Phil Kearney lost his left arm while leading a charge during the Mexican War (1846 - 1848). He served with the French cavalry in 1859, displaying courage that won him the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

Appointed a Union brigadier general of volunteers in 1861, Kearny added to the esprit de corps of his men by having them wear a distinctive re "Kearny patch." "You are marked men," he said; "you must ever be in the front." During the 1862 Peninsula campaign, Kearny was cited for bravery at the battle of Williamsburg, and his leadership at a later battle inspired Edmund Stedman to write the poem "Kearny at Seven Pines."

On September1, 1862, as Union troops clashed with Confederates during a violent rainstorm at the battle of Chantilly (Ox Hill), Virginia, elements of Kearny's division charged up to bolster General Isaac I. Stevens men after Stevens was killed. Shortly thereafter, riding up to investigate a rumored gap in Federal lines, General Kearny himself was killed, depriving the army of a leader whom former Union general-in-chief Winfield Scott had described as "the bravest man I ever knew."

Caption by Margaret E. Wagner, Publications Office, Library of Congress.

Medium : 1 print : lithograph, color

Created/Published : John Smith, 804 Market Str., Philadelphia, c1867

Creator : Augustus Tholey, artist

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: cph3g12604