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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 25th 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 S. "Old Rosy" Rosecrans
(1819-1898) - He was born to
Crandell and Jane Hopkins Rosecrans on September 6, 1819 at Delaware City,
Ohio and grew up to graduate from West Point in 1842. He went to Westpoint
with several other men who would become famous military officers in the
Civil War and was the roommate of James Longstreet and A.P. Stewart, both
of whom would become generals in the Confederate Army. He was assigned
engineering duty after graduation, but in 1854, resigned and became an
architect and a civil engineer. He was very successful and soon took over
a mining business in West Virginia, where his geological surveys were
extremely accurate, pointing to profitable new veins of coal. In
Cincinnati, Ohio, he, along with two partners built one of the first oil
refineries west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was also an inventory,
obtaining patents for several products including odorless oil, a round
lamp wick, a short practical lamp chimney, and a new and economical method
of manufacturing soap. In 1859, he was burned severely when an
experimental "safety" oil lamp exploded. Bedridden for 18 months, he
recovered just as the
Civil War
broke out. Rosecrans quickly offered his services to Ohio Governor
William Dennison, where he became a drillmaster for the Marion Rifles, an
engineering officer and promoted to a colonel, commanding the 23rd Ohio
Infantry regiment, whose members included Rutherford B. Hayes and William
McKinley, both future presidents. Rising quickly, he was promoted to
brigadier general in the regular army on May 16, 1861. He proved effective
in the West Virginia Campaign with victories at Rich Mountain and
Corrick's Ford in July, 1861 and soon assumed command of what was to
become the Department of Western Virginia. He was transferred to the
Western Theater in May, 1862. Soon,
he was reporting directly to
Major General Ulysses S. Grant, who
commanded the District of Western Tennessee and the Army of the Tennessee,
from whom he received direction in the Iuka-Corinth campaign in September
and October, 1862. Soon afterwards he was ordered to replace Don Carlos
Buell taking command of the Army of the Cumberland. In December, 1862 he
advanced against General Braxton Bragg, soon fought in the bloody and
indecisive battle of Stone River. In 1863 Rosecrans forced
Bragg back to Chattanooga, but sustained a great defeat at the Battle of
Chickamauga, and was soon besieged in Chattanooga. Because of the defeat,
Rosecrans was relieved of command of the Army of the Cumberland and would
eventually be given command of the Department of Missouri until wars end.
He resigned in 1867 and became a minister to Mexico. He then became
involved in many railroad and industrial enterprises in Mexico and in
California.
He was Congressional Representative from
California
from 1881 to 1885, and then served as Register of the Treasury until 1893.
He died near Redondo,
California
on March 11, 1898. His remains were later reinterred at in Arlington
National Cemetery in 1908.
 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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