William Scott Ketchum (1813–1871), U. S. Army officer before and during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. William Scott Ketchum was born on July 7, 1813 in

Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...

. Graduated from the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

, at

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

in 1834. He served in the

Seminole Wars The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Geography of Florida, Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native Americans in the United States, Native American nation whi ...

and on the Western frontier. During the 1857 Cheyenne Expedition of Col.

Edwin Vose Sumner Edwin Vose Sumner (January 30, 1797March 21, 1863) was a career United States Army officer who became a Union Army general and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the American Civil War. His nicknames "Bull" or "Bul ...

against the

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

and the

Battle of Solomon's Fork The Battle of Solomon’s Fork was a brief skirmish between Cheyenne warriors and a cavalry detachment of the United States Army that occurred on July 9, 1857, on the Solomon Fork of the Smoky Hill River in north-central Kansas Territory, near pre ...

, Captain Ketchum of G Company commanded the

6th Infantry Regiment The 6th Infantry Regiment ("Regulars") was formed 11 January 1812. Zachary Taylor, later the twelfth President of the United States, was a commander of the unit. The motto, "Regulars, By God!" derives from the Battle of Chippawa, in which Briti ...

detachment (of C, D and G Companies).

Civil War

At the start of the Civil War, Major Ketchum now with US Fourth Infantry Regiment commanded

Fort Dalles Fort Dalles was a United States Army outpost located on the Columbia River at the present site of The Dalles, Oregon, in the United States. Built when Oregon was a territory, the post was used mainly for dealing with wars with Native Americans. Th ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, protecting settlers from Indian raids. He was ordered to San Francisco and then sent to take command of the federal troops in Southern California to protect it from secessionist rising and Confederate invasion from Arizona or Texas. Headquartered in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

his troops kept an eye on the secessionists of the region and reinforced

Fort Yuma Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of ...

. Relieved by California Volunteer troops, Ketchum and his regiment assembled in San Pedro for the voyage to eastern United States in the late fall of 1861. Ketchum was promoted to lieutenant colonel in late 1861. He was made a brigadier general of Volunteers in February 1862. For the rest of the war he had staff duties in Washington D.C. and was concerned with inspection, recruiting, and auditing. Following the Civil War, General Ketchum spent four years on special service in the adjutant general’s office in Washington D.C., then retired in December 1870. He died on June 28, 1871 in

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, under suspicious circumstances, the landlady of his boarding house, Ellen G. Wharton being suspected of poisoning him. She was found not guilty. Der Deutsche Correspondent (Baltimore, Maryland)05 Dec 1871, TuePage 4

In popular culture

The mysterious circumstances surrounding General Ketchum’s death were dramatized in the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

radio program

Crime Classics ''Crime Classics'' is a United States radio docudrama which aired as a sustaining series over CBS Radio from June 15, 1953, to June 30, 1954. Production Produced and directed by radio actor and director Elliott Lewis, the program was a histor ...

on 27 July 1953 in the episode entitled ‘The Final Day of General Ketchum’. Ketchum was portrayed by Russell Simpson in the broadcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketchum, William Scott 1813 births 1871 deaths People from Norwalk, Connecticut American military personnel of the Mexican–American War American people of the Indian Wars American people of the Seminole Wars People of Connecticut in the American Civil War Union Army generals Military personnel from Connecticut