American soldier, born in Springfield, MA, on the 30th of January 1835. Entering the army at the beginning of the Civil War, as a lieutenant, he rose, gaining almost every step by acts of personal gallantry, to the rank of brigadier-general in 1865. His services were most conspicuous during the second day of the battle of the Wilderness; at Spottsylvania (1864), where he held the “bloody angle” for eleven hours with his own brigade, and at the head of twenty regiments faced the enemy for thirteen hours thereafter. He was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley, and received from the mayor of Richmond the surrender of the city, April 3, 1865; and at Sailor’s Creek, April 5, 1865, he captured Generals Custis Lee and Ewell. General Edwards, after the war, returned to mercantile pursuits. The “Florence” oil-stove is of his invention.
