George Stoneman
| George Stoneman, Jr. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 15th Governor of California | |
|
In office January 10, 1883 – January 8, 1887 |
|
| Lieutenant | John Daggett |
| Preceded by | George C. Perkins |
| Succeeded by | Washington Bartlett |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 8, 1822 Busti, New York |
| Died | September 5, 1894 (aged 72) Buffalo, New York |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
United States of America Union |
| Service/branch |
United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1846–1871 |
| Rank |
 Major General
|
| Commands |
III Corps Cavalry Corps XXIII Corps |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
George Stoneman, Jr. (August 8, 1822 – September 5, 1894) was a United States Army cavalry officer, trained at West Point, where his roommate was Stonewall Jackson. In the Civil War, he became Adjutant to George B. McClellan, who did not appreciate the use of centralized cavalry, and was therefore outperformed by the Confederates, who did.
At Chancellorsville, under Joseph Hooker, Stoneman failed in an ambitious attempt to penetrate behind enemy lines, getting bogged down at an important river crossing. Hooker's sharp criticism of Stoneman may have been partly aimed at deflecting the heavy blame being directed at himself for the loss of this major battle that most generals believed to be winnable.
While commanding cavalry under William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia, Stoneman was captured, but soon exchanged. In the last weeks of the war, he led raids into North Carolina and Virginia that inspired the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".
During the early years after the American Civil War, Stoneman commanded occupying troops at Memphis, Tennessee, who were stationed at Fort Pickering. He had turned over control of law enforcement to the civilian government by May 1866, when the [Memphis riots broke out and the major black neighborhoods were destroyed. When the city asked for help, he suppressed the white rioting with use of federal troops.
He was subsequently posted to Yuma, Arizona Territory, where he played a role in the "Camp Grant massacre," which occurred in 1871. According to historian Abraham Ruddell Byrd, M.D., The official story (still the one in all the history books) is that a group of racist Anglos, Mexicans and Papago (now Tohono O’Odham) Indians attacked a peaceful village of Apaches who were living under truce close to an Army post at Camp Grant in Aravaipa Canyon. They attacked without warning and murdered 106 people, almost all women and children. Officials in Washington were outraged and demanded that the ringleaders be tried for murder. Only the Anglo ‘ringleader’ – William Oury - was tried and he was acquitted by a jury in Tucson. One more of the long sad story of centuries of oppression and near genocide by the Europeans and their descendants against the American Indian.
...
Wikipedia