Campaigns · Peninsula, South Mountain, Antietam, Seven Pines, and Fredericksburg
Edwin Vose Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1797. In 1819, he was commissioned a 2d lieutenant in the Regular Army, and served on the frontier. Sumner served under Gen. Winfield Scott in the Mexican War, and was wounded and brevetted. Appointed acting governor of New Mexico Territory; he later commanded Fort Leavenworth in 1856, fought against the Cheyennes in 1857 and led the Department of the West in 1858.
Sumner accompanied President-elect Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, D.C. in 1861, and was appointed brigadier general on March 16 of that year. He led the II Corps in the Peninsula Campaign, South Mountain and Antietam. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan praised Sumner's leadership in the Battle of Seven Pines, and Sumner was promoted to major general to rank from July 5, 1862. After leading troops in the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was criticized for his strategies at the Battle of Antietam.
Sumner was the oldest active corps commander in the Civil War, and was disturbed by the criticism leveled at him. Thus, he asked to relieved from duty. He was assigned to the Department of Missouri. On his way, he contracted pneumonia, and died in Syracuse, New York, on March 21, 1863.