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SP 4 Johnny Conroy
to remember
Sturgis, Samuel, MGEN.
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Contact Info
Home Town Shippensberg
Date of Passing Sep 28, 1899
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Lieutenant Sturgis served in the 2nd Dragoons upon graduation from West Point. He fought in the mexican American War with the 1st Dragoons.
At the outbreak of the Civil War he served as a Major in the 1st U. S. Cavalry regiment. He was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers in March 1862. He became the commander of the 2nd Division of I Corps. Then he went west with IX Corps in 1863, and aftrer losing a battle at Brice's Crossroads his career wground to a stand still with no further combat commands during the war. At the end of the war in March 1865 he was mustered out of the volunteer service in August. He reverted to his regular rank of lieutenant colonel of the 6th U.S. Cavalry.
Colonel Sturgis commanded the 7th Cavalry from 1869 until at least 1877. He had been on detached serv ice while in charge of the St Louis supply depot for two years, with George Armstrong Custer in charge of the 7th in his stead when Custer foolishly disregarded orders and led his men to their deaths at Little Big Horn on 25 June 1876.
Colonel Sturgis' son, Second Lieutenant James g. (Jack) Sturgis was killed during that battle. Colonel Sturgis was outfoxed by the Nez perce in 1877, failing to trap them as planned. He retired in 1888.
Colonel Sturgis died in 1899.
Nez Perce War
From Month/Year
June / 1877
To Month/Year
October / 1877
Description The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict between several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies, a small band of the Palouse tribe led by Red Echo (Hahtalekin) and Bald Head (Husishusis Kute), against the United States Army. The conflict, fought between June–October 1877, stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians", to give up their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Indian reservation in Idaho. This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres in their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish in lands ceded to the government.
After the first armed engagements in June, the Nez Perce embarked on an arduous trek north initially to seek help with the Crow tribe. After the Crows' refusal of aid, they sought sanctuary with the Lakota led by Sitting Bull, who had fled to Canada in May 1877 to avoid capture following the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn.
The Nez Perce were pursued by elements of the U.S. Army with whom they fought a series of battles and skirmishes on a fighting retreat of 1,170 miles (1,880 km). The war ended after a final five-day battle fought alongside Snake Creek at the base of Montana's Bears Paw Mountains only 40 miles (64 km) from the Canada–US border. A majority of the surviving Nez Perce represented by Chief Joseph of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce, surrendered to Brigadier Generals Oliver Otis Howard and Nelson A. Miles.[4] White Bird, of the Lamátta band of Nez Perce, managed to elude the Army after the battle and escape with an undetermined number of his band to Sitting Bull's camp in Canada. The 418 Nez Perce who surrendered, including women and children, were taken prisoner and sent by train to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Although Chief Joseph is the most well known of the Nez Perce leaders, he was not the sole overall leader. The Nez Perce were led by a coalition of several leaders from the different bands who comprised the "non-treaty" Nez Perce, including the Wallowa Ollokot, White Bird of the Lamátta band, Toohoolhoolzote of the Pikunin band, and Looking Glass of the Alpowai band. Brigadier General Howard was head of the U.S. Army's Department of the Columbia, which was tasked with forcing the Nez Perce onto the reservation and whose jurisdiction was extended by General William Tecumseh Sherman to allow Howard's pursuit. It was at the final surrender of the Nez Perce when Chief Joseph gave his famous "I Will Fight No More Forever" speech, which was translated by the interpreter Arthur Chapman.
The New York Times wrote in an 1877 editorial on the Nez Perce War that: "On our part, the war was in its origin and motive nothing short of a gigantic blunder and a crime"
