Nelson A. Miles | |
|---|---|
 Nelson A. Miles as Commanding General / General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, 1898 | |
| Born | (1839-08-08)August 8, 1839 |
| Died | May 15, 1925(1925-05-15) (aged 85) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Service years | 1861–1903 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Unit |
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| Commands |
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| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Medal of Honor |
| Spouse | |
| Signature |  |
Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) was aUnited States Army officer who served in theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865), the last stages of theAmerican Indian Wars (1840–1890), and theSpanish–American War (1898). From 1895 to 1903, Miles served as the lastCommanding General of the United States Army, before the office was transformed into the currentChief of Staff of the U.S. Army in 1903.
Nelson A. Miles was born on his family's farm inWestminster, Massachusetts on August 8, 1839, the son of Daniel Miles and Mary (Curtis) Miles.[1] He was raised and educated in Westminster, and attended the academy run by educator John R. Galt.[2] Having decided on a business career, as a teenager, he moved toBoston, where he worked as a clerk in the John Collamore & Company crockery store.[3]
While living in Boston, he also attended Comer's Commercial College, a business school that offered night courses.[4] With the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War likely, Miles was among several young men in Boston who began to study drill and ceremony, tactics, and strategy under the tutelage of Eugene Salignac, who used the title "colonel" and claimed to be a French army veteran.[1][5]
The war started in April 1861; on September 9, 1861, Miles enlisted in theUnion Army and was commissioned as afirst lieutenant in the22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which was organized and commanded byHenry Wilson.[1] He was commissioned alieutenant colonel of the61st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment on May 31, 1862.[1] He was promoted to the rank ofcolonel after theBattle of Antietam of September 1862.[1]
Other battles he participated in includeFredericksburg,Chancellorsville (during which he was shot in the neck and abdomen), theOverland Campaign, and the finalAppomattox Campaign, and wounded four times in battle. On March 2, 1867, Miles wasbrevetted abrigadier general in theregular army in recognition of his earlier wartime actions of 1863 at Chancellorsville. He was again brevetted, this time to the rank ofmajor general, for his documented actions at theBattle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864. Three decades later, he received theMedal of Honor on July 23, 1892, for his gallantry at Chancellorsville. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers as of May 12, 1864, for the Battles ofthe Wilderness and Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Six months after the end of the Civil War, on October 21, 1865, he was appointed a major general of volunteers at the young age of 26.[6] After the war, he was commandant ofFort Monroe, Virginia at the mouth of theHampton Roads harbor and the southern end ofChesapeake Bay and theJames River, where formerConfederate President,Jefferson Davis (1808–1889), was held prisoner. During his tenure at Fortress Monroe, General Miles was forced to defend himself against charges that Davis was being mistreated.
In July 1866, Miles was appointed a colonel in the Regular Army, confirmed by theU.S. Senate.[7] The next year, in April 1867, he was appointed assistant commissioner of the North Carolina branch of theUnited States War Department's Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, (Freedmen's Bureau), serving under Bureau Commissioner,Brigadier GeneralOliver O. Howard (1830–1909).[8] On June 30, 1868, he married Mary Hoyt Sherman (daughter ofCharles Taylor Sherman, niece of fellowUnion Army GeneralWilliam T. Sherman andU.S. SenatorJohn Sherman, and granddaughter ofCharles R. Sherman).[9] In March 1869, he became commander of the5th U.S. Infantry Regiment, a position he held for 11 years.[10]
Miles played a leading role in nearly all of theU.S. Army's campaigns of the laterAmerican Indian Wars against the nativeAmerican Indian tribes of theGreat Plains, of theMid-West, among whom he was known as "Bearcoat" (for his characteristic bearskin fur coat). In 1874–1875, he was a field commander in the force that defeated theKiowa,Comanche, and theSouthern Cheyenne along the upperRed River of the South. Between 1876 and 1877, he participated in the campaign that scoured the Northern Plains after 5 companies of the7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lt. Col.George Armstrong Custer were killed at theBattle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, and forced most theLakota Sioux tribe and their native allies onto designated federalIndian reservations. In the winter of1877, he drove his bluecoat mounted troops on a forced march across the easternMontana Territory to intercept and stop theNez Perce tribal band led byChief Joseph (1840–1904), after theNez Perce War, heading north to cross the border intoBritishCanada. For the rest of his career, General Miles would quarrel with GeneralOliver O. Howard (1830–1909), who also led the pursuing expedition over taking credit for Chief Joseph's capture. Later while on theYellowstone River, he developed expertise with the use of theheliograph for sending long-distance communications signals using sunlight and mirrors, establishing a 140-mile-long (230 km) line of stations with heliographs connecting far-flung military posts ofFort Keogh andFort Custer, in the Montana Territory in1878.[11][12] The heliographs were supplied by Brig. Gen.Albert J. Myer (1828–1880), of theU.S. Army'sSignal Corps.[13]
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In December1880, Miles was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army. He was then assigned to command the militaryDepartment of the Columbia (1881–1885) inOregon and theWashington Territory, and subsequently theDepartment of Missouri (1885–1886). In 1886, Miles replaced GeneralGeorge R. Crook (1828–1890), as commander of forces fighting againstGeronimo (1829–1909), aChiricahua Apache renegade chief / guerrilla-fighter leader, in the military'sDepartment of Arizona in the oldArizona Territory in theSouthwest. General Crook had relied heavily onApache scouts in his efforts to capture Geronimo. Instead, Miles relied instead on white regular cavalry troops, who eventually traveled 3,000 miles (4,800 km) without success as they tracked Geronimo through the tortuousSierra Madre Mountains of neighboring northernMexico. Finally, young First LieutenantCharles B. Gatewood (1853–1896), who had studied Apache culture and ways, succeeded in meeting with and negotiating a surrender of the war chief at a subsequent meeting arranged and held with General Miles, under the terms of which Geronimo and his few remaining followers agreed to temporarily spend two years in exile on aFlorida reservation far to the east. Geronimo agreed on these terms, being unaware of the real plot behind the negotiations (that there was no real intent to let them go back to their native lands in Arizona and New Mexico). The exile included even the Chiricahuas Apache scouts who had worked for the army, in violation of Miles' original agreement with them. Miles denied Lt. Gatewood any credit for the negotiations (or recommended him for a Medal of Honor) and had him transferred far north to theDakota Territory. During this campaign, Miles' special signals unit used the heliograph extensively, proving its worth in the field.[13] The special signals unit was under the command of CaptainW. A. Glassford.[13] In1888, Miles became the commander of the Army'sMilitary Division of the Pacific and theDepartment of California, headquartered atThe Presidio inSan Francisco.
Two years later in April1890, Miles was promoted to major general in the Regular Army and became the commander of theMilitary Division of the Missouri. TheGhost Dance movement of theLakota Sioux people, which started in 1889, led to thePine Ridge Campaign of the so-called Ghost Dance War and General Miles being brought back into the field. During the campaign, he commanded U.S. Army troops stationed near the several federalIndian reservations in the new state ofSouth Dakota and hoped that Lakota chiefSitting Bull could be peacefully removed from theStanding Rock Indian Reservation. However, on December 15, 1890, Chief Sitting Bull was killed byIndian agency police attempting to arrest him, and 14 days later on December 29, American cavalry troops surrounded andmassacred hundreds of Lakota Sioux atWounded Knee. Miles was not directly involved in the tragic massacre, and was critical of the Army's commanding officer of the reconstituted / reorganized and ill-fated7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in the field, ColonelJames W. Forsyth (1833–1906). Just two days after the massacre, Miles wrote to his wife, describing it as "the most abominable criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children".[14] After his retirement from the Army a decade later, he fought for compensation payments to the Lakota Sioux survivors of the massacre. Overall, however, he believed that the United States federal government should have authority over the native Indians, with the Lakota under military control.
In his capacity as commander of theDepartment of the East from 1894 to 1895, Miles commanded the troops mobilized to put down thePullman strike riots.[15] He was namedCommanding General of the United States Army in 1895, a post he held during theSpanish–American War. Miles commanded forces atCuban sites such asSiboney.
After the surrender ofSantiago de Cuba by the Spaniards, he led the invasion ofPuerto Rico,[16] landing inGuánica in what is known as thePuerto Rican Campaign. He served as the first head of the military government established on the island, acting as both heads of the army of occupation and administrator of civil affairs. Upon returning to the United States, Miles was a vocal critic of the Army's quartermaster general, Brigadier GeneralCharles P. Eagan, for providing rancid canned meat to troops in the field during what was known as theArmy beef scandal. He was promoted to the rank oflieutenant general in 1900 based on his performance in the war. Miles was an opponent of thePhilippine–American War and supported an inquiry into the brutality of American troops in the Philippines. In response, President Roosevelt called Miles a hypocrite and reminded him of his complicity in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Miles would release his own report on US atrocities in the Philippines to the public. He condemned the use of concentration camps and said the use of torture was widespread and was undertaken with the knowledge of some senior officers.[17]
To show that he was still physically able to command, on July 14, 1903, less than a month before his 64th birthday, General Miles rode the 90 miles fromFort Sill toFort Reno, Oklahoma, in eight hours' riding time (10 hrs 20 mins total), in temperatures between 90 and 100 °F (32 and 38 °C). The distance was covered on a relay of horses stationed at 10-mile intervals. This was the longest horseback ride ever made by a commanding general of the army.[18]
Called a "brave peacock" by PresidentTheodore Roosevelt,[citation needed] Miles nevertheless retired from the army in 1903 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64. Upon his retirement, the office ofCommanding General of the United States Army was abolished by an Act of Congress and theArmy Chief of Staff system was introduced. A year later, standing as a presidential candidate at theDemocratic National Convention, he received a handful of votes.[citation needed] The Prohibition Party was going to give him their nomination, but an hour before balloting he sent a telegram to the convention stating that he did not want the nomination which went toSilas C. Swallow instead.[19] When the United States enteredWorld War I in 1917, the 77-year-old general offered to serve, but PresidentWoodrow Wilson turned him down.[citation needed]
Miles died in 1925 at the age of 85 from aheart attack while attending theRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Washington, D.C., with his grandchildren. First LadyGrace Coolidge was also in attendance at the circus that day. Upon arriving at the showgrounds the general told circus ownerJohn Ringling that he never missed a circus.[20] Nelson was one of the last surviving general officers who served during the Civil War on either side.[21] He is buried atArlington National Cemetery in the Miles Mausoleum. It is one of only twomausoleums within the confines of the cemetery.George Burroughs Torrey painted his portrait.
Rank and Organization:
Citation:
General Miles was a member of several hereditary and military societies, including theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), serving as Commander-in-Chief from 1919 to 1925, theGrand Army of the Republic,Sons of the American Revolution and theMilitary Order of Foreign Wars. He was also an honorary member of the MassachusettsSociety of the Cincinnati. He was also a member of theUnion League Club of New York, where his portrait hung in the main bar area for many years.
Miles City, Montana is named in his honor,[23] as is Miles Street and the Miles Neighborhood inTucson, Arizona. Miles Canyon on theYukon River nearWhitehorse,Yukon, was named after him in 1883 by Lt.Frederick Schwatka during his exploration of the river system. Asteamship,General Miles, was likely named for him.Nelson M. Holderman, himself a Medal of Honor recipient, was also named after Miles.Fort Miles at Cape Henlopen near Lewes, Delaware, was named for Miles on 3 June 1941.
Miles' legacy as an Indian fighter has seen him portrayed byKevin Tighe in the filmGeronimo: An American Legend, byHugh O'Brian in the filmGunsmoke: The Last Apache, and byShaun Johnston in the film adaptation ofBury My Heart at Wounded Knee. There is a bust of General Miles in theMassachusetts State Capitol in Boston. General Miles' son,Sherman Miles (1882–1966), was a career Army officer who graduated from West Point in 1905 and rose to the rank of major general duringWorld War II. His daughter Cecelia was the wife of ColonelSamuel Reber II, and the mother of Miles andSamuel Reber III.
| Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
 | First Lieutenant | 22nd Massachusetts Infantry | 9 September 1861 |
 | Lieutenant Colonel | 61st New York Infantry | 31 May 1862 |
 | Colonel | 61st New York Infantry | 30 September 1862 |
 | Brigadier General | Volunteers | 12 May 1864 |
 | Brevet Major General | Volunteers | 25 August 1864 |
| Major General | Volunteers | 21 October 1865 |
| Colonel | 40th Infantry,Regular Army | 28 July 1866 |
| Brevet Major General | Regular Army | 2 March 1867 |
| Colonel | 5th Infantry, Regular Army | 15 March 1869 |
| Brigadier General | Regular Army | 15 December 1880 |
| Major General | Regular Army | 5 April 1890 |
 | Lieutenant General | Regular Army | 6 June 1900 |
| Lieutenant General | Retired List | 8 August 1903 |
Source:[24]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Commanding General of the United States Army 1895–1903 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Office created | Military Governor of Puerto Rico 1898 (Commandant) | Succeeded by |
