GENERAL E. R. S. CANBY.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Tell us something about General Canby.
A. B. D.
Answer.—Edward Richard Spriggs Canby LL. D., was born in Kentucky in 1807, graduated at West Point in 1839, and spent the remainder of his life on the warpath. His first post was in Florida (1839-42), but he was little known until the war with Mexico, when he fought with such valor at Cherubusco and the City of Mexico as to win the brevets of major and lieutenant colonel. From 1849 to 1861 he served on the Pacific coast, in Washington, and Utah Territory, and against the Navajoes, and at the outbreak of the civil war took command in New Mexico, where he was brevetted brigadier general at Valverde. Two years later he was commander of the expedition which captured Mobile, and there won the title of brevet major general. Soon afterward Generals R. Taylor and E. K. Smith surrendered to him. In 1866 he was made a brigadier general in the regular army.
In 1869, having served in several important commissions, and being worn out, he voluntarily consented to take charge of the Department of Columbia; and there he was treacherously shot by the chief “Jack,” April 11, 1873, while trying to arrange for the removal of the Modocs from Northern California.
“PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES.”
Blunt, D.T.
Please explain in the Curiosity Shop the meaning of the expression “Precession of the Equinoxes,” and how the climate of the earth is affected by this phenomenon?