US soldier, born near Dayton, Ohio, USA. A tough, fearless soldier and an efficient commander, he trained at West Point (1852) and obtained several important commands during the Civil War. He led a Union brigade at Antietam, MD (1862) and a corps under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley (1864), where he fought at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. Best-remembered as a fighter against the Indians, he pacified Apaches under Cochise (18713) and, during the Sioux War (1876), was defeated by Crazy Horse at Rosebud Creek. Crook's forces remained in the field for nearly a year during the Sioux campaign, an epic of hardship and endurance, and later fought Geronimo's Apaches in Arizona (18823). For all his fierceness in battle, he was more prone to pardon than to punish, according to one authority. Unlike many fellow officers, he respected his Indian adversaries and believed they should be granted the full privileges of citizenship.
George Crook (September 8, 1828 – March 21, 1890) was a career U.S. Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.
Early life
Crook was born to Thomas and Elizabeth Matthews Crook on a farm near Taylorsville, Ohio (near Dayton).
He was graduated from the West Point in 1852 ranking near the bottom of his class.
Civil War
Early Service
When the U.S. Civil War broke out, Crook accepted a commission as Colonel of Ohio's 36th regiment and led it on duty in western Virginia. Crook saw action at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam.
General Crook commanded a cavalry division in the Army of the Cumberland at the battle of Chickamauga, and then returned to the eastern front as chief of the Kanawah Division.
Southwest Virginia
To open the spring campaign of 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant sent for Brigadier General Crook, in winter quarters at Charleston, West Virginia, and ordered him to attack the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, Richmond's primary link to Knoxville and the southwest, and to destroy the Confederate salt works at Saltville, Virginia.
The 35-year-old Crook, the most magnificently whiskered Civil War general on either side, reported to army headquarters at City Point, Virginia, where the commanding general explained the mission in person. Grant instructed Crook to march his force, the Kanawha Division, against the railroad at Dublin, Virginia, 140 miles south of Charleston. When these actions were accomplished, along with the destruction of the salt works, Crook was to march east and join forces with Major General Franz Sigel, who meanwhile was to be driving south up the Shenandoah Valley.
After long dreary months of garrison duty, the men were ready for action. Crook did not reveal the nature or objective of their mission, but everyone sensed that something important was brewing.
On April 29, 1864, the Kanawha Division marched out of Charleston and headed south. Crook sent a force under Brigadier General William W. In places, Crook's engineers had to build bridges across wash-outs before the army could advance.
The Confederates at Dublin soon learned the enemy was approaching.
Breaking camp on the morning of May 9, Crook moved his men south to the top of a spur of Cloyd's Mountain.
Crook dispatched the third brigade under Colonel Carr B. Crook stationed himself with Hayes' brigade, which was to lead the assault. After a long, anxious wait, Hayes at last heard cannon fire off to his left and led his men at a slow double time out onto the meadow and into the rebels' musketry and artillery fire, which Crook called "galling".
The only man to have trouble with the creek was General Crook.
The Yankees rounded up rebel prisoners by the hundreds and seized General Jenkins, who had fallen wounded. General Crook was unable to provide leadership as the excitement and exertion had sent him into a faint.
Colonel Hayes kept his head and organized a force of about 500 men from the soldiers milling about the site of their victory.
While the fight at Cloyd's Mountain was going on, a train pulled into the Dublin station and disgorged 500 fresh troops of General John Hunt Morgan's cavalry, which had just defeated Averell at Saltville. Within a few minutes General Crook arrived with the rest of the division, and the defenders broke and ran.
Cloyd's Mountain cost the Union army 688 casualties, while the rebels suffered 538 killed, wounded, and captured.
Unopposed, Crook moved his command into Dublin, where he laid waste to the railroad and the military stores.
The Confederates, now commanded by Colonel McCausland, waited on the east side of the New River to defend the bridge. Crook pulled up on the west bank, and a long, ineffective artillery duel ensued. Seeing that there was little danger from the rebel cannon, Crook ordered the bridge destroyed, and both sides watched in awe as the structure collapsed magnificently into the river.
General Crook, supplies running low in a country not suited for major foraging, now entertained second thoughts about his orders to push on east and join Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley. Lee had beaten Grant badly in the Wilderness, which led him to consider whether the Confederate commander might not soon move against Crook with a vastly superior force.
Having accomplished the major part of his mission, destruction of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, Crook turned his men north and after another hard march, reached the Union base at Meadow Bluff, West Virginia.
Shenandoah Valley
The following August, Crook took command of the Department and Army of Western Virginia, the forces of which became the VIII Corps in Major General Philip Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah. Crook led his corps in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 at the battles of Opequon (Third Winchester), Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.
In February, 1865, General Crook was captured by Confederate raiders at Cumberland, Maryland, and held as a prisoner of war in Richmond until exchanged a month later, when he took command of a cavalry division in the Army of the Potomac during the Appomattox Campaign.
Indian Wars
At the end of the Civil War, George Crook received a brevet as Major General in the regular army, but reverted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, serving with the 23rd Infantry on frontier duty in the Pacific Northwest. Grant placed Crook in command of the Arizona Territory. Crook's use of Apache scouts brought him much success in forcing the Apache Indians, under chief Cochise onto reservations. In 1872 the Arizona Territory was at peace and Crook was appointed brigadier general in the regular army, a promotion that passed over and angered several full colonels next in line for promotion to general.
By 1882, Crook was back in command in Arizona. Crook repeatedly forced the surrender of the Apaches but saw Geronimo escape. The Apache, as a mark of respect, nicknamed Crook Nantan Lupan, which means "Grey Fox". Miles replaced Crook in command of the Arizona Territory and brought an end to the Apache Wars when he sent Geronimo, the Chiricahua Apache tribe and the Chiricahua scouts serving in the U.S. Army into exile in Florida. (Crook was reportedly furious and appalled that the scouts, who had faithfully served the Army against their own tribe, were sent as well and telegrammed numerous protests to Washington.) After years of campaigning in the Indian Wars, Crook won steady promotion back up the ranks to the permanent grade of Major General, and President Grover Cleveland placed him in command of the Department of the West in 1888.
The Indian chief, Red Cloud said of Crook when he died, "he never lied to us.
In memoriam
Crook County, Wyoming, and Crook County, Oregon is named in George Crook's honor.
Crook Walk in Arlington National Cemetery is near George Crook's gravesite.
Fort Crook (1857 – 1869) was an Army post near Glenburn, California, used during the Indian Wars, and later for the protection of San Francisco during the Civil War. It was named for then Lt. Crook by Captain John W.
Fort Crook (1890 – 1946) was an Army Depot in Bellevue, Nebraska, first used as a dispatch point for Indian conflicts on the Great Plains, then later as an airfield for the 61st Balloon Company of the Army Air Corp. Crook due to his many successful Indian campaigns in the west.
In popular media
Crook was portrayed by Peter Coyote in the television series Deadwood.
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