Kilpatrick, Judson, 1836-1881

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick; Born January 14, 1836, Wantage Township, near Deckertown, New Jersey (now Sussex Borough); Died December 4, 1881 (aged 45), Santiago, Chile; Nicknamed "Kilcavalry" (or "Kill-Cavalry"); Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, more commonly referred to as Judson Kilpatrick, the fourth child of Colonel Simon Kilpatrick and Julia Wickham; Kilpatrick graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1861, just after the start of the war, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery. Within three days he was a captain in the 5th New York Infantry ("Duryée's Zouaves"); Kilpatrick was the first United States Army officer to be wounded in the Civil War, struck in the thigh by canister fire while leading a company at the Battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861; By September 25 he was a lieutenant colonel, now of the 2nd New York Cavalry Regiment, which he helped to raise, and it was the mounted arm that brought him fame and infamy; He raided the Virginia Central Railroad early in the campaign and then ordered a foolish twilight cavalry charge the first evening of the battle, losing a full squadron of troopers. Nevertheless, he was promoted to full colonel on December 6; He also had a bad reputation with others in the Army; He was jailed in 1862 on charges of corruption, accused of selling captured Confederate goods for personal gain. He was jailed again for a drunken spree in Washington, D.C., and for allegedly accepting bribes in the procurement of horses for his command; In February 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker created a Cavalry Corps in the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Stoneman. Kilpatrick assumed command of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division. In the Chancellorsville Campaign in May, Stoneman's cavalry was ordered to swing deeply behind Gen. Robert E. Lee's army and destroy railroads and supplies. Kilpatrick did just that, with gusto. Although the corps failed to distract Lee as intended, Kilpatrick achieved fame by aggressively capturing wagons, burning bridges, and riding around Lee, almost to the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, in Stoneman's 1863 Raid; At the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign, on June 9, 1863, Kilpatrick fought at Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the war. He received his brigadier general's star at the age of 27 on June 13, fought at Aldie and Upperville, and assumed division command three days before the Battle of Gettysburg commenced; Kilpatrick was an early member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society composed of officers who had served in the Union armed forces and their descendants. He was elected a First Class Companion in the Pennsylvania Commandery on November 1, 1865 and was assigned insignia number 63; Kilpatrick became active in politics as a Republican and in 1880 was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Congress from New Jersey; In November 1865, Kilpatrick was appointed Minister to Chile by President Andrew Johnson. This appointment was announced concurrently with the inclusion of Kilpatrick's name on a list of Republicans arrested for bribery; He was continued as Minister by President Grant. As American Minister to Chile, he was involved in an attempt to arbitrate between the combatants of the Chincha Islands War after the Valparaiso bombardment (1866); Kilpatrick was recalled in 1870. The 1865 appointment seems to have been the result of a political deal. Kilpatrick had been a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey but lost out to Marcus Ward. Due to his service in helping Ward, Kilpatrick was rewarded with the post in Chile. Due to the Grant administration recalling him, Kilpatrick supported Horace Greeley in the 1872 presidential election. By 1876, Kilpatrick returned to the Republicans and supported Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency; In Chile he married, as his second wife, Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso; They had two daughters: Julia Mercedes Kilpatrick {b.Nov 6, 1867 Santiago, Chile -d ? Married Nov 7, 1894 to US Army Brigadier General William Carroll Rafferty} and Laura Delphine Kilpatrick {1874-1956} married June 29, 1897 to Harry Hays Morgan {b.1859 New Orleans-d.England 1933; son of Philip H. Morgan} {divorced 1927}. Laura Kilpatrick and Harry Morgan were the parents of twin sisters Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness and Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt; Artist and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt (1924 - 2019) was Hugh Judson Kilpatrick's great-granddaughter. Another prominent descendant is CNN newsman Anderson Cooper, Kilpatrick's great-great-grandson; In March 1881, in recognition of Kilpatrick's service to the Republicans in New Jersey as well as a consolation prize for his defeat for a House seat, President James Garfield appointed Kilpatrick again to the post of Minister to Chile, where he died shortly after his arrival in the Chilean capital Santiago. His remains returned to the United States in 1887 and were interred at the West Point Cemetery in West Point, New York; Kilpatrick was the author of two plays, Allatoona: An Historical and Military Drama in Five Acts (1875) and The Blue and the Gray: Or, War is Hell (posthumous, 1930); Battery Kilpatrick at Fort Sherman, on the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal, was named for Judson Kilpatrick

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