Joseph P. Sanger

Joseph P. Sanger (May 4, 1840 – March 15, 1926) was a career officer in the United States Army. A Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, after the war he served as an aide-de-camp for generals Emory Upton and John Schofield, and was secretary and military assistant for President Abraham Lincoln and President Benjamin Harrison. He was very good friends with John Hay, Secretary of State under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. After service in Cuba during the Spanish–American War, in 1903, he was assigned to supervise the first census of the Philippines following the end of the Philippine–American War. Sanger attained the rank of major general, and retired in January 1904.

Sanger was from an old and prominent New England family, and was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan for two years before joining the Union Army for the American Civil War. After service in the 1st Michigan Infantry Regiment, a unit enlisted for three months at the start of the war, Sanger joined the 1st Regiment of Artillery, with which he served until the end of the war. Sanger remained in the army after the war, and served in a variety of assignments as he rose through the ranks in the 1870s and 1880s, including command of several batteries of the 1st Artillery.

In addition to his artillery assignments, Sanger also served as an aide-de-camp for General Emory Upton during Upton's inspection and observation tour of Asia and Europe in the mid-1870s, and General John Schofield during Schofield's command of the Military Division of the Atlantic and assignment as Commanding General of the United States Army. During the presidential administration of Benjamin Harrison, Sanger served as his military aide and acted as his presidential secretary.

During the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War, Sanger commanded several brigades and divisions, then supervised censuses in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines. He was promoted to major general on January 20, 1904, and retired the following day. In retirement, Sanger resided in Washington, D.C. He died there on March 15, 1926, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Early life and start of career Joseph Prentice Sanger was born in Detroit, Michigan on May 4, 1840, a son of Henry Kirkland Sanger and Caroline (Prentice) Sanger. Sanger's parents were from New York originally, and came from old New England families. His cousins included George P. Sanger (Harvard, 1840), President of John Hancock Mutual Fund, his son Charles Robert Sanger, and William Cary Sanger (Harvard 1870), Assistant Secretary of War (1901–1903). He attended the schools of Detroit and was a student at the University of Michigan from 1858 to 1860. He enlisted in the Union Army in April 1861 and was appointed a first lieutenant in the 1st Michigan Infantry Regiment, a unit organized in response to President Abraham Lincoln's call at the start of the war for troops to serve three-month enlistments.

When the 1st Michigan mustered out in August 1861, Sanger joined the 1st Regiment of Artillery as commander of Battery D, and later commanded Battery E, 3rd Artillery. He served until the end of the war, and received promotion to captain and major by brevet in recognition of his heroism in the Bermuda Hundred campaign and the first and second battles of Deep Bottom, Virginia.

Continued career Sanger remained in the army after the Civil War, and was assigned as adjutant of the 1st Artillery in 1866.

From 1884 to 1888, Sanger was an aide-de-camp to Major General John Schofield during Schofield's command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. From 1903 to 1904, Sanger was director of the U.S. census of the Philippines. This history of the army's doctrine and policy had been begun by Emory Upton, and it was edited for publication in 1904 by Sanger, William Dorrance Beach, and Charles Dudley Rhodes. In 1910, he was a member of the panel that investigated the Brownsville affair.

Sanger was a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) and Military Order of Foreign Wars. He also belonged to the General Society of Colonial Wars and Sons of the Revolution. He died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on March 15, 1926. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Walter Prentice Sanger, known as Prentice, was a prominent New York City architect and landscape designer. Sanger's sister Frances Caroline Sanger (1848–1917) was the wife of Brigadier General John M. K. Davis.

Legacy In 1872, Sanger received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College. Joseph P. Sanger Camp No. 15 (Lynn, Massachusetts) of the United Spanish War Veterans was named for Sanger.