Everything about Darius N Couch totally explained
Darius Nash Couch (
July 23,
1822 –
February 12,
1897) was a
United States Army officer, naturalist, and a
Union major general in the
American Civil War. Couch rose to command a
corps in the
Army of the Potomac, and led
divisions in both the
Eastern Theater and
Western Theater.
Militia under his command played a strategic role during the 1863
Gettysburg Campaign in delaying the advance of
Confederate troops from the
Army of Northern Virginia and denying them passage across the critical
Susquehanna River.
Early life
Couch, who pronounced his name, was born at the village of South East in
Putnam County, New York, and graduated from the
U.S. Military Academy in 1846, placing 13th out of 59 cadets. Among his many classmates were
George B. McClellan,
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and
George Pickett.
Brevetted as a
second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery, Couch saw action in the
Mexican-American War. He was awarded the brevet of
first lieutenant on
February 23,
1847, for gallant conduct at the
Battle of Buena Vista, and received a full commission to first lieutenant in December of that year.
After a brief assignment to garrison duty, Couch served in the
Second Seminole War from 1849 through 1850. He took a one-year leave of absence from the army from 1853 to 1854 to conduct a scientific mission for the
Smithsonian Institution in northern
Mexico. There, he discovered the species that became known as
Couch's Kingbird and
Couch's Spadefoot Toad. He resigned from the service in 1855, moved to
Taunton, Massachusetts, and worked as a copper fabricator in the company owned by his wife's family.
Civil War
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Couch reentered the army as
Ccolonel of the 7th Massachusetts Infantry in April 1861, but was soon promoted to
brigadier general on
May 17. He was a
brigade and
division commander in the
IV and a division commander in
VI Corps of the
Army of the Potomac. He achieved some success in those roles in the
Peninsula Campaign, the
Seven Days Battles, and the
Battle of Antietam. He was promoted to
major general in July 1862. He assumed command of the
II Corps on
November 14,
1862, and led it in the battles of
Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville. Couch was senior corps commander in the latter campaign.
Couch requested reassignment after being wounded at Chancellorsville and quarreling with Maj. Gen.
Joseph Hooker, and he commanded the newly created
Department of the Susquehanna during the
Gettysburg Campaign in 1863. Fort Couch in
Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, was constructed under his direction and was named in his honor. Assigned to protect
Harrisburg from a threatened attack by Confederates under
Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell,
militia from Couch's department skirmished with enemy
cavalry elements at
Sporting Hill, one of the war's northernmost engagements. Couch's militia then joined in the pursuit of
Robert E. Lee's
Army of Northern Virginia into
Maryland following the
Battle of Gettysburg.
Couch's son Robert, a captain in the 56th Massachusetts, was killed at the
Battle of Cold Harbor in June 1864. Later that summer, Confederates again invaded Couch's Department of the Susquehanna, as Brig. Gen.
John McCausland burned the town of
Chambersburg. In December, Couch returned to the front lines with an assignment to the Western Theater, where he commanded a division in the
XXIII Corps of the
Army of the Ohio in the
Franklin-Nashville Campaign, and for the remainder of the war. Couch finished his military service after the
Carolinas Campaign in 1865.
Postbellum
Couch returned to civilian life in Taunton after the war, unsuccessfully running as a
Democrat for
Governor of Massachusetts in 1865. He later briefly served as president of a mining company in
West Virginia. Couch moved to
Connecticut in 1871 and served as the Quartermaster General, and then Adjutant General, for the state militia until 1884.
He died in
Norwalk, Connecticut, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Darius N Couch'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://darius_n__couch.totallyexplained.com">Darius N. Couch Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
