General Eugene Asa Carr did a lot of fighting in these parts.
And for it he got a street named after him.
Asa Carr Way, in a gated community three blocks east of North Swan Road and north of East Fort Lowell Road, honors the Union officer and Indian fighter.
Carr was born in Erie County, N.Y., in 1830. After graduating from West Point in 1850, he spent several years at various posts west of the Mississippi River, including Fort Inge, near the Mexican border, where he served for a short time with Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II, the grandnephew of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
He continued to move up the ranks, making captain in 1858 after fighting the powerful Sioux Nation. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was made colonel of the Third Illinois Cavalry and rose to acting brigadier general. He served under Gen. John C. Fremont, who later became the fifth territorial governor of Arizona.
In March 1862, Carr once again fought Indians, this time against Pike's Confederate Indian Brigade, which included the 1st Creek Mounted Rifles and the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles, among others. He was wounded three times and later, in 1894, received the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery.
On Oct. 1, 1879, he took command of the Sixth Cavalry stationed at Fort Lowell, then northeast of Tucson, and tried to pursue Apache war chief Victorio. (Fort Lowell, established as Camp Lowell in 1866, was originally on South Sixth Avenue downtown, on what is now Armory Park. It was moved to its present site on North Craycroft Road in 1873, and the name was changed to "fort" in 1879.)
Carr gained fame for his fight at the Battle of Cibecue Creek, west of Fort Apache, in 1881. He continued service in Arizona until 1884. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1910, and was buried at the cemetery of West Point.
Editor's note
Each week the Star will tell the stories behind Tucson street names. If you have streets to suggest or stories to share, contact writer David Leighton at streetsmarts@azstarnet.com
Thanks to Star reader Logan Russo-Forrest for suggesting this street. Sources: James T. King, "War Eagle: A Life of General Eugene A. Carr," University of Nebraska Press, 1963 Texas State Historical Association biography: www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcadd National Park Service Albert Pike bio: www.nps.gov/peri/historyculture/general-pike.htm
