The Early Years

Eugene Asa Niel Carr was born on 10 Mar 1830, in Hamburg, New York, to Clark Merwin Carr and Delia Ann Torry Carr; he had three siblings. At sixteen, he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and he graduated on 1 Jul 1850. Carr served a tour of duty in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the U.S. Army’s Cavalry School. He was assigned to the Regiment of Mounted Rifles and served at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851

In 1850, Eugene Carr age twenty, attended the US Military Academy (West Point) and resided in Cornwall, Orange, New York, United States as a Cadet. Graduated from West Point on 1 Jul 1850.

On 12 Oct 12, 1865, Eugene Asa Carr married Mary Patience Maguire in St. Louis, Missouri.  They had four sons, but only one, Clark Magwire, lived to adulthood.

Assignments

Regiment of Mounted Rifles, 1851, Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, served in Indian Wars

Frontier at Forts Leavenworth and Scott in Kansas, Fort Kearney in Nebraska, and Fort Gibson in Indian Territory from 1852 to 1854

Fort Inge, Texas, to engage with Native American tribes along the Rio Grande. On 1 Oct 1854, received wound from arrow while fighting the Lipan Apache’s

Border War in Kansas and Missouri from 1856 to 1857, promoted to captain and commanded Fort Washita, in Indian Territory, in 1858.

Clarendon (Monroe County) to confront Confederate major general Joseph O. Shelby, and spent time in Helena (Phillips County) on Reconstruction duty

Promoted to colonel and placed in charge of the Third Illinois Cavalry. Carr then assumed command of the Fourth Division, Army of the Southwest, under General Samuel Ryan Curtis.

By 1863, Carr commanded a division in the XIII Army Corps in General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign

Spring of 1864, Carr commanded the cavalry division of Union general Frederick Steele’s VII Corps in the Camden Expedition

On June 30, 1864, Commander of the District of Little Rock; In April 1865 commanded the Third Division of the XVI Corps

Returned to Arkansas for half a year in Reconstruction duty at Helena in 1867. As commander of the St. Francis District

Battle and Engagements (before The Civil War)

Rocky Mountain Campaigns

Battle of the Diablo Mountains, 3 Oct 1854, Sierra Diablo, Texas, Apache, United States victory

Sioux Campaign, 1855

Bleeding Kansas (aka Bloody Kansas, Border War), 1854-1861, Kansas Territory, Antislavery settler victory, Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state, Fighting continues into the American Civil War

Utah War, (aka Utah Expedition, the Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion), 29 Jun 1857-12 Apr 1858, Utah Territory (now Utah and Wyoming), Inconclusive, Utah War Peace Commission, Brigham Young replaced as Governor of Utah Territory, Full amnesty for charges of sedition and treason issued to the citizens of Utah Territory by President James Buchanan if they accepted US federal authority

Comanche and Kiowa in Kansas and Nebraska in the summer of 1860

Commands

3rd Illinois Cavalry Regiment

Army of the Southwest - 7-12 Nov 1863

6^th Calvary Regiment

Promotions

Brevet Second Lieutenant, 1861

Captain, 1^st US Cavalry (later the 4^th US) and command of Fort Washita in the Indian Territory

Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army; Colonel, 3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry - Aug 1861

Brigadier General of Volunteers, appointed by President Lincoln 30 Apr 1862

Brevet Major General of Volunteers, appointed by President Lincoln 11 Mar 1865; Brevet Major General Regular US Army, appointed by President Johnson 23 Jul 1866

The Civil War

Eugene Asa Niel Carr, age thirty-one, enlisted at Hamburg, Erie County, New York, United States in the Union Army for three years as a Colonel on 15 Aug 1861.   On 15 Aug 1861, Colonel Carr  was commissioned into Field & Staff, 3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry.  Colonel Carr was discharged for promotion on 7 Mar 1862.

On 7 Mar 1862, Colonel Carr received a promotion to Brigadier General and commissioned into US Volunteers General Staff.  On 11 Mar 1865, General Carr received a promotion to Brevet Major General.  General Carr was mustered out on 15 Jan 1866.  General Carr spent more than forty-three years in the US Army.  Brevet Major General Eugene Asa Niel Carr died on 2 Dec 1910 and is buried in United States Military Academy Post Cemetery, West Point, Orange County, New York, United States.

Civil War Engagements with the 3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry (Organized: St. Charles, Illinois, United States on 18 Sep 1861; Mustered out: 17 Jul 1865):

Battle of Wilson’s Creek (aka Battle of Oak Hills), 10 Aug 1861, Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, Missouri, Confederate victory

Battle of Pea Ridge (aka Battle of Elkhorn Tavern), 7-8 Mar 1862, Near Leetown, northeast of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Union victory

Battle of Port Gibson, 1 May 1863, Claiborne County, near Port Gibson, Mississippi, Union victory

Battle of Champion Hill (aka Champion’s Hill), 16 May 1863, Hinds County, Mississippi, Union victory

Siege of Vicksburg, 18 May-4 Jul 1863), Warren County, Mississippi, Union victory, April 1864 Engagement at Jenkins’ Ferry, Steele ordered Carr to clear a path for his army to retreat back to Little Rock

Camden Expedition, 23 Mar-3 May 1864, final campaign conducted by the Union Army in south Arkansas, Confederate victory

Battle of Spanish Fort, 27 Mar-8 Apr 1865, Baldwin County, Alabama, Union victory, In June 1864, Clarendon on the White to locate and destroy General Shelby, who had captured and scuttled the USS Queen City. In retribution, Carr burned Clarendon to the ground

Battle of Fort Blakeley. 2-9 Apr 1865, Baldwin County, Alabama, Union victory, Fort Blakeley surrendered to the U.S

Colonel Eugene Asa Niel Carr fought in the American Civil War. Colonel Carr received the country's highest award for bravery during combat, the Medal of Honor, for his extraordinary heroism in action at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, United States on 7 Mar 1862 while leading the 3rd Regiment, Illinois Cavalry

President Grover Cleveland of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Colonel Eugene Asa Niel Carr, United States Army, on 16 Jan 1894 for extraordinary heroism in Mar 1862, while leading the 3rd Regiment Illinois Cavalry, under fire of shot and shell in which he was wounded several times

Medal of Honor Citation:
Directed the deployment of his command and held his ground, under a brisk fire of shot and shell in which he was several times wounded

After The Civil War

American Indian Wars

Returned to the frontier in 1869, and for the next two decades, he was engaged in fighting the Apache, Cheyenne, and Sioux in western states

Battle of Summit Springs, 11 Jul 1869, Washington County, Colorado, United States Victory

Battle of Slim Buttes, 9-10 Sep 1879, Great Sioux Reservation Harding County, South Dakota), United States Victory

Battle of Cibecue Creek, 30 Aug 1881, Cibecue Creek, Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Arizona Territory, Apache strategic victory, US tactical victory

Battle of Fort Apache, 1 Sep 1881, Fort Apache, Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Arizona Territory, Union victor

General Carr retired from the army in 1893 after over forty-three years and moved to Washington DC. Was active in the National Geographic Society.

Death and Burial

Medal of Honor Recipient Brigadier General Asa Eugene Niel Carr died on Friday, 2 Dec 1910 and is commemorated and interred at United States Military Academy Post Cemetery, West Point, Orange County, New York, United States