Jesse Henry Leavenworth

Who was Jesse Henry Leavenworth?

Colonel Jesse Henry Leavenworth was military careerist and the second member of his family to serve in the regular army. He was the son of Brigadier General Henry Leavenworth and his wife Elizabeth Eunice Morrison. He was born March 29, 1807, in Danville, Vermont. He was a graduate of West Point class of 1830. Upon graduation he was appointed as a second lieutenant to the Fourth Infantry of the Second Colorado Cavalry, known as the "Rocky Mountain Rangers" based near Denver, Colorado, which protected the frontier against bandits and Indian marauders. Leavenworth married Elvira Caroline Clark, daughter of Festus Clark, of Sackett's Harbor, New York, June 12, 1832, and they had four sons and four daughters between 1833 and 1853. He left military service for the reserves in 1836 to spend more time with his family.

Leavenworth was a civil engineer active in the west with a private practice based in Chicago, Illinois, for twenty two years. In 1858 he was listed in directories as a lumber merchant in Wisconsin. In 1862, after the outbreak of the Civil War, he resumed active service as a Colonel, taking command of the 2nd Colorado Infantry Regiment.