James Gilpatrick Blunt was born in 1826 in Trenton, Maine. He came to Kansas in 1856 after earning his medical degree in Ohio and marrying Nancy G. Putnam. He became a passionate abolitionist and worked with the Underground Railroad; when the Civil War officially started, he enlisted as a volunteer and held a variety of commands as he rose through the ranks. He became the only Kansan to become a Major General in the U.S. Volunteers during the war. After the war, he settled in Leavenworth before moving in 1869 to Washington, D.C. to act as a claims agent. In 1879 he was admitted to St. Elizabeth's Hospital and died there in July 1881. He was buried in Leavenworth, Kansas. [James Gilpatrick Blunt collection, State Archives and Library Division, Kansas Historical Society.]
From the description of James Gilpatrick Blunt collection (Kansas State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 731181500
