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Civil War Soldiers - Dix
| Dix, John A., major-general, U.S.
Army, was born in Boscawen, N. H., July 24, 1798, and received his
early education at the academy at Salisbury, at the Phillips Exeter
academy, and the College of Montreal. As a boy of fourteen he entered
the war of 1812 as a cadet in his father's regiment, the 14th U. S.
infantry, stationed at Baltimore, Md., where he also studied at St.
Mary's college. He was made ensign in 1813, took part in the
operations on the Canadian frontier, served subsequently as adjutant
to Col. Walback, and in 1819 was appointed aide-de-camp to Gen. Jacob
Brown, then in command of the northern military department of the
United States, and stationed at Brownsville, where he studied law. He
was later prepared for the bar in Washington, under William West, but
did not practice there, and in 1826 was sent as special messenger to
the court of Denmark. On his return he was stationed at Fort Monroe,
but ill health led him to practice law in Cooperstown, N. Y., and he
subsequently held various important positions in that state. He was
adjutant-general "of the State of New York, secretary of state and
superintendent of public schools, a prominent member of the "Albany
Regency," and then, going out of office in 1840 by the defeat of the
Democratic party, devoted himself to literary pursuits, being
editor-in-chief from 1841 to 1843 of "The Northern Light." He was
elected member of the state assembly in 1841, spent two years abroad,
was United States senator from New York from 1845 to 1849, and, in
1848, was the candidate on the Free-Soil Democratic ticket for
governor of New York, but was overwhelmingly defeated by Hamilton
Fish. He was appointed assistant treasurer at New York by President
Pierce, and was the choice of the president as minister to France, but
was never nominated, owing to political opposition. He earnestly
supported Buchanan and Breckenridge in the canvass of 1856, and
opposed the election of Lincoln in 1860, voting for Breckenridge and
Lane. He was appointed by President Buchanan postmaster of New York to
succeed Isaac V. Fowler, defaulter, declined the portfolio of war in
that president's cabinet, and on Jan. 9, 1861, accepted the place of
secretary of the treasury. It was while in this office that he sent
the historic message to Lieut. Caldwell at New Orleans, to arrest the
commander of the revenue cutter, adding to the message : "If anyone
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." At
the opening of the Civil war he rendered effective service as
president of the Union defense committee in New York, from its
formation in 1861, and on April 24 of that year presided over the
great meeting in Union Square which determined the attitude of the
metropolis and of the entire North in reference to supporting the new
administration. On the president's call for troops he organized and
sent to the front seventeen regiments, and was appointed by Gov.
Morgan one of the four major-generals of state troops. In the
following June he was commissioned by President Lincoln major-general
of volunteers, and was ordered to Washington by Gen. Scott to take
command of the Arlington and Alexandria department. He was ousted from
this post by political intrigue and given command of the Department of
Maryland, which was then considered of comparatively minor importance,
but which became later the center and key of the national position,
and it was through Gen. Dix's energetic and judicious measures that
the city and state were prevented from espousing the Confederate
cause. He was sent from Baltimore to Fortress Monroe in May, 1862, and
in June, 1863, was in command of a force of 10,000 men, in the
movement up the York river to the White House, where he succeeded in
cutting off Lee's line of communication with the Confederate capital,
and in destroying bridges, capturing Confederate troops, including
Gen. W. H. F. Lee, and obtaining control of the whole country between
the Pamunkey and Rappahannock rivers. Then, when the city of Richmond
was almost within his grasp, he was ordered to fall back and send all
his available troops to the defense of Washington and the Pennsylvania
border, then threatened by the combined Confederate forces. After the
trouble connected with the draft riots in New York, he was transferred
to New York, in command of the Department of the East, superseding
Gen. Wool, and he held this post until the close of the war, his
energetic action preventing further trouble in the metropolis and
restoring business confidence. He was the first president of the Union
Pacific railroad company, and in 1866 was appointed U. S. naval
officer of New York, and in the same year, minister to France. He
returned to America on the accession of President Grant in 1869, was
elected governor of New York in 1872, but in 1874, owing to political
intrigue in the Republican party, was defeated of reelection. He
became president of the Erie railroad company in 1872. Gen. Dix died
in New York city, April 21, 1879. Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
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