Edmund Pendleton Gaines

Edmund Pendleton Gaines 1777-1849, U.S. army officer, b. Culpeper co., Va.; brother of George Strother Gaines. He spent his boyhood in Tennessee and at the age of 22 joined the U.S. army. He surveyed (1801-4) Gaines Trace between Nashville and Natchez. In 1807 he arrested Aaron Burr and then testified at the Burr trial in Richmond. For his service in the War of 1812 he received many citations. Sent as a commissioner to negotiate with the Creek, he served under Andrew Jackson in the Creek and Seminole campaigns. He later took part in the Black Hawk War and led an expedition against the Seminole in Florida. There he fell into dispute with Gen. Winfield Scott, and a court of inquiry censured them both. In command of the Western Dept. of the army at the opening of the Mexican War, Gaines faced a court of inquiry for calling for volunteers on his own authority. He defended himself so ably that the charges were dismissed.

Bibliography: See biography by J. W. Silver (1949).

Edmund I (921–46) King of England (939–46). He succeeded his brother Athelstan as king. In his brief reign he defended Athelstan's territorial gains and reconquered (944) Danish-occupied Mercia. He sought to stabilize his north-west border against Danish raids from Ireland by presenting (945) the region of Strathclyde to his ally the King of Scotland, Malcolm I. Edmund appointed DUNSTAN as abbot of Glastonbury and supported his reform of organized monasticism. He was murdered by a convicted robber in a banquet brawl.

Mortimer, Edmund (1351–81), 3rd earl of March and 6th earl of Ulster, pre‐eminent in the 1370s because of his inheritance of the lordship of Meath and his claim to Ulster and Connacht through his wife, the heiress to Lionel of Clarence and Elizabeth de Burgh. Mortimer combined the elements sought in many appointments of chief governor during a period of weak defence and financial crisis, having both private resources to supplement his stipend and a strong personal interest in pursuing an effective military campaign. First suggested as a suitable appointee in 1373, he arrived in Ireland as lieutenant in 1379 with a large military force. He achieved some success in Ulster, Connacht, and Meath, but unrest in Leinster and Munster drew him south in 1381. His sudden death at Cork in December 1381 prompted an extreme military crisis, leaving the lordship without effective leadership. Without his personal presence, the gains made in Ulster were soon lost.

Dorothy Johnston