ColonelPrentiss Ingraham (December 28, 1843 – August 16, 1904) was a colonel in theConfederate Army, amercenary throughout the 1860s, and a fiction writer.
Prentiss Ingraham, the son of Rev. Joseph Ingraham (author of A Prince of the House of David), was born nearNatchez, Mississippi inAdams County. He studied at St. Timothy's Military Academy, Maryland, and atJefferson College, Mississippi.[1]
Later he entered the Mobile Medical College, but soon quit to join theConfederate Army where he became aColonel in the Adacus Company Regiment.[2] He was also commander of scouts inLawrence Sullivan Ross' Brigade, the Texas Cavalry. After the end of the war, he went toMexico and fought withJuárez against theFrench, and still later went toSouth America.[1]
He had service with GeneralMax Hoffmann's staff in theBattle of Sadowa,Austria, in 1866 was inCrete against theTurks, and in theKhedive's army inEgypt. During 1869 he went toLondon but soon came back to the United States and enlisted with theCuban rebels against Spain, running the blockade in theHornet several times before it was surrendered to theU. S. Navy. He was a Colonel in the Cuban army as well as a Captain in their navy, and was captured, tried as afilibuster and condemned to death by the Spaniards, but escaped.[3] Ingraham relocated to the American West where he metBuffalo Bill Cody. Ingraham soon worked as an advance agent for Buffalo Bill'sWild West Show.
In 1875 he married Rose Langley.[4]
Ingraham's literary career began in London in 1869. He was the author of the novelThe Masked Spy (1872) and is known best for his Buffalo Bill series of novels. Other major novelistic series include the Buck Taylor series, Merle Monte series, and Dick Doom series. Ingraham claimed in 1900 to have written more than 600 novels.
As well as writing by his own name, Ingraham used a number ofpseudonyms including:Dr. Noel Dunbar,Dangerfield Burr,Major Henry B. Stoddard,Colonel Leon Lafitte,Frank Powell,Harry Dennies Perry,Midshipman Tom W. Hall,Lieut. Preston Graham.[3] He alsoghostwrote several works for Buffalo Bill Cody.[5]
Prentiss Ingraham spent his final days at the Beauvoir Confederate Home inBiloxi, Mississippi where he died ofBright's Disease, known to modern medicine as nephritis, on August 16, 1904, aged 60.[1]
