DAVID SLOANE STANLEY:
An Inventory of His Memoirs and Related Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Stanley, David Sloane, 1828-1902, creator. | |
| Title: | Memoirs and related papers, | |
| Dates: | 1862-1897. | |
| Abstract: | Reminiscent papers focusing especially on the Civil War experiences of a career officer (breveted major general) in the U.S. Army. | |
| Quantity: | 0.2 cubic feet (1 box, containing 1 v.). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description section for shelf location. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Stanley was born (1828) in Chester, Ohio; graduated from West Point (1852); served at various army posts (1852-1861) in Texas, California, Kansas, and Arkansas; and fought in the Civil War, with major engagements at Corinth (1862), the Atlanta Campaign, and in Tennessee (1864). Stanley was mustered out in 1866, served in Indian campaigns in the West, and led an expedition (1873) to the Yellowstone River. He retired from the army in 1892 and died in Washington, D.C. in 1902. His military promotions were to captain (March 1861), to brigadier general (Sept. 1861), and to major general (Nov. 1862).
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. David Sloane Stanley Memoirs and Related Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 3466
Processing Information:
Processed by: Kathryn A. Johnson, December 1997
Catalog ID number: 990017349830104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| P2262 | 1 | Folder 1. | |||||||||
| Biographical sketches of Stanley from published sources. Photocopies. | |||||||||||
| Official Report of Brigadier General D. S. Stanley Comanding 2nd Division Army of Mississippi relating to part sustained by his command in battle of Corinth on 4th October, 1862. Unsigned manuscript. | |||||||||||
| The report describes the military actions from September 29-October 1862 of the First Brigade at Camp Jacinto Rienze, Tuscumbia River, and Corinth, with information on marches, skirmishes, capture of Confederate soldiers, military maneuvers, numbers of men killed, and notes on the deaths of some of the commanders. Brief mention is made of the actions of the Fifth Minnesota Regiment (pp. 2-3, 5, 8), with complimentary remarks concerning its colonel, Lucius F. Hubbard. | |||||||||||
| Newspaper clippings, 1889, 1887. 4 items. Photocopies. | |||||||||||
| Three clippings relate to Stanley's disagreement with statements made about him in Jacob D. Cox's The March to the Sea, Franklin, Nashville. The other article concerns Seth Low's actions as mayor of New York. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| P2262 | 1 | Volume 1. Memoirs, by David S. Stanley, circa 1893-1903. Typed copy. 349 p., bound. | |||||||||
| The memoirs contain detailed reminiscences on his life from his birth in Ohio through his military career as a cavalry officer on the Great Plains and in the Civil War. | |||||||||||
| Pages 1-71 contain memories of his home in Chester, Ohio and the family's subsequent residences in Wayne, Stark, and Richland counties. There are many descriptions of visits with relatives, farm life, his maternal grandparents, hunting, clearing of land, timber, construction of log cabins, schools, churches, spinning, making clothes, flour manufacturing, economic growth after the construction of the Erie Canal, weather, construction of Conestoga wagons (1830s), newspapers, influx of settlers from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York, Germans and Irish, land values, and the organization of local militias. | |||||||||||
| In 1842 Stanley's mother died and his father remarried and moved to Indiana. Stanley then lived with a Dr. Firestone of Congress, Ohio until 1846, at which time he began medical studies under Firestone. Meanwhile, Stanley attended the Canaan Academy (1843) and taught school until 1848. During this period the Mexican War broke out and Stanley describes the raising of troops and relates some information on the war itself. He also describes Horace Mann and his new educational methods. | |||||||||||
| In May 1848, Stanley was appointed to West Point Military Academy, which began his lifelong career in the army. While at the Academy, his class included a number of men who would later serve in the Civil War, including Philip Sheridan and Jerome Bonaparte. There are descriptions of General Winfield S. Scott, and interesting observations on life as a cadet. After his graduation from West Point, he was sent to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where he joined the cavalry. | |||||||||||
| Stanley was chosen in 1853 to accompany, as quartermaster, a surveying party to build a railroad to the Pacific Coast, beginning at Fort Smith, Arkansas and ending at San Diego, California. There are descriptions of the trip down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, then to the Arkansas River, arriving at Fort Smith on July 1. Escorted by the Seventh Infantry the expedition started out on July 24, and travelled along the Rio Grande and thence into New Mexico and Arizona, arriving at San Diego on March 26, 1854. There are detailed descriptions of the countryside, the Rio Grande, Albuquerque, Arizona, and the Chickasaws, Kiowas, Zuni, Mojave, and other southwestern Indian tribes. | |||||||||||
| Following the end of the survey, Stanley spent some time in San Francisco, giving a few comments on the gold rush settlers, and left California in May 1854. He arrived in New York, via the Pacific Ocean and Panama in June 1854. | |||||||||||
| Stanley was then ordered to the Second Dragoons at Fort Chadbourne, Texas and later (1855) he was transferred to the First Cavalry. From that time until 1861 he was stationed at a number of forts on the Great Plains, including Forts Arbuckle, Cobo, and Washita (Oklahoma); Chadbourne (Texas); Jefferson Barracks (Missouri); Randall (South Dakota); Leavenworth (Kansas); Laramie (Wyoming); Kearney (Nebraska); and Smith (Arkansas). During this time the memoirs describe skirmishes with the Indian tribes; reminiscences of Dallas, Texas; hunting bears and panthers; his meeting with artist Seth Eastman at Fort Chadbourne (p.135); reflections on the Kansas-Nebraska boundary dispute and the pro- and anti- slavery actions there; expeditions against the Indians in Wyoming and Colorado, with descriptions of buffalo hunting; the expedition to Utah (1858) relating to the Mormons; the expulsion of 6,000 Indians from Texas, with examples of white swindling of Indian food and supplies (p. 165). Reminiscences for the period (1859-1861) at Fort Smith describe food, game, animals -- including wolves and lynx -- the migration of buffalo herds (p. 167), the activities of pro- and anti-slavery forces in Arkansas, and the beginnings of the Civil War. | |||||||||||
| With the outbreak of the war, the army at Fort Smith was disbanded and Stanley was made captain of Company C, First Cavalry, which joined the troops at Fort Washita (Oklahoma), and engaged in skirmishes and assisted Union sympathizers in leaving Confederate territory. He was then transferred to First Infantry. At this time he makes critical comments on Union generals, particularly John C. Fremont (pp. 190-196), Nathaniel Lyon (pp. 191-192), and William T. Sherman (pp. 197-198), and cites examples of poorly made goods and dishonesty in the army. | |||||||||||
| In 1862 Stanley was assigned to the Army of Mississippi under General John C. Pope. There are minute details on the battles of New Madrid, Island No. 10, Shiloh, and Corinth. He was then attached to General Grant's army to begin the capture of Vicksburg, and then to Tennessee where he served under General Rosecrans at the battles of Nashville, Mufreesboro, Tullahoma, Shelbyville, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and other areas in Tennessee (1863-1864). | |||||||||||
| In 1863 the Army of Cumberland disbanded and Stanley was assigned to the First Division, Fourth Army Corps. From that point until the end of the war, the memoirs recount the battles of Atlanta, and in Nashville, Chattanooga, and Franklin, and the final battles of the war in Tennessee and North Carolina. | |||||||||||
| After the war some regiments were disbanded and others, including Stanley's, were sent to San Antonio, Texas to support diplomatic protests of French interference in Mexico (relating to the Emperor Maximillian). Following this, the corps disbanded. | |||||||||||
| The reminiscences of the Civil War period contain Stanley's sometimes critical opinions on generals including Thomas J. Wood and Jacob D. Cox; the death of Confederate General John Morgan (p. 232-233); and a long discourse on Cox's reports on the battle of Franklin, Tennessee (1864), in which Stanley cites errors in the report. There is also mention of reaction to Lincoln's death (p. 334) and Stanley's opinion of President Andrew Johnson, centering on Johnson's alleged alcoholism and his Southern sympathies. | |||||||||||
| Also bound in at the beginning of the volume is a printed memorial (March 26, 1902) upon Stanley's death from the directors of the Twentieth Century Mining Company, Boston. Stanley had been a vice president of the firm. | |||||||||||
| There is some question concerning the date of the composition of the memoirs. The first page of the volume is dated July 3, 1893. In the text (p. 90) the following statement appears: "at this date of writing, April 29, 1896...." | |||||||||||
RELATED MATERIALS
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Cavalry -- United States.
- Fortification -- United States.
- Frontier and pioneer life -- Ohio.
- Great Plains.
- Home -- Ohio.
- Indians of North America -- Government relations.
- Indians of North America -- Great Plains.
- Indians of North America -- Removal.
- Indians of North America -- Southwest, New.
- Military cadets -- New York -- Education.
- Militia.
- Mormons -- Utah.
- Pioneers -- Ohio.
- Railroads -- United States -- Surveying.
- Slavery in the United States.
- Places:
- California -- Description and travel.
- Corinth (Miss.), Battle of, 1862.
- Mexican War, 1846-1848.
- Mexico -- European intervention, 1861-1867.
- Ohio -- Description and Travel.
- Southern States -- Description and Travel.
- Texas -- Description and Travel.
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns.
- United States -- History -- Civil War -- Campaigns -- Franklin (Tenn.), Battle of, 1862.
- United States -- History -- Civil War -- Personal narratives.
- Persons:
- Cox, Jacob D. (Jacob David), 1828-1900.
- Fremont, John Charles, 1813-1890.
- Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1890.
- Lyon, Nathaniel, 1818-1861.
- Morgan, John Hunt, 1825-1864.
- Rosecrans, William S. (William Starke), 1819-1898.
- Sheridan, Philip, 1831-1888.
- Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891.
- Organizations:
- Confederate States of America. Army.
- United States. Army.
- United States. Army. -- Minnesota Infantry Regiment, 5th (1861-1865).
- United States. Army. Officers.
- United States. Army. Military life.
- United States Military Academy.
- Types of Documents:
- Reminiscences.
- Occupations:
- Generals -- United States.
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