Newton Martin Curtis

from The Utica Saturday Globe, January 15, 1901.

    THE HERO OF FORT FISHER
Maj. Gen. Newton M. Curtis Died Sud-
      denly in New York.
 One of the famous northern brigade
commanders of the civil war died sud-
denly in New York the other day in
the person of Maj. Gen. Newton M.
Curtis, ex-congressman, author and
friend  of Lincoln.  Gen. Curtis had
lived in New York since 1908, when he
was appointed assistant inspector gen-
eral of the National Home for Dis-
abled Soldiers.  The general was a
giant in stature and his great height,
six feet six inches, served as an intro-
duction to Abrham Lincoln in 1856,
when Curtis, then a school teacher in
Illinois, entered a railroad station
where Lincoln was waiting.  The lat-
ter, then a lawyer, proposed to meas-
ure his height with Mr. Curtis.  The
future general proved the taller,
whereupon Lincoln exclaimed: "He's
10 feet taller than a rod, straight as 
an arrow, thin as a shingle and with-
out a knothole."  The two were firm 
friends thereafter.
  Maj. Gen. Curtis served with distinc-
tion through the civil war, and in 1865
was wounded four times--one of the 
bullets destroying his left eye--in
leading the charge on Fort Fisher, in
North Carolina.  The act of heroism
gave him the title of "the hero of Fort
Fisher."
  The wide sale of his book, From Bull
Run to Chancellorsville, induced him
to begin the writing of Reminiscences
of the Civil War, which was half com-
pleted at his death.  St. Lawrence Uni-
versity awarded him the degree of LL.
D. in 1906 for his literary work.
  He was born May 31, 1835, in De
Peyster, N.Y., and was graduated 
from Wesleyan Seminary in 1855, leav-
ing the same year to teach school in
Illinois.  He married Miss Phoebe
Davis, a friend of Lincoln and distant
relative of Jefferson Davis, and re-
turned to become postmaster of his
native town in 1857.
  The title of colonel was given him
for recruiting the greater part of the
Sixteenth New York Volunteers when
the civil war began.  His elevation to
the rank of lieutenant colonel was fol-
lowed by his transfer as colonel to the
One Hundred and Forty-second New
York Infantry.  Commissioned in 1865
as brevet brigadier general, in charge
of three brigades, he led the charge on
Fort Fisher, and was made major gen-
eral for gallantry in this action, the
last before he was mustered out, in
January, 1866.
  Maj. Gen. Curtis was a special treas-
ury agent, 1867-'80; representative
from St. Lawrence county in the State
Legislature, 1883-'85; member of Con-
gress, 1891-'97.  He was a past com-
mander in chief of the Grand Army
of the Republic, president of the As-
sociation of the Army of the Potomac
and a member of the Authors' Club,
the Loyal Legion and other organizations.
  For a great many years he resided in
Ogdensburg and was particularly well
known in northern and central New
York.