County of statue: Lee County
Location of statue: Mississippi Dr., Victory Park, Keokuk
Artist: Unknown sculptor
Monument text:
(Front Face):
CURTIS
(Proper Right Side):
SAMUEL RYAN CURTIS
Born 1803
West Point 1826 - 1830.
Colonel Mexican War
Mayor of Keokuk, Member of Congress.
Col. 2nd IA. Inf. & Brig. Gen. 1861.
Maj. Gen. 1862 - 1866.
Died 1866.
(Rear Face):
Erected
By The City of Keokuk
To Her Soldiers,
1861 - 1865.
Committee
J.L. Root, Mayor S.C. Westscott, Ald.
Ed. S. Carter, Ald. Col. H. H. Trimble
Charles P. Birge.
JULY 4th 1898.
(Proper Left Side):
Co. A, 1st Ia. Cav.
Co. C, 3rd Ia. Cav.
Co. A, 2nd Ia. Inf.
Co. H, 6th Ia. Inf.
Co. E, 7th Ia. Inf.
Co. I, 15th Ia.Inf.
Co. C, 17th Ia. Inf.
| Co. A, 19th Ia. Inf.
Co. A, 30th Ia. Inf.
Co. C, 37th Ia. Inf.
Co. C, 45th Ia. Inf.
Co. F, 7th Mo. Inf.
Co. H, 10th Mo. Inf.
Co. H, 15th Mo. Inf.
Co. C, 60th U. S. Inf. |
Proper Description: A male figure, Samuel Ryan Curtis, seated upon an walking horse in parade motion, dressed in Civil War (Union) uniform. Proper left hand holding reins near saddle horn, with proper right hand in a fist resting upon his proper right hip.
Full report of his Civil War activities Kansas City Library
"When the Civil War began, Curtis was elected colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry. At the request of General Nathaniel Lyon, he quickly marched this regiment to occupy Hannibal, Missouri, an action that led to his promotion to brigadier general in May 1861. Throughout the remains of 1861, he commanded the training at Jefferson Barracks, Camp Benton, and the defenses in St. Louis.
"Given the command of the Southwestern District of Missouri, Curtis forced Confederate major general Sterling Price’s army from Missouri in February 1862. Pursuing him into Arkansas, Curtis’s men skirmished with the Confederates at the Big Sugar Creek on February 16, 1862. The next day, Curtis’s forces officially entered Arkansas following the Telegraph Road. This southward pursuit of Price extended his supply lines and forced a halt in northwest Arkansas to wait for much-needed supplies and to forage.
"Samuel Ryan Curtis was the Union general responsible for the victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge, the capture of Helena (Phillips County), and the repulse of Price’s 1864 invasion of Missouri and Kansas.
"Samuel Curtis was born on a farm in Clinton County, New York, on February 3, 1805, to Zarah and Phalley Yale Curtis prior to the family’s move to Licking County, Ohio. He married Belinda Buckingham in 1831. The couple had six children.
"A West Point graduate (1831), Curtis resigned his commission in June 1832. During his civilian life, Curtis served as an engineer for the Muskingum River and the Des Moines River improvement projects, the National Road, and the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Admitted to the Ohio bar, he also served as the mayor of Keokuk, Iowa, and as a three-term congressman from the First Congressional District of Iowa. A promoter of the American Central Railroad, his railroad experience gained him an appointment to the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad prior to the Civil War." ~ Encyclopedia of Arkansas