Soldiers in American History - Page 4

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In 1857, he resigned his commission and became Chief Engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, where he occasionally worked with a lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. When the Civil War began, he once again found himself in the military, with President Lincoln approving him as a Major General in the regular army. He was outranked only by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott.

He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the General-in-Chief of the Union Army from November 1861-1862. However, he consistently overestimated his opposing forces and his military operations were perceived as failures. After the Battle of Antietam, he was ordered to turn over his command to Ambrose E. Burnside and await further orders at his home in New Jersey. They never came.

After his military service, he was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States in 1864 and was a Democratic Party politician, who served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878-1881.

On October 29, 1885, George Brinton McClellan died in Orange, New Jersey. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Trenton.

Colonel James Montgomery (1814-1871) - Born to James and Mary Baldwin Montgomery in Austinburg, Ohio on December 22, 1814, Montgomery later moved with his family to Kentucky in 1837 where he taught school when he grew up. Briefly he was married in Kentucky but his wife died just a short time later. He soon remarried and the couple moved to Missouri in 1852, where they lived in several places awaiting the opening of Kansas Territory. In 1854, he and his wife settled about five miles west of present-day Mound City, Kansas. At this time, the area was plunged in the midst of the Kansas-Missouri Border War and Montgomery, an abolitionist, soon became a leader of local Free-state men. Just a year after he had moved to Linn County, his cabin was burned down by Missouri guerillas and he soon built a new home that was more of a fortress and was referred to as Fort Montgomery.

In 1857 he organized and commanded a group called the "Self-Protective Company," which began to order pro-slavery settlers to leave the area. As the conflicts in the area continued, the current pro-slavery governor sent troops into Southeastern Kansas to quell the disturbances, which encouraged the pro-slavery advocates to harass the free-staters even more. On many occasions he worked with John Brown in order to make Kansas a free-state.

When the Civil War broke out, he entered the army of the Union as Colonel of the Third Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry on July 24, 1861 and was made a Colonel. By June, 1863, Montgomery was commanding his own brigade in operations along the east coast that somewhat resembled his earlier "Jayhawking" raids. In 1864 he resigned his commission and returned to Kansas. He lived peacefully with his wife and seven children and worked as a farmer until December 6, 1871, when he died. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Mound City, grave #76.

Major Frank Joshua North (1840-1885) – Best known for his organization of a group of Pawnee scouts, North was instrumental in the Indian Wars, protecting the wagon trails and later, the railroad crews during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Born in Ludlowville, New York on March 10, 1840, his family moved to Ohio when Frank was just two years old.  They moved again in 1856 to Nebraska, where the 16 year-old worked as a transporter, moving goods between Omaha and Fort Kearny. It was in this capacity that North first made contact with the local Pawnee Indians. He soon learned their language, so well, that by 1860, he was working at the Pawnee Reservation near Fullerton, Nebraska as a clerk in their trading post. Later he became so proficient in the language that he worked as an interpreter.

In 1864 he accompanied the first Pawnee Scouts to the field under General Samuel R Curtis in an unsuccessful campaign against the Sioux. Curtis was so impressed with his knowledge of the Pawnee, that he suggested that North organize a company of Pawnee scouts to help the army during the Indian Wars. When North agreed, he was given the rank of lieutenant. For the next 13 years, North would lead the scouts in a number of campaigns against the Plains Indians, serving in Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming, receiving promotions to captain and then to major. But by 1877, the Plains Indians had all but been subdued and the North and his scouts were mustered out for the last time.

North then went into partnership with William F. "Buffalo Bill” Cody in a cattle ranch at the head of Dismal River in Western Nebraska. When the pair sold the business in 1882 then served one term in the Nebraska Legislature before joining up with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as its Indian Manager.

In 1884 he was severely injured in a riding accident in Hartford, Connecticut. He was brought home to Columbus, Nebraska where he continued to suffer from the injuries until he died on March 14, 1885.

Pottawatomie Rifles (1855) - A group of about one hundred abolitionist (or free state) Kansas settlers of Franklin and Anderson counties, both of which are along the Pottawatomie Creek. The band was formed in the fall of 1855, during the Kansas-Missouri Border War, as an armed militia to counter growing proslavery presence (an influx of men known as Border Ruffians) in the area and along the Missouri border. Led by John Brown's son, John Brown, Jr., men from the Pottawatomie Rifles took part in much of the violence known as Bleeding Kansas, including the Battle of Osawatomie and the Pottawatomie Massacre. Although JJohn Brown, who was famous for his own raids and his involvement with Harriet Tubman in the attack on Harpers Ferry, frequently accompanied his son, he was not officially a member of the group.

Marcus A. Reno - (1834-1889) - A career military officer in the Civil War and the Black Hills War against the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, Reno is most noted for his role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.Born at Carrollton, Illinois on November 15, 1834, Reno attended West Point, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in July, 1857. He served on the frontier in Oregon before joining the 1st Cavalry when the Civil War began. By the time the war was over, he had been promoted to captain and in 1866 was sent to Fort Vancouver. Two years later he was promoted again to the rank of major and in December, 1868, joined the 7th Cavalry based at Fort Hayes, Kansas. Later he was moved to Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, where he accompanied Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer on his Sioux campaign in 1876.

On June 17, 1876, General George Crook and about 1,000 troops, supported by 300 Crow and Shoshone, fought against 1,500 members of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes in what is known as the Battle at Rosebud. Custer soon headed out to find those Sioux and Cheyenne involved at in the battle and on June 25^th a scout reported a large encampment near the Little Bighorn River. Though the Indians numbered some 10,000, Custer assumed the numbers were much less and instead of waiting for the main army under General Alfred Terry to arrive, he decided to attack the encampment immediately. He divided his men into three groups, one under Reno, another under Captain Frederick Benteen, and led the third.

When Reno soon discovered he was greatly outnumbered he retreated to the river and was later joined by Benteen and his men. Custer continued his attack but, also seriously outnumbered, he was quickly defeated by about 4,000 warriors. He and all his 264 men were killed. Reno and Benteen were also attacked and 47 of them were killed before they were rescued by the arrival of General Alfred Terry and his army.

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Reno was heavily criticized for his actions --  accused of being drunk, a coward, and incompetent. However, this did not stop Reno replacing George A. Custer as commander of what was left of the 7th Cavalry and in official inquiry found him not culpable of any wrong-doing during the battle. However, in March, 1877, Reno was accused of making improper advances on the wife of another officer and was suspended without pay for two years.

In 1880 Reno was accused of striking a junior officer and being drunk on duty. Found guilty, he was dismissed from the army on April 1, 1880. In his last years Reno made strenuous efforts to clear his name but this campaign was unsuccessful. Marcus Reno died of cancer in Washington D.C. on March 30, 1889.

In 1967, a US military review board reversed Reno's court martial decision after reviewing original documents and testimony officially changing his general discharge status to "honorable." Originally buried in an unmarked grave in Washington's Oak Hill Cemetery, his remains were re-interred later that year in Custer National Cemetery, within the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) - Born Tecumseh Sherman in Lancaster, Ohio on February 8, 1820 to Judge Charles Robert Sherman and Mary Hoyt Sherman, William was one of 11 children. When his father died when he was nine, he was taken in and raised by a family friend. He joined the Military Academy at West Point at the age of 16. Upon graduation in 1840, he entered the Army as a second lieutenant and saw action in the Second Seminole War. Later he served at several posts in the West.

In 1853, Sherman resigned his military commission and became president of a bank in San Francisco. However, the bank failed in the financial panic of 1857. He then practiced law in Leavenworh, Kansas, a venture that was unsuccesful. In 1859, he accepted a job as the first superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, a position he held until the outbreak of the Civil War.

On May 14, 1861, he accepted a commission as a Colonel in the 13th U.S. Infantry regiment. In the Civil War he fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and many others, and was promoted to a Brigadier General.

When the Civil War was over, Ulysses S. Grant promoted Sherman first to Lieutenant General in 1866, and Commanding General of the U.S. Army in 1869. Operating in the West, he deployed troops to protect transcontinental railroad workers from Indians who feared that the railroad would mean further encroachment on their territory. He also established military outposts across the region, expanding the network of federal authority.

Sherman retired from the army on February 8, 1884 and lived most of the rest of his life in New York City. He died there on February 19, 1891 and his body was transported to St. Louis, Missouri, where he buried in Calvary Cemetery.

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