Henry Hopkins Sibley

For the governor of Minnesota and Union general, seeHenry Hastings Sibley.

Henry Hopkins Sibley
Portrait of Sibley ca. 1880
Born	(1816-05-25)May 25, 1816 Natchitoches, Louisiana
Died	August 23, 1886(1886-08-23)(aged 70) Fredericksburg, Virginia
Allegiance	United States Confederate States Khedivate of Egypt
Service/branch	United States Army Confederate States Army Egyptian Army
Years of service	1838–61 (USA) 1861–65 (CSA) 1869–73 (Egypt)
Rank	Major(USA) Brigadier General(CSA) Brigadier General(Egypt)
Commands held	Army of New Mexico
Battles/wars	Second Seminole War Mexican–American War American Civil War New Mexico Campaign Battle of Valverde

Henry Hopkins Sibley(May 25, 1816 – August 23, 1886) was a career officer in theUnited States Army,who commanded aConfederatecavalry brigade in theCivil War.

In 1862, he attempted to forge a supply route fromCalifornia,in defiance of theUnion blockadeof the Atlantic and Gulf ports, while also aiming to appropriate theColoradogold mines to replenish the Confederate treasury. After capturingAlbuquerqueandSanta Fe,he was forced to retreat after losing theBattle of Glorieta Pass(in today'sNew Mexico). He was then given minor commands in the southern Louisiana operations, but was accused of serious blunders, apparently caused by drunkenness.

Sibley designed a new easy-to-pack 12-man bell tent and stove that were used for many years by the American and British armies.

Family and early life

Henry Hopkins Sibley's grandfather,Dr. John Sibley,served as a medic inMassachusettsin theAmerican Revolutionary War.His wife was Elizabeth Hopkins, whose family name was given as a middle name to their son Samuel and grandson Henry. After her death in 1803, Dr. Sibley was part of an expedition to theRed Rivercountry of western Louisiana for the US government after theLouisiana Purchaseand chose to settle inNatchitoches.In 1811, his son Samuel Hopkins Sibley and his wife followed to Natchitoches. Samuel Sibley served as aparishclerk from 1815 until his death in 1823.

Henry Hopkins Sibley was born in Natchitoches in 1816. After his father's death when Henry was seven years old, the boy was sent toMissourito live with his paternal uncleGeorge Champlin Sibleyand his wifeMary Easton,the founders ofLindenwood CollegeinSt. Charles, Missouri.

Uniongeneral and firstGovernor of MinnesotaHenry Hastings Sibley(1811–1891) was a distant cousin. His family had migrated west in theNorthern Tier,which historians have called Greater New England.

U.S. Army service

At the age of 17, Henry was admitted to theUnited States Military AcademyatWest Point, New York.He graduated in 1838 and was commissioned assecond lieutenantin the2nd U.S. Dragoons.

He foughtSeminole IndiansinFlorida,1840–1841; participated in the Military Occupation of Texas, 1845–1846; and fought in theMexican–American War,1847–1848. Sibley was onfrontierduty in Texas from 1850 to 1855. Sibley was a creative military man. In the 1850s, he invented the "Sibley tent",which was widely used by the Union Army during the American Civil War and for a short while afterward. The United Kingdom also adopted the design of the Sibley tent. He also invented the Sibley stove (also known as the Sibley tent stove), to heat the tent. The Army used tent stoves of this design into the early years ofWorld War II.

From 1855 to 1857, Sibley was part of the forces trying to control conflict inBleeding Kansas,where hundreds of new settlers arrived to vote on the question ofslavery,provoked by the 1854Kansas–Nebraska Act.He took part in theUtah War,1857–1860, and was in active service in New Mexico 1860–1861. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Sibley resigned on May 13, 1861, the day of his promotion tomajorin the 1st Dragoons. Native to Louisiana, he had southern sympathies and joined theConfederate States Army(CSA).

Civil War

Sibley resigned from the US Army as he sided with the Confederacy. Placed in command of a brigade of volunteer cavalry inWest Texas,Sibley dubbed his small force theArmy of New Mexicoand began planning aNew Mexico Campaignto capture the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe andFort Unionon theSanta Fe Trailto establish a forward base of supply. He then intended to continue north to Colorado to capture the numerous gold and silver mines in the area as a means of replenishing the badly depleted Confederate treasury. From there, Sibley planned to join forces with ConfederateLieut. John R. Baylor,already in control of much of southern New Mexico and Arizona territoriesand headquartered in Tucson, AZ. Their ultimate strategy was to gain access to the warm-water ports ofCaliforniaand establish a badly needed supply line to the South, as the Union Navy had implemented a naval blockade from Virginia to Texas.Throughout the 1862 New Mexico campaign, his opponent was ColonelEdward Canby,formerly a comrade in arms in the U.S. Army. Some historians have said he was Sibley's brother in law,but this relation has been disputed.

Sibley was initially successful at theBattle of Valverdeon 20–21 February, and pressed on to capture Albuquerque and Santa Fe in the first weeks of March. Although the subsequentBattle of Glorieta Passon March 28 ended in an apparent Confederate victory on the field, Sibley had to retreat because his supply train was destroyed and most of the horses and mules killed or driven off during the fight. At the same time, Union forces were approaching New Mexico from the west, theCalifornia Column.Glorieta Pass has been called the "Gettysburgof the West "by some authors;Sibley's retreat to the campaign's starting point atFort Blissin April ended the hopes of the Confederacy to stretch to thePacific Oceanand use the mineral wealth of California and possibly Colorado.

After the failure of the New Mexico campaign, Sibley was given minor commands under GeneralRichard TayloraboutBayou Techein south Louisiana, commanding the "Arizona Brigade" at the battles ofIrish BendandFort Bisland.ThehistorianJohn D. Wintersreports that he blundered on several occasions, not striking when instructed.Struggling withalcoholism,he wascourt martialedin Louisiana in 1863. Although not convicted ofcowardice,he wascensured.

Postbellum career and death

After the war,Thaddeus P. Mottrecruited former Union and CSA soldiers for service in theEgyptian Army.Sibley was one of the first people to arrive in Egypt and served from 1870 to 1873 as a military adviser (with the rank of brigadier general of artillery) toIsma'il Pasha,KhediveofEgypt,overseeing the construction of coastal fortifications. However, he fell back into problems with alcohol, and he was dismissed due to illness and disability.

Back in the U.S., Sibley lived from 1874 with his daughter inFredericksburg, Virginia.He wrote articles and worked on military inventions. He fought a legal battle with the U.S. government for outstanding payments on his patents.

He died in poverty. He is buried in the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery.

In popular media

• Sibley is referred to several times in the filmThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly(1966) directed bySergio Leone.He can be seen riding in the passenger seat on a carriage as the soldiers make their procession through a town.
• Sibley is mentioned once in the filmA Reason to Live, a Reason to Dieby actor Telly Savalas who played a Confederate Major.
• General Sibley appears as a minor character inNando Cicero'sRed Blood, Yellow Gold(1967), played by an uncredited Carlo Gentili.
• He is mentioned in the documentaryThe Man Who Lost The Civil War(2003), a special feature as part of MGM's release of a Leone DVD anthology in 2003.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

Further reading

• Eicher, John H., andDavid J. Eicher,Civil War High Commands.Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.ISBN978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Kerby, Robert L.,The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona, 1861–1862,Westernlore Press, 1958, 1995,ISBN0-87026-055-3.
• Sifakis, Stewart.Who Was Who in the Civil War.New York: Facts On File, 1988.ISBN978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Taylor, John,Bloody Valverde: A Civil War Battle on the Rio Grande, February 21, 1862,University of New Mexico Press, 1995,ISBN0-8263-1632-8.
• Thompson, Jerry D.,Civil War in the Southwest: Recollections of the Sibley Brigade,TAMU Press, 2001,ISBN978-1-58544-131-0.
• Thompson, Jerry D.,Henry Hopkins Sibley: Confederate General of the West,Northwestern State University Press, 1987,ISBN978-0-917898-15-0.
• Warner, Ezra J.Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.ISBN978-0-8071-0823-9.
• Whitlock, Flint,Distant Bugles, Distant Drums: The Union Response to the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico,University Press of Colorado, 2006,ISBN0-87081-835-X.

External links

• Military biography of Henry Hopkins Sibley