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 William
"Bloody Bill" Anderson (1839-1864)
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William "Bloody Bill" Anderson led a raid on Centralia,
Missouri
where a gang of more than 100 guerillas robbed the passengers of an
incoming train. Twenty-four unarmed and wounded Union soldiers were
dragged from the train by the frenzied ruffians and were murdered. The
band of guerrillas was followed by an experienced Federal Infantry.
About three miles south of Centralia, the
Union
forces were bushwhacked by the band and were nearly annihilated. Over
120 federal troops were killed. Only three of the guerrilla forces
were reported to have been killed in the battle. Both
Frank
and Jesse
James were part of this murderous raid.
Jesse
is said to have killed
Union
Major A.V. Johnson, who was one of the soldiers on the train and is
"credited” with taking the lives of seven other men on that tragic
day. Federal forces aggressively pursued the band and on October 26,
1864, ambushed them in Ray County,
Missouri,
killing Anderson, and his men retreated. Allegedly, a silken cord with
53 knots was found on his body, each knot signifying a man whom
Anderson had killed. Human scalps were also found on his bridle.
Benjamin Brown (1859-1910) - Born in
Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1859, Benjamin Brown grew up to fight as
a
Buffalo
Soldier. On May 11, 1889 he was serving as a Sergeant in Company C of
the 24th Infantry, when he and several others in his regiment were asked
to escort Army Paymaster, Major Joseph Washington Wham and a strongbox
carrying more than $28,000 in gold and silver coins, from
Fort Grant to
Fort Thomas. However, when the
caravan was about 15 miles from Pima, Arizona they were ambushed by
bandits and a gun battle ensued, in what is known as the
Wham Paymaster Robbery. In the bitter
engagement, eight members of the escort were wounded, including Benjamin
Brown and the bandits made off with the payroll. Sergeant Benjamin Brown;
though wounded, refused to give up his defense though shot in the abdomen
and then wounded in both arms. A year later, he was awarded the Medal of
Honor on February 19, 1890. He died on September 5, 1910 and was buried at
the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery in
Washington, D.C. He, and fellow officer, Corporal
Isaiah Mays, who was
involved in the same engagement, were the only black infantrymen to
receive the Medal of Honor for bravery in the frontier Indian Wars. The
money from the robbery was never recovered and no one was ever convicted
of the robbery or the shootings.
Christopher "Kit" Carson (1809-1868) -
Carson was a
daring and brave explorer, mountain man, trapper, scout, soldier, and buffalo
hunter. See full article
HERE.
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George
Crook (1828-1890) -
General Sherman said the greatest
Indian fighter of them all was
General Crook, who finished near the bottom of his West Point class. As a young officer he fought
Indians
in the Rouge River and the Yakima wars. He served with distinction
in the Civil War, first commissioned as a
Colonel of Ohio's 36th regiment and led it on duty in western Virginia. He
was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on September 7, 1862. He led
his troops in the Maryland Campaign and saw action in the battles of South
Mountain and
Antietam.
At the end of the
Civil War, Crook then fought the Paiute in the rugged desert of
eastern Oregon,
pacifying the region within a year. When
President Grant sent him to
Arizona to
fight the Apache,
he reorganized his command, employed
Indian
scouts, and put constant pressure on the roving war parties. In two
years most of the
Apache were on reservations.
As
commander of the Department of the Platte,
Crook led the Powder River and Yellowstone expeditions against the
Sioux. Defeated by
Crazy Horse at the Rosebud, he failed to link up with
General Terry, a circumstance that may have played a part in the
massacre at the
Little
Bighorn.
Crook was returned to
Arizona in
1881 when the
Apache rose again. After eight months of hard campaigning,
Crook had the
Apache back on reservations. The
Apache went
on the warpath two years later, and
Crook's last campaign ended in the surrender of
Geronimo. After leaving the army, he worked for better treatment of the
Indians. At
Crook's death, his old adversary,
Red Cloud,
said "He never lied to us. His words gave my people hope."
 Nathan
Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) - Born to a poor Scots-Irish family
in Chapel Hill, Tennessee on July 13, 1821, Forrest was the first of
twelve children. His father died when he was 17 and the ambitious young
man soon pulled his family out of poverty, becoming a business and
plantation owner, as well as a slave trader. By the time the
Civil War broke out in 1861, he had become
one of the wealthiest men in the South. Forrest enlisted in the
Confederate Army as a private, joining the Tennessee Mounted Rifles in
July, 1861. When he began to buy horses and equipment the regiment, using
his own money, he gained the attention of the "higher-ups" and was soon
commissioned as a Colonel and given command of his own regiment in
October, 1861 -- Forrest's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion.
Though he had no formal military training
or experience, he quickly proved himself to be an exemplary officer, first
distinguishing himself in the Battle of Fort Donelson in February, 1862.
He led his men in the Battle of Shiloh in April, 1862, where he was
wounded and several months later in July, he was promoted to a Brigadier
General. He then led his men in the First Battle of Murfreesboro, the
Battle of Day's Gap, Chickamauga, Paducah, Fort Pillow, Brice's
Crossroads, Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. By February, 1865, he
had been promoted to a Lieutenant General.
During the war, he was one of the most
highly regarded cavalry and partisan rangers, as well as one of the most
innovative and successful generals. His tactics of mobile warfare are
still studied by modern soldiers.
After the war, Forrest settled in Memphis,
Tennessee, but was financially ruined due to the abolishment of slavery.
Eventually, he took a job with the Marion & Memphis Railroad, where his
business skills soon placed him in the position of President. It was at
this time that the Ku Klux Klan movement was forming and by 1867, he was
made its first Grand Wizard. This choice, as well as allegations of
brutality in the Battle of Fort Pillow, led to Forrest's heroic reputation
suffering dramatically. However, in 1869, Forrest, who disagreed with the
increasingly violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan ordered it disbanded.
Though the order was ignored, Forrest distanced himself from the organization.
In
October, 1877, he died from complications of diabetes and was buried at
Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. In 1904 his remains were moved to
Forrest Park, a Memphis city park.
John Charles
Fremont (1813-1890) - Was an explorer, military officer, and politician who
led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United
States. See full article
HERE.
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