witness of all that opportunity permitted, and a keen observer of the events of the campaign. An American gentleman who accompanied him to Italy, writes that even “in Paris, he (Kearny) was much distinguished for the accuracy of his knowledge of military affairs, and his acquaintance with the strategy of the modern wars.” With these facts established, what a pity it is that his correspondence from Italy in 1859, has disappeared beyond recovery, in an equal degree with the report of his experiences under the same flag in Algiers in 1840.[3]

Right: Statue over Philip Kearny's remains in Arlington National Cemetery. Dedicated in 1914, an equestrian statue by Edward Clark Potter marks Kearny's grave in Arlington National Cemetery. Source: Wikimedia

Civil War

Despite his disability, as a Union brigadier general Kearny took part in many sanguinary Civil War battles. Among them were the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, Battle of Williamsburg, and Peninsular Campaign. On September 1, 1862, while personally scouting the Union lines in a violent rain, Kearny was shot atop his horse. John Sobieski, a Polish immigrant and Civil War veteran who fought in the Army of the Potomac, chronicled Kearny’s demise in his autobiography. “The night of the battle at Chantilly,” Sobieski wrote, “without any guard, he rode out to inspect the enemy’s lines, and ran into them; they called upon him to halt; he wheeled his horse and attempted to escape; the Confederates fired upon him, and he fell dead from his horse.” Sobieski wrote that the “perfect stranger to fear” was not only admired among his comrades, but among his enemies, and that even General Robert E. Lee, who was nearby that evening, displayed an unusual deference to the magnificent warrior who had fought with him in Mexico – an account Sobieski acquired from one of Lee’s staff officers:   

He said that when Lee and his staff went out to ascertain who the fallen general was, as soon as Lee saw him he recognized him. He said for the first time he saw General Lee show indications of emotion. He turned at once to the party who had done the firing and said: “Boys, do you know whom you have killed? You have killed one of the bravest soldiers that ever drew a sword: you have killed General Kearney.” General Lee ordered a stretcher to be brought and the remains of General Kearney placed upon it, and ordered that the remains should be carried to headquarters. General Lee and his staff dismounted, and, uncovering their heads, formed a procession and followed the remains to the headquarters. Thus it is that the brave always honor the brave.[4]

DePeyster also honored Kearny, and summed up his extraordinary laurels in his introduction:

As West Point had nothing to do with his achievements, as he owed nothing to its training, to its cast influence, to its academic line of thought, or to its terrible prejudices, he may be considered a magnificent type of a Volunteer soldier, for from private life was he appointed to his first commission; from private life it might be said he again sprang into the saddle in 1846 – since he recalled his resignation to partake in the glories of the Mexican war – and from private life abroad he returned home to reassume his uniform and assist in saving his country. As a Volunteer, he participated in the dangers and fatigues of a campaign in Africa which carried the tricolor through the “Gates of Iron” and over the Atlas into the strongholds of Abd-el-Kader. He partook in the operations of that campaign which laid the basis of the present Kingdom of Italy, and a Major-General of American volunteers, he died on the field of battle. Therefore to the Volunteer Armies of the United States, and more particularly to the officers and soldiers of his immediate commands – especially that nonpareil New Jersey Brigade which he created, and that glorious First Division of the Third Corps of the Army of the Potomac at whose head he fell – are these pages dedicated, with the deepest and warmest gratitude of the author.[5]

[1] John Watts DePeyster, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny (New York: Rice and Gage, 1869), 63.

[2] Quoted in: Irving Werstein, Kearny The Magnificent: The Story Of General Philip Kearny 1815–1862 (New York: The John Day Company, 1962), 14, 101; Scott, Memoirs, 490, 495; “Ministry of War.” El Correo Nacional, Querétaro, Dec. 7, 1847 (vol. 1) no 16, p. 3. Santa Anna, Tehuacán, Nov. 19, 1847; Winfield Scott and the March to Mexico City: Analyzing the Surprising Victory of 1847 (McFarland & Co, Publishers, 2026), 101, 144.  

[3] DePeyster, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny, 168, 174.

[4] John Sobieski, The Life-Story and Personal Reminiscences of Col. John Sobieski (A Lineal Descendant of King John III, of Poland) Written by Himself (Shelbyville, Ill: J. L. Douthit & Son, 1900), 75–7.

[5] DePeyster, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny, vii.