Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/222

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178
NELSON APPLETON MILES

first division, Humphrey's second corps; and at Reams Station he repulsed two direct attacks of a large Confederate force directed against his division. He was wounded, for the fourth time, in the attack on Petersburg. He reinforced Warren at Five Forks; and in February, 1865, when but twenty-five years old, he was temporarily in command of the 2d army corps of twenty-six thousand men. He was promoted to the rank of major-general of volunteers October 21, 1865, and was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service September 1, 1866. His brevets were as follows: major-general of volunteers, August 25, 1864 for "highly meritorious and distinguished conduct throughout the campaign and particularly for gallantry and valuable services in the battle of Reams Station, Virginia"; brigadier-general in the regular service March 2, 1867, for Chancellorsville, and major-general for Spottsylvania. He received a medal of honor as provided under act of congress approved March 3, 1863, "for distinguished gallantry in the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 3, 1863, while holding with his command a line of abattis and rifle pits against a strong force of the enemy until severely wounded; while colonel of the 61st New York volunteers, commanding a line of skirmishers in front of the first division, second army corps."

On July 28, 1866, he was commissioned colonel, United States army, and assigned to the command of the 40th United States infantry, and he accepted the assignment September 6, 1866. His chief service was against the Indians on the frontier. In conducting his campaigns wherever possible he avoided presenting large bodies of troops to view and made such disposition of his troops as to enable him to destroy or capture the foe. He was transferred to the 5th United States infantry March 15, 1869, and promoted brigadier-general, United States army, December 15, 1880, and major-general United States army, April 5, 1890. His achievements in Indian fighting were: The defeat of the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche tribes on the borders of the Staked Plains, Texas, in 1875; the subjugation of the Sioux and Nez Perces tribes in Montana in 1876; a successful campaign against the Apaches in which their chiefs Geronimo and Natchez were compelled to surrender in 1888. With Sitting Bull driven from the United States, with Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces in captivity and Geronimo and Natchez safe from doing further harm, the settlers of Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico and Arizona acknowledged their indebtedness to General