Edmund Kirby

Who was Edmund Kirby?

Edmund Kirby was a U.S. Army officer who was killed during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

He was born in Brownville, New York to Major Edmund Kirby, an army paymaster, and Eliza Brown. He was a second cousin of Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith, and his mother was a daughter of former U.S. Army Commander Jacob Brown. He graduated from West Point in the class of May 1861, shortly after the outbreak of the war. Commissioned a second lieutenant in Battery I, 1st US Artillery, now known as 1st U.S. Artillery, he was promoted to first lieutenant just eight days later. He served in the First Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Ball's Bluff, the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam as a battery commander of Battery I 1st Artillery.

On May 3, 1863, during the Battle of Chancellorsville, he took command of the 5th Maine Battery. He supervised the evacuation of the artillery guns, but was heavily wounded by case-shot and was carried off the battlefield by private John F. Chase, who would receive the Medal of Honor thanks to Kirby's recommendation. He was transported to a hospital in Washington, D.C., where his injured leg was amputated.