Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Gouverneur Kemble Warren





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 





Click on an image to view full-sized

Gouverneur Kemble Warren

WARREN, Gouverneur Kemble, soldier, born in Cold Spring, New York, 8 January, 1830; died in Newport, Rhode Island, 8 August, 1882. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1850, standing second in his class, and was assigned to the topographical engineers as brevet 2d lieutenant. After four years of duty in connection with the surveys of the delta of the Mississippi and other river surveys under Captain Andrew A. Humphreys, he engaged in compiling reports of the Pacific railroad exploration. In 1855 he accompanied the Sioux expedition as chief topographical engineer on General William S. Harney's staff, being engaged in the action of Blue Water, and subsequently until 1859 he was occupied in Dakota and Nebraska in making maps of those territories for the exploration of the routes for railroads between Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean. The general direction of this route was under Captain Humphreys, and Lieutenant Warren was his principal assistant. He then served at the military academy as assistant professor of mathematics until the beginning of the civil war, when he entered active service as lieutenant-colonel of the 5th New York volunteers, of which regiment he became colonel on 31 August, 1861. He was also promoted captain in the engineers on 9 September, 1861. His regiment was ordered to Fortress Monroe and he took part in the action of Big Bethel, where he was the last to leave the field, remaining to rescue the body of Lieutenant John T. Greble, the first officer in the regular army killed in the civil war. During the remainder of the year he was stationed at Baltimore, where he constructed the fort on Federal Hill. In the spring of 1862 he joined the Army of the Potomac, serving in the peninsular .campaign, and at Yorktown his regiment formed part of the siege-train under the command of the chief of artillery. He was given a brigade in the 5th army corps in May, with which he covered the extreme right of the army and took part in the capture of Hanover Court-House, the pursuit of Confederate cavalry under General James E. B. Stuart, the battle of Gaines's Mills, the affair at Malvern Hill and subsequent battle, and the skirmish at Harrison's Landing. His brigade was then sent to re-enforce General John Pope, and he participated in the battle of Manassas. In the subsequent campaign he served with the 5th corps, was engaged at Antietam, and then took part in the Rappahanhock campaign and the battle of Fredericksburg. On 26 September, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers for his services at Gaines's Mills. During the winter months of 1862-'3 he did much individual work in reconnoitring and correcting maps, and on 2 February, 1863, he was ordered, as chief of topographical engineers, to the staff of General Joseph Hooker, then in command of the Army of the Potomac. Soon after the consolidation of the two corps of engineers on 3 March, 1863, he was appointed chief of engineers of the Army of the Potomac, and during the Chancellorsville campaign he took part in the action on Orange Pike, the storming of Marye's Heights, and the battle of Salem. He continued as chief of engineers under General George G. Meade, and was engaged at Gettysburg, where he seized Little Round Top, the key to the entire National position, and, using General Meade's name as his staff-officer, ordered the 140th New York regiment, under Colonel Patrick H. O'Rorke (q. v, .), to occupy the hill. This was accomplished after a severe hand-to-hand fight. Thereafter he was engaged in engineering duties connected with the passage of the Potomac until 11 August, when on the receipt of his major-general's commission, bearing date of 3 May previous, he was assigned to the temporary command of the 2d corps. His next important service was during the march on Centerville in October, 1863, when he was attacked by General Ambrose P. Hill, and, although his force was about one half that of the Confederates, he held his position until he was re-enforced by the 5th corps. In the official report it was said : "The handling of the 2d corps in this operation, and the promptitude, skill, and spirit with which the enemy was met, were admirable." When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized into three corps for the Richmond campaign, he received the permanent command of the 5th corps and in the battles of the Wilderness, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, and those around Petersburg. Before the battle of Five Forks, General Sheridan, having expressed to Gem Grant his dissatisfaction with General Warren's habit of criticising the acts and orders of his superior officers, received authority to remove him, should there be satisfactory reasons for so doing. At Five Forks, when the 5th corps advanced according" to Gen Sheridan's orders, it was found that the indicated point of attack was too far to the right. This error was corrected by General Warren, who in person led the charge that closed the battle and secured the victory. At this moment he received an order relieving him from the command of his corps. The reasons given by General Sheridan for this act were: 1. "That Warren failed to reach me on the 1st of April, when I had reason to expect him": 2. " That the tactical handling of his corps was unskilful"; 3. "That he did not exert himself to get his corps up to Gravelly run church"; and 4. "That when portions of his line gave way he did not exert himself to restore confidence to his troops." In reply to these charges General Warren answered that his first order to relieve General Sheridan on 31 March was received from General George G. Meade at 9.17 P. M., when he had already accomplished General Sheridan's relief by sending troops to his assistance without orders, on his own responsibility, earlier than 5 P. M., also that he carried out his orders to General Meade's entire satisfaction and joined General Sheridan sooner than General Meade had expected; that the only lack of skill was that of General Sheridan, who delivered the attack of the 5th corps at a point three-quarters of a mile distant from the point intended. A court of inquiry, convened in 1879 at General Warren's request, found: 1. That General Warren, after the receipt of General Meade's first order, should have moved his main force sooner than he did. 2. It did not find that his handling of the corps was unskilful. 3. " That there was no unnecessary delay in this march of the 5th corps, and that General Warren took the usual methods of a corps commander to prevent delay." 4. That "by continuous exertions of himself and staff he substantially remedied matters" ; and the court thinks "that this was for him the essential point to be attended to, which also required his whole efforts to accomplish." General Warren after his removal was assigned by General Grant to the charge of the defences of the Petersburg and Southside railroad, and then had command of the Department of the Mississippi. On 27 May, 1865, he resigned his commission in the volunteer army and returned to duty as major in the corps of engineers, to which grade he had been advanced on 25 June, 1864. He received the successive brevets in the United States army up to major-general, of which the last two were given him on 13 March, 1865. From May, 1865, till his death he was employed in various parts of the country in making surveys and in other works connected with his department. He was made lieutenant-colonel on 4 March, 1879. General Warren was elected a member of the American association for the advancement of science in 1858, of the American philosophical society in 1867, of the American society of civil engineers in 1874, and to the National academy of sciences in 1876. A heroic statue by Paul Gerhardt (shown in the accompanying illustration) was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies on Little Round Top, Gettysburg, on 8 August, 1888. His works include "Explorations in the Dacota Country " (2 vols., Washington, 1855-'6) ; "Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota in the Years 1855-'7" (1858); various reports to the government on military and engineer-mg subjects ; and a pamphlet giving "An Account of the 5th Army Corps at the Battle of Five Forks" (New York, 1866). See sketch by General Henry L. Abbot in "Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences" (vol. ii., Washington, 1886).

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on Gouverneur Kemble Warren.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum