Samuel W. Crawford

Who was Samuel W. Crawford?

Samuel Wylie Crawford was a United States Army surgeon and a Union general in the American Civil War.

Transferring to the infantry early in the war, he led a brigade at Cedar Mountain which routed a division that included Stonewall Jackson’s unit, though it was later driven back. Severely wounded at Antietam, he was back in action at Gettysburg, where his division drove the Confederates out of ‘Death Valley’ beside Little Round Top, with Crawford dramatically seizing the colours and leading from the front. Although this was a relatively minor engagement, Crawford tried for years to become officially acknowledged as the sole saviour of Gettysburg, but without success. The preservation of the battlefield, however, is largely due to his efforts.

In the last days of the war, his division went astray at Five Forks, causing his corps commander, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, to miss the attack while searching for them - one of the pretexts used by Sheridan for his controversial sacking of Warren.