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Rock Island Auction Company® is Proud to Present this
Well-Documented & Historic Grouping of Medal of Honor Recipient Major General Nelson A. Miles and Captain J.R. Hegeman's Personal Armaments
When Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925) retired as the 10th and last Commanding General of the United States Army in 1903, he could reflect upon over four When Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925) retired as the 10th and last Commanding General of the United States Army in 1903, he could reflect upon over four decades of service to our country, fighting on the front lines of numerous major battles of the Civil War during which he was wounded four times earning him the respect of his men and later the Medal of Honor, leading U.S. troops during Indian Wars on the Great Plains and in the Southwest culminating in the capture of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and Geronimo of the Apache, and leading U.S. Army forces during the invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. As his career came to a close, he served as a thorn in the side of the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations, arguing on behalf of American soldiers and Native Americans alike. Though forced to retire at the age of 64 per regulations, he undertook the longest horseback ride ever taken by
a Commanding General of the Army just to show that he still had what it took to lead men in the field less than a month before he was set to retire. He covered the 90 miles between Fort Sill and Fort Reno in the sweltering mid-summer heat in 10 hours and 20 minutes. Though in his late 70s, he volunteered
to serve again with the U.S. entry into World War I, but, like Theodore Roosevelt, his offer was declined by President Woodrow Wilson. However, his son, Sherman Miles, later a major general, did serve in Europe during the “War to End All Wars.”
General Miles’s autobiography was aptly titled “Serving the Republic” and is included with the first two lots in the archive that follows. In it, Miles
included General Orders No. 116 in which he said farewell to the U.S. Army. He noted that “Unswerving devotion to our government and the principles upon which it was established and has been maintained
is essential to the efficiency of the national forces,
and especially is this so in a democratic government where the individual, in order to be a perfect soldier, must first be a true citizen.” General Miles was certainly the later.
Unlike many of the country’s famous generals, General Nelson A. Miles was not a wealthy political appointee or West Point graduate; he studied military history
and strategy at night after a day’s work as a clerk in Boston and then advanced his way up through the ranks and earned his commands from experience
on the battlefield and by demonstrating his ability
to lead and inspire his men in the face of the enemy to his own peril. He was a player in many of the
era’s most significant campaigns. As such, Miles is easily one of the 19th and early 20th century’s most notable military figures. He played a major role in the settlement of the West, American expansion outside of North America, and the country taking a leading role on the international stage.
A resident of Massachusetts, he used his own savings and borrowed funds to raise and arm a company in September 1861 and officially entered the service as volunteer first lieutenant in the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry. Less than a year later, he was lieutenant colonel of the 61st New York Infantry and within months their colonel. The sword in the second lot
of this section was presented to him in September 1863 as colonel of the 61st. Miles quickly earned a reputation for bravery and a willingness to fight.
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Major General Nelson A. Miles