General David S Stanley Usa

Medical student turned professional soldier David S. Stanley offered forty years of service to his country on the western frontier and during the Civil War. He participated in some of most important Civil War battles, including the Battle of Iuka, the Battle of Corinth, the Battle of Stones Rivers, the Battle of Resaca, the Battle of Spring Hill, and the Battle of Franklin. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Franklin where he was shot while rallying his troops. Stanley was a complex individual who showed concern for his soldiers and ferocity in battle. As Rosecrans' chief of cavalry, he deserves much credit for making the Union cavalry an important and daunting power in the Western Theater. He also commanded the IV Army Corps at the end of the war. Stanley was a formidable adversary of his enemies and he clashed with William T. Sherman, Jacob Cox and William B. Hazen. This biography covers not only his military career but also his personal life, including his conversion to Roman Catholicism and problem with alcohol.

Stanley had a remarkable American military career. He started in 1853 by surveying a railroad route along the 35th parallel, and fighting the Cheyenne on Solomon's Fork and the Comanche near Fort Arbuckle. At the start of the Civil War he turned down a Confederate commission and led Federal troops in dozens of battles, including most of the battles in the Atlanta Campaign and the defense of Nashville. After the war he led the Yellowstone expedition of 1873, then served in Texas and New Mexico, covering almost the entire Indian frontier. A remarkable and truly American life.