American soldier, born near Dayton, OH, on the 8th of September 1828. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he entered upon active service with the Fourth Infantry in California in 1852. From 1852 to 1861 he participated in various expeditions against the Indians, during one of which he was wounded by an arrow. At the breaking out of the Civil War he became colonel of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Infantry, and subsequently commanded the Third Provisional Brigade in the West Virginia campaigns. In the summer of 1862 he was engaged in the Virginia and Maryland campaigns, and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, United States army. On July 1, 1863, he was transferred to the Second Cavalry division, and participated in the battles of Tullahoma and Chickamauga. In February 1864, he was assigned to the command of the Kanawha district in western Virginia, and in the latter part of that year took part in Sheridan’s celebrated Shenandoah campaign. In March 1865, he was brevetted major-general, and was in command of the cavalry of the army of the Potomac until the close of the war. He was mustered out of the volunteer service in January 1866, and shortly afterward was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-third Infantry, United States army, and sent to Idaho to settle the Indian disturbances. During the six years which followed, General Crook was engaged actively in Indian campaigns. In 1872 he went to Arizona, and compelled the Pi-Utes and Apaches to submit, and in 1875 he subdued the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Northwest. In 1882 he drove the Mormons and squatters from the Indian lands upon which they had encroached, and in the following year forced the Chiricahuas to cease their depredations. In this latter campaign General Crook marched over two hundred miles, made over four hundred hostiles prisoners, and captured all their horses and plunder. He was made brigadier-general in 1873, and in 1888 was promoted major-general, United States army. He introduced many reforms in the management of the Indians, the principal one being to compel the contractors to pay the Indians in cash for supplies, instead of store orders. Under his vigorous management the tribes speedily became self-supporting. He died on the 31st of March 1890.
