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Home Town Stillwater
Date of Passing Oct 02, 1948
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Sgt. Albert W. McMillan (sometimes written â??McMillianâ??) was a member of the Class of 1884, though he left after three years. â??His restless spirit took him west for more â??actionâ?? than a college course afforded,â?? the Nassau Herald noted. Out West, he joined the 7th Cavalry of Little Big Horn fame.  He entered the U.S. Army at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
McMillan was one of 20 7th Cavalry troopers to receive the Medal of Honor for deeds on Dec. 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D. The citation reads: â??He assisted the men on the skirmish line, directed their fire, encouraged them by example, and used every effort to dislodge the enemy.â??
Most historians today call Wounded Knee a massacre, not a battle. A scuffle began between two soldiers and a Lakota warrior, and within an hour, more than 150 Lakota Sioux, including women and children, had been killed and 50 wounded. Army casualties numbered 25 dead and 39 wounded, many of them victims of friendly fire from their own Hotchkiss guns.
McMillan was promoted to sergeant major, but for unknown reasons he was demoted to private before his discharge in September 1892. After he left the Army, he went to the University of Minnesota law school but never practiced. While working as a legal editor, he had a breakdown, called â??nervous prostration.â?? Still, at age 54, he joined the Red Cross when the United States entered World War I and went to Europe, where he was appointed a first lieutenant in the Red Crossâ?? casualty branch and worked in hospitals through the end of the war. He died in Minnesota in 1948.
In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions that condemned the Medals of Honor awarded and called on the U.S. government to rescind them. However, the medals received by McMillan and the other troopers at Wounded Knee still stand.
Description The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota.
The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns.
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it. A scuffle over the rifle ensued, causing several Lakota to draw their weapons and open fire on the cavalry regiment. The situation quickly devolved as both sides began firing indiscriminately. By the time the battle was over, more than 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300. Twenty-five soldiers also died, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded later died). At least twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor. In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them. The site of the battlefield has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1990, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution formally expressing "deep regret" for the massacre.
