Edward E. Cross

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For the U.S. Congressman with the same name, see Edward Cross.

Edward Everett Cross (April 22, 1832 – July 3, 1863) was a newspaperman and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Cross was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire. When he was fifteen years old, he began writing as a printer for a local newspaper, the Coos Democrat. He later moved from New Hampshire to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as a printer for the Cincinnati Times. He demonstrated writing skills and became a reporter for the newspaper, serving for a while as the paper's Washington correspondent. In 1857, he moved to the West and eventually settled in the Arizona Territory.

Cross invested in a series of mines and then established the territory's first newspaper, the Weekly Arizonian. He also served at times in the United States Army as a scout during occasional expeditions against the Apache. In 1860, he crossed the border into Mexico to command a Sonoran army garrison supporting the insurgency of Benito Juárez.

At the outset of the Civil War, he was commissioned as colonel of the 5th New Hampshire Infantry. He led an infantry brigade in the II Corps during the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was mortally wounded. He died the next day at a field hospital.

Cross was notable for always wearing a red bandanna on his head rather than the traditional officer's hat. This was Cross's way of making it easier for his men to locate him quickly on the battlefield.

His body was shipped home to Lancaster, New Hampshire, for burial in the town's cemetery.

[edit] References

Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

[edit] External links

University of New Hampshire website for Colonel Cross

[edit] Further reading

Child, William, A History of the Fifth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Bristol, NH: R.W. Musgrove, Printer, 1893.
Cross, Edward E., Stand Firm and Fire Low: The Civil War Writings of Colonel Edward E. Cross. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2003.
Pride, Mike and Mark Travis, My Brave Boys: To War with Colonel Cross and the Fighting Fifth. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001.
Waite, Otis F. R., New Hampshire in the Great Rebellion. Claremont, NH: Tracy, Chase & company, 1870.