Gen. James G. Blunt was a brave and able soldier, albeit never recognized as a brilliant man of civil affairs. He was born in Hancock County, Maine, in 1826, and until his fourteenth year lived on his father’s farm. Running away from home, he was a sailor for four years and then studied medicine. In February, 1849, he graduated from the Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, and in the following January located at New Madison, Ohio, where he practiced his profession until late in 1856, when he removed to Kansas and settled in Anderson County. He quickly became an ardent free-state man and when the Civil war broke out in 1861 enlisted as a private in the Third Kansas Regiment, subsequently being promoted to lieutenant colonel. He served under General Lane at the Battle of Dry Wood and then commanded a force that penstrated far into the Indian country and broks up the band of the notorious Mathews, killing the leader. In April, 1862, he was commissioned a brigadier general and placed in command of the Department of Kansas. At once he began active operations in Missouri and Arkansas, distinguishing himself for bravery and military skill in the battles of Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Boston Mountains, Fort Van Buren, Honey Springs and Newtonia. After the war he settled in Leavenworth and engaged in business, spending a large part of his time in Washington, D. C. About 1878 symptoms of softening of the brain appeared and he was taken to an insane asylum in Washington, where he died on August 3, 1881.
