Sedgwick: Named for a General Who Said the Wrong Thing

The town of Sedgwick takes its name from Fort Sedgwick, which stood nearby along the South Platte River. The fort was named for Major General John Sedgwick, a Union officer who had personally commanded the expedition that established a Platte River post back in eighteen sixty.

Sedgwick became famous for his final words. At the Battle of Spotsylvania in May eighteen sixty-four, he was directing artillery placements when his troops took cover from Confederate snipers. Sedgwick waved them off, saying, quote, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance. Moments later a bullet struck him beneath the left eye, killing him instantly. He was the highest-ranking Union officer to die in combat during the war.

The town platted here in eighteen eighty-seven after the Union Pacific came through. For a time it had banks, a newspaper, and a busy train depot shipping cattle and grain east. Today it holds fewer than two hundred residents, the fort is a memory, but the general's unlucky last words still travel with the name.