Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Keyes, Erasmus Darwin

KEYES, Erasmus Darwin (keeze), soldier, b. in Brimfield, Mass., 29 May, 1810. He removed to Kennebec county, Me., in youth, and was appointed from that state to the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated in 1832. He was assigned to the 3d artillery, served in Charleston harbor during the nullification troubles of 1832-'3, and in 1837-41 was aide to Gen. Winfield Scott. He became captain, 30 Nov., 1841, served in garrison till 1844, and then as instructor of artillery and cavalry at West Point till 1848, after which he was again on frontier and garrison duty till 1860. During this time he commanded a battery of artillery against hostile Indians in the northwest, took part in several engagements, and was promoted major on 12 Oct., 1858. He was mili- tary secretary to Gen. Scott from 1 Jan., 1860, till 19 April, 1861, on 14 May became colonel of the 11th infantry, and on 17 May was made brigadier" general of volunteers. He was in New York and Boston, despatching and recruiting troops, till 3 July, and then served in the defences of Washington, in the battle of Bull Run, and in the peninsula campaign, commanding the 4th corps of the Army of the Potomac from March, 1862, and being promoted to major-general of volunteers on 5 May. He was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army on 31 May for his conduct in the battle of Fair Oaks. He organized a raid to White House, Va., 7 Jan., 1863, commanded the expedition to West Point, Va., on 7 May, and was engaged in another under Gen. John A. Dix toward Richmond in June and July. He served on the board for retiring disabled officers from 15 July, 1863, till 6 May, 1864, when he resigned, and removed to California. He was president of the Mexican gold-mining company in 1867-'9, and vice-president of the California vine-culture society in 1868-72. Gen. Keyes has published " Fifty-Years' Observation of Men and Events" (New York, 1884). — His son, Edward Lawrence, physician, b. in Charleston, S. C, 28 Aug., 1843, was graduated at Yale in 1863, and at the medical department of the University of New York in 1866, and, after eighteen months of study in Europe, settled in practice in New York city. He became lecturer on dermatology in Bellevue hospital medical college in 1871, was made professor of that branch in 1872, and since 1875 has been also adjunct professor of surgery. He is a member of various medical societies, connected with several hospitals, and besides papers has published "Genito-Urinary Diseases with Syphilis " with Prof. William H. Van Buren (New York, 1874); "Tonic Treatment of Syphilis" (1877); "Venereal Diseases" (1880); and an article on "Urinary Calculus" in the sixth volume of the "International Encyclopedia of Surgery" (1886).