Louisa Hawkins Canby

Louisa Hawkins Canby (December 25, 1818 – 1889) was nicknamed the "Angel of Santa Fe" in 1862 for her compassion toward sick, wounded, and freezing Confederate soldiers at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mrs. Canby was the wife of Union Brig. Gen. Edward Richard Sprigg Canby whose order to destroy or hide not only weapons and ammunition but all food, equipment, and blankets prior to any retreat was largely responsible for the Confederates' misery. Taking pity on her husband's enemies, Mrs. Canby not only organized other officers' wives to nurse the sick and wounded among the occupying Confederate forces, but also showed Col. William Read Scurry where fleeing Union forces had hidden blankets and food. Mrs. Canby, said one rebel, "captured more hearts of Confederate soldier [sic] than the old general ever captured Confederate bodies."

Louisa Hawkins, was born December 25, 1818 at Paris, Kentucky, to John and Elizabeth (Waller) Hawkins. Relatives and close friends usually called her "Lou." Like the family of Louisa's future husband, the Hawkinses moved from Kentucky to Indiana. After graduating from Georgetown Female College in Georgetown, Kentucky, Louisa married Lt. E.R.S. Canby at Crawfordsville, Indiana on August 1, 1839. The Hawkins family apparently had a strong attraction to the military. Louisa's younger brother, John Parker Hawkins, was a West Point graduate, served during the Civil War, and retired a brigadier general in 1894. At least two of Louisa's three sisters also married military officers (who happened to be brothers).

A Methodist, Louisa was very religious but also ecumenical: she once helped a Protestant marry a Catholic in spite of the controversy stirred up by the union. At her husband's funeral service in Portland, Oregon, she arranged to have clergymen representing three Protestant denominations share in the service. (A fourth clergyman, feeling less ecumenical, bowed out.) At the final funeral service in Indianapolis, Indiana, a Baptist and a Methodist shared duties.

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