KEARNY, PHILIP (1815-1862), American soldier, was born in New York on June 2, 1815. He graduated from Columbia university (1835), and in 1837 obtained a commission in the cav alry. In 1839 he was sent to France to study cavalry training and before his return in 1840 he had served, on leave, in Algeria. He inherited a large fortune, but remained in the service in the head quarters staff of the army. After six more years' service he left the army, but almost immediately rejoined with a company of cavalry he had raised and equipped, chiefly at his own expense, for the Mexican War. In Dec. 1846 he was promoted captain. In leading a brilliant charge at Churubusco he lost his left arm, but remained at the front, and won the brevet of major. In 1851 he again resigned in order to travel. He saw further active service with the French cavalry in the Italian War of 1859, and received the cross of the Legion of Honour for his conduct at Solferino. Up
to the outbreak of the American Civil War he lived in Paris, but early in 1861 he hastened home to join the Federal army. As a brigade commander and as a divisional commander of infantry in the Army of the Potomac, he infused into his men his own spirit of dash and bravery. At Chantilly (Sept. 1, 1862), after repulsing an attack of the enemy, he rode out in the dark too far to the front, and mistaking the Confederates for his own men was shot dead. His body was sent to the Federal lines with a message from Gen. Lee, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, New York. His commission as major-general of volunteers was dated July 4, 1862, but he never received it.
See J. W. de Peyster, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny (1869).