Samuel Ryan Curtis was born on February 3, 1805, near Champlain, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1831, and he received a commission as a brevet 2^nd lieutenant in the 7^th United States Infantry. He spent the following year at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory. He resigned from the army on June 30, 1832, and he settled in Ohio.

 

Curtis worked as a civil engineer, and he worked on the Muskingum River improvement projects. He apparently also worked as a lawyer, and he served as an officer in the Ohio state militia. During the Mexican American War, he served as colonel of the 3^rd Ohio Infantry and later as military governor of Saltillo, Mexico. He spent the late 1840s overseeing river improvements in Des Moines, Iowa. Then, in the early 1850s, he supervised public works in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

He supported the Republican Party, and he became mayor of Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856. He served in Congress from 1857 until 1861, and he staunchly supported plans for a transcontinental railroad.

 

In June 1861, he received a commission as colonel of the 2^nd Iowa Infantry. Soon afterward, he was promoted to brigadier general, backdated to May 17, 1861. That December, he assumed command of the Army of the Southwest. He won the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, and he was promoted to major general later that month. He then captured Helena, Arkansas, in July 1862. In January 1864, he assumed command of the Department of Kansas. Then, in 1865, army officials transferred him to the Department of the Northwest. He mustered out on April 30, 1866. He died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on December 26, 1866.

 

Image: Samuel R. Curtis (courtesy Wikicommons)

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