Background
Cyrus Bussey was born on October 5, 1833 at Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, the son of Amos Bussey, a Methodist minister, and his wife Hannah Tylee. Four years later the family moved to Indiana.
Cyrus Bussey was born on October 5, 1833 at Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, the son of Amos Bussey, a Methodist minister, and his wife Hannah Tylee. Four years later the family moved to Indiana.
Cyrus went to work in a dry-goods store at the age of fourteen, and at sixteen started a small business for himself at Dupont, Indiana. In the same year he removed to Bloomfield, Iowa, continuing in business and entering politics.
Early in 1861 the governor of Iowa appointed him as one of his aides in charge of the defense of the state.
Invading Missouri with a force of Iowa militia, Bussey dispersed a body of secessionists in a skirmish at Athens, and assisted in saving Missouri to the Union. Appointed colonel of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry, he was mustered into the volunteer service of the United States on September 5, 1861.
At the battle of Pea Ridge, where his regiment was first engaged with the enemy, he was in charge of a small force of cavalry, with three guns, in addition to his own men. He commanded a brigade of cavalry in the Army of the Tennessee (Grant) during the Vicksburg campaign of 1863.
He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, January 5, 1864, and commanded a brigade and division, employed in minor operations and on garrison duty in the southwest, until his muster out, August 24, 1865, with the brevet rank of major-general of volunteers.
After the war he resumed business as a commission merchant, first in St. Louis and later in New Orleans.
He was president of the chamber of commerce of the latter city for six years, and was chairman of a committee which secured the appropriation for the construction of the Eads jetties to improve navigation at the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1881 he removed his business to New York.
President Harrison appointed him assistant secretary of the interior in 1889, and he held that office until 1893, his administration being marked by a lavish policy in the award of pensions.
He then established a law office in the city of Washington, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Cyrus Bussey's major achievement was in organizing of the Third Iowa Volunteer Cavalry in 1861, and becoming its Colonel with the later promotion to Brigadier General and Brevet Major General. He was also appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers on January 5, 1864. During the remainder of the war he was in Brigade and divisional command in western Arkansas, where he restored discipline and fought the corrupt practices of contractors and cotton speculators. Bussey was breveted Major General to rank from March 13, 1865, and he retired to civilian pursuits as a merchant in St Louis and then New Orleans. As Assistant Secretary of the Interior in 1889, in which capacity he liberally awarded pensions to "deserving" Union veterans.
Cyrus Bussey was elected to the Iowa Senate in 1858, as a Democrat, and in 1860 was a delegate to the Democratic national convention which met at Charleston and Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency.
The war having made him a Republican in politics, he was elected a delegate to the national convention of that party in 1868 and again in 1884.
Cyrus Bussey was married to Ellen Kiser of Rockford, Indiana, on May 15, 1855. With his wife, Ellen (Kiser) Bussey, he had two children, Cora and Laura. His oldest daughter, Cora Bussey Hillis, became a notable children's welfare advocate
