February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Although Kearny prevailed in this political struggle, he contracted a tropical disease and died only 18 months after his victory at Los Angeles.
Stephen Watts Kearny was born in Newark, N.J., in 1794 to descendants of Irish immigrants. He attended local schools and two years at Columbia College in New York. In 1812, as war with England loomed, 18-year-old Kearny left school and joined the New York State Militia, commencing a colorful and successful 36-year military career. During the War of 1812, he rose to the rank of captain and served with distinction until wounded and captured.
After the war, Kearny remained in the regular Army and served in several exploration parties in the West, including the famous Yellowstone expeditions of Gen. Henry Atkinson in 1819 and 1825. These experiences developed Kearny into an excellent Western soldier, with vast experience in dealing with Indians, establishing forts, and improving maps. In 1830, after many visits to the St. Louis home of Gen. William Clark of the famed Lewis and Clark expedition, Kearny married Clark’s stepdaughter Mary Radford.
Soon thereafter the couple moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where Kearny organized a regiment of 1,800 mounted soldiers for duty in the West. His success in this effort earned Kearny the title “Father of the U.S. Cavalry.” His primary duty was to keep peace on the frontier and to protect pioneers heading west along the Santa Fe, Mormon, and Oregon Trails.
By the time the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, Kearny was known in Washington as one of the most experienced and accomplished officers in the West. Accordingly, President James K. Polk named him commander of the Army of the West and ordered him to lead a force to seize the territory now known as New Mexico and California. On Aug. 19, 1846, Kearny and 1,700 men captured the city of Santa Fe.
Five weeks later, Kearny took 300 men and headed west to California. On Dec. 6, 1846, they were badly bloodied in a battle with Californios at San Pasqual but regrouped and pressed on to capture San Diego (Dec. 12) with help from reinforcements supplied by Commodore Robert Stockton of the U.S. Navy. Initially the two officers were able to work out a compromise regarding command of the joint force. Kearny outranked Stockton but allowed him to assume the title of overall commander in exchange for his receiving command of the troops on the ground numbering almost 600. Unfortunately, the arrangement would soon disintegrate into bitter acrimony.
But before that occurred, Kearny, on Dec. 29, led some 600 men north to Los Angeles. They arrived on the city’s outskirts on Jan. 8, 1847 and immediately clashed with enemy forces. After a second skirmish the following day, the Mexicans withdrew and on Jan. 10 Kearny and his men entered the city unopposed. Three days later, Mexican forces in California signed a formal treaty of surrender.
This ended the war in California and New Mexico, but Mexico’s ultimate defeat did not come until eight months later, in September 1847.
By that time Kearny was embroiled in a high-profile power struggle for control of California. Immediately after the fall of Los Angeles, Kearny set about organizing a territorial government. Stockton protested that only he possessed the authority to create the new government. He declared Kearny suspended from command and appointed the famous explorer and U.S. Army officer Col. John C. Fremont the territorial governor. Even when fresh orders arrived from Washington, D.C., explicitly declaring Kearny in charge, Fremont and Stockton persisted in their insubordination. All three were subsequently summoned to Washington, where Fremont faced a court-martial and was found guilty of mutiny and disobedience and dismissed from the Army.
Thus vindicated, Kearny returned to the west to serve as territorial governor in post-war Mexico City. A mysterious tropical illness, however, beset him and in late 1848 he returned to St. Louis. He died there Oct. 31, 1848 at the age of 54. The city turned out for the largest funeral to that point in its history, an event that featured 700 soldiers marching in solemn procession behind Kearny’s casket.
Kearny’s legacy has lasted to the present day in the form of numerous place names, including Kearny, Ariz., and Fort Kearny in Nebraska, which was founded in 1848 and served as one of the key stopping points along the Oregon Trail. Several places, such as Kearney, Neb., and Kearney, Mo., although misspelled were likewise named in his honor. Several more places are named for his nephew, Philip Kearny, a prominent General in the Civil War.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Jan. 5, 1871: The British release 30 Fenian prisoners, including John Devoy, who eventually settles in America and becomes a key figure in the nationalist effort to gain Irish freedom.
Jan. 5, 1888: Hugh O’Brien is sworn in as the first Irish mayor of Boston.
Jan. 7, 1945: World War II flying ace Major Tommy McGuire is shot down over the Pacific. He is later awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
Jan. 6, 1871: Unionist politician James Craig is born in Belfast.
Jan. 6, 1917: Writer Maeve M. Brennan is born in Dublin.
Jan. 8, 1736: First Bishop and Archbishop of Baltimore John Carroll is born in Upper Marlboro, Md.