Major General Samuel Ryan
Curtis
Commander, Army of the Southwest
Union Army
Samuel Ryan Curtis was born on February 3, 1805 in Clinton County, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1831. The next year he resigned from the army to practice civil engineering. In 1856 he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Iowa. When the Civil War began, Samuel Curtis resigned his congressional seat to become Colonel of the 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The Army of the Southwest won the Battle of Pea Ridge under his leadership. Major General Curtis' army captured Helena, Arkansas. His army also checked Confederate Major General Sterling Price's Missouri Raid in 1864. His later positions included being Commander of the Departments of Missouri, Kansas, and Northwest. After the Civil War, he was appointed to be Indian Commissioner and Railroad Commissioner. He died on December 26, 1866 and was buried in Keokuk, Iowa.