Robert Byington Mitchell

{{Short description|American general & territorial governor (1823–1882)}} {{Redirect|Robert B. Mitchell|the Australian artist|Robert Boyed Mitchell}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert Byington Mitchell | image = Robert Byington Mitchell.jpg | caption = | order = 6th [[Governor of New Mexico Territory]] | term_start = 1866 | term_end = 1869 | nominator = | predecessor = [[Henry Connelly]] | successor = [[William A. Pile]] | birth_date = April 4, 1823 | birth_place = [[Mansfield, Ohio]], US | death_date = {{death date and age |1882|01|26|1823|04|04}} | death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], US | resting_place = [[Arlington National Cemetery]] | spouse = | alma_mater = | profession = Lawyer, Politician | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] }} '''Robert Byington Mitchell''' (April 4, 1823{{spaced ndash}}January 26, 1882) was a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]] and the [[governor of New Mexico Territory]] from 1866 to 1869.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/mitchell7.html |title=Index to Politicians: Mitchell, O to R |accessdate=August 1, 2008 |publisher=The Political Graveyard}}</ref>

==Early life and career== Mitchell was born on April 4, 1823, in [[Mansfield, Ohio]].<ref name="RBM">{{cite web |url=http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/Biographies/BiosRobertByingtonMitchell.htm |title=A Civil War Biography: Robert Byington Mitchell |accessdate=August 1, 2008 |publisher=Civil War Interactive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907155412/http://civilwarinteractive.com//Biographies/BiosRobertByingtonMitchell.htm |archive-date=September 7, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> For some odd reason, it was recorded that he graduated from both [[Kenyon College]] and [[Washington & Jefferson College|Washington College]], although neither school has a record of his attendance.

He studied law in [[Mount Vernon, Ohio]]. After completing his studies, he practiced law in Mansfield. He served in the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican War]] as a [[Second Lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] in the 2nd Ohio Volunteers. He was elected mayor of [[Mount Gilead, Ohio]], in 1855. Next year, he moved to [[Linn County, Kansas|Linn County]], [[Kansas Territory]]. He served in the territorial legislature, as a delegate to the [[Leavenworth Constitution|Leavenworth Convention]], from 1857 to 1858. He served as treasurer of the Kansas Territory from 1859 to 1861. He was a delegate to the [[1860 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina]].<ref name="RBM"/>

==Civil War service== After the start of the Civil War, Mitchell served as the [[Adjutant General of Kansas]] from May 2, 1861, to June 20, 1861. He later led the [[2nd Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry|2nd Kansas Infantry]]. Mitchell was badly wounded at the [[Battle of Wilson's Creek]] on August 10, 1861, when his horse was shot while leading his regiment.<ref name="RBM"/>

After recovery, U.S. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] appointed him as a brigadier general to rank from April 8, 1862, and he was given command of a mixed [[brigade]] at [[Fort Riley]]. He commanded the 9th Division in [[Charles C. Gilbert]]'s [[III Corps (Union army)|III Corps]] at the [[Battle of Perryville]]. He was then sent to [[Nashville, Tennessee]], where he remained for several months.<ref name="RBM"/>

During the [[Battle of Chickamauga|Chickamauga campaign]], Mitchell served as [[George H. Thomas]]'s Chief of Cavalry for the [[Army of the Cumberland]]. Just before the [[Third Battle of Chattanooga]], he was ordered to Washington, D.C., for [[court-martial]] duty. According to some sources, this was due to severe wounds which incapacitated him from field duty but this is contradicted in the ''[[Official Records]]'' by Mitchell's own correspondence. Whether incapacitated or not, he would not see active campaigning again, and for the remainder of the Civil War, he commanded the [[District of Nebraska]], then the District of North Kansas, and finally the [[District of Kansas]].<ref name="RBM"/> He saw service in [[Colorado Territory]] in January 1865, following the [[Sioux Wars|Indian raid on Julesburg, Colorado]], on the [[Overland Trail]], but he did not succeed in locating the Indian camp on the Republican River until after they had departed.<ref>Footnote 6, page 188, ''The Fighting Cheyenne'', George Bird Grinnell, University of Oklahoma Press (1956 original copyright 1915 Charles Scribner's Sons), hardcover, 454 pages</ref><ref>Chapters 32, 33, 34, Ware, Eugene, [https://web.archive.org/web/20021129195033/http://www.kancoll.org/books/ware/ew_main.htm#contents2 The Indian War of 1864:] Being a Fragment of the Early History of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming", Crane & Company (1911) [[Eugene Ware]] was the most junior officer in the [[7th Iowa Cavalry Regiment|7th Iowa Cavalry]] when on September 19, 1863, it was deployed to Omaha en route to the [[American Indian Wars|Indian Wars]].</ref> While commander of the military District of Nebraska and in response to the Indian raid on Julesberg, Mitchell requested every ranch and military set the prairie ablaze to drive the Indians out. According to author and witness Eugene Ware, "They rolled as a vast confluent sheet of flame to the south.” The fire burned for more than three days along the banks of the Arkansas River in Kansas and Colorado with the flames reaching as far south as the Texas panhandle, with much of Nebraska south of the [[Platte River]] and west of [[Fort Kearny]] reduced to a blackened and desolate waste.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nebraska State Historical Society |date=July 28, 2017 |title=Nebraska's biggest prairie fire |url=https://agupdate.com/article_1484ac1c-4fbf-11e8-8fbc-7ffd71a36794.html |url-status=live |website=Ag Update}}</ref>

==Governor of New Mexico Territory== Mitchell was honorably mustered out of the army on January 15, 1866. On the same day, the [[United States Senate]] confirmed his nomination as the Governor of the New Mexico Territory. He took the oath of office on June 6, 1866. He never appeared to take his duties as governor seriously. He was often absent without explanation from the territorial capital, [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], forcing the legislature to forward bills it had passed to Washington, D.C., for approval of the [[United States Congress]]. He resigned as governor in 1869.<ref name="RBM"/>

==Later life== After leaving the office, Mitchell returned to Kansas. He was unsuccessful in his bid to represent Kansas in the U.S. Congress in 1872. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he died on January 26, 1882.<ref name="RBM"/> He was buried with full military honors in Section 2, Grave 1023, of [[Arlington National Cemetery]] in [[Arlington, Virginia]].<ref>[https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/results/1/CghtaXRjaGVsbBIGcm9iZXJ0GgFi/ Burial Detail: Mitchell, Robert B] – ANC Explorer</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}} * [[List of American Civil War generals (Union)]]

==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * {{citation |url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rbmitchell.htm |title=Robert Byington Mitchell |id=an unofficial website|publisher=ArlingtonCemetery.net}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Robert Byington}} [[Category:1823 births]] [[Category:1882 deaths]] [[Category:Governors of New Mexico Territory]] [[Category:Politicians from Mansfield, Ohio]] [[Category:Union army generals]] [[Category:People from Linn County, Kansas]] [[Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War]] [[Category:People of Kansas in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Ohio lawyers]] [[Category:Kansas Democrats]] [[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]] [[Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery]] [[Category:People from Mount Gilead, Ohio]] [[Category:New Mexico Democrats]] [[Category:19th-century New Mexico politicians]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]