Nelson A. Miles Biography Quotes 19 Report mistakes

Early Life
Nelson Appleton Miles was born on August 8, 1839, in Westminster, Massachusetts. Raised in a New England farming community, he developed an early interest in military history and tactics through avid reading while working as a store clerk in Boston. Like many young men of his generation, he entered adulthood on the eve of the American Civil War, a moment that would propel him from civilian life into a career of national prominence in uniform.

Civil War Service
Miles volunteered for the Union Army in 1861 and quickly distinguished himself for energy and resourcefulness. Commissioned first as a junior officer, he soon transferred to the 61st New York Infantry, rising to colonel before his twenty-fourth birthday. Serving in the Army of the Potomac's II Corps under leaders such as Winfield Scott Hancock and Andrew A. Humphreys, he fought in many of the war's pivotal battles, including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and the Petersburg operations. He was wounded multiple times, yet repeatedly returned to the front.

His leadership at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, displayed the determination and initiative for which he became known, and years later it earned him the Medal of Honor. Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in 1864 and to major general of volunteers in 1865, he gained a reputation for tactical steadiness and personal bravery. The final campaigns of 1864, 1865, conducted under generals Ulysses S. Grant and George G. Meade, saw Miles play consequential roles in hard-fought actions that led to the Confederate surrender. By war's end, he was one of the most prominent young generals to emerge from the volunteer ranks, having also received brevets in the Regular Army for gallant service.

Transition to the Regular Army and the Frontier
After Appomattox, Miles accepted a commission in the postwar Regular Army as part of the downsized but reorganizing national force. He held infantry commands and, like many Civil War veterans, was assigned to the western frontier during a period of deep conflict between the United States and numerous Indigenous nations. On the Southern Plains in the mid-1870s, he participated in campaigns intertwined with those of Ranald S. Mackenzie and others against Comanche, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne groups. He proved adept at winter campaigning and logistical coordination across vast, austere distances.

In the northern plains, Miles established a base of operations at Fort Keogh in the Montana Territory, a hub that anchored U.S. presence after the tumultuous years surrounding the Little Bighorn defeat. He engaged Lakota and Northern Cheyenne forces and fought the Battle of Wolf Mountain in January 1877 against warriors associated with Crazy Horse. Later that same year, he pursued the Nez Perce during their epic flight toward Canada. Working in tandem and sometimes in rivalry with Oliver O. Howard, Miles intercepted Chief Joseph's band at the Bear Paw Mountains in October 1877. The ensuing battle and negotiations led to Joseph's surrender, an event that reverberated nationally through the chief's eloquent appeals and through scrutiny of U.S. policy.

Arizona Command and the Geronimo Surrender
In the 1880s Miles held departmental commands that brought him into the center of conflict in the Southwest. In 1886 he was assigned to replace George Crook in managing operations against the renegade Chiricahua leader Geronimo. While Crook had previously come close to securing a lasting settlement, the campaign had stalled. Miles reorganized pursuit efforts, made skillful use of Apache scouts, and relied on the courage and credibility of officers such as Lieutenant Charles Gatewood, whose perilous field mission helped persuade Geronimo and his followers to lay down their arms. The final surrender, under Miles's overall authority, ended one of the most protracted episodes of the so-called Indian Wars and cemented his national reputation as a relentless yet negotiation-minded commander.

Ghost Dance Crisis and Ethical Stance
By the late 1880s and early 1890s, as a senior general, Miles oversaw large geographic commands on the plains. During the Ghost Dance crisis of 1890, he advocated a combination of firmness and restraint. After the tragic events at Wounded Knee, where men of the 7th Cavalry under Colonel James W. Forsyth killed hundreds of Lakota, including women and children, Miles expressed strong criticism of the conduct of the operation. He relieved Forsyth temporarily pending inquiry, and his correspondence on the matter signaled his view that military force must be subordinate to law, discipline, and humane policy. His stance during this period distinguished him among contemporaries, even as the nation wrestled fitfully with the legacy of its expansionist policies.

Commanding General of the U.S. Army
In 1895 President Grover Cleveland appointed Miles as Commanding General of the U.S. Army, the highest post in the service at that time. He entered the role emphasizing modernization, training, and readiness. When war with Spain broke out in 1898, he worked closely with President William McKinley and Secretary of War Russell A. Alger to mobilize volunteers and regulars on a scale not seen since the Civil War. Miles himself led the Puerto Rico expedition, landing at Guanica on July 25, 1898, coordinating with the Navy and moving swiftly to seize key towns such as Ponce. Hostilities ended quickly under a cease-fire, and the campaign's relatively low casualties contrasted with the heavy disease and supply problems that afflicted U.S. forces elsewhere.

After the war, Miles publicly criticized the Army's procurement of substandard canned meat, a controversy remembered as the "embalmed beef" scandal. His stance put him at odds with Alger and touched on broader concerns about supply, sanitation, and professional standards. As the United States assumed overseas responsibilities in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, Miles conducted inspections and raised concerns about the conduct of counterinsurgency operations, including the reported use of coercive interrogation methods in the Philippines. His insistence on professional accountability brought him into further tension with Secretary of War Elihu Root and, eventually, with President Theodore Roosevelt, who championed sweeping administrative reforms.

Reform Era and Retirement
Root's reorganization created a modern general staff system and, in 1903, replaced the old post of Commanding General with a Chief of Staff. Though Miles supported many forms of modernization throughout his career, he strongly defended the prerogatives of the traditional command structure and resisted changes he believed undermined direct military leadership. Upon reaching the statutory retirement age in 1903, he left active service and was succeeded in the new framework by Lieutenant General Samuel B. M. Young as the Army's first Chief of Staff. The passage from Miles's tenure to the Root reforms symbolized a generational shift from Civil War veterans to a twentieth-century professional model.

Personal Life
Miles married Mary Hoyt Sherman in 1868. She was a niece of General William Tecumseh Sherman and Senator John Sherman, a connection that placed Miles within a family deeply engaged in national service and politics. Their household bridged military society and Washington public life, and Mary's counsel and social presence were noted assets to Miles's career. They had children, including a son, Sherman Miles, who followed his father into the Army and in time became a general officer in his own right. The family's multigenerational military service reinforced Nelson A. Miles's public image as both warrior and institution builder.

Writings, Public Engagement, and Later Years
A reflective and prolific officer, Miles wrote extensively to explain his decisions and to chronicle the Army's transformation across half a century. His published works, including a major memoir widely known as Personal Recollections and Observations, offered a sweeping narrative from the Civil War through the frontier campaigns and the Spanish-American War. In the years after retirement, he lectured on national defense, advocated preparedness, and followed world events closely. When the United States entered World War I, he expressed willingness to serve again, but age foreclosed any official role. He remained a respected elder statesman of the Army, often in conversation with contemporaries about the lessons of strategy, logistics, and civil-military relations.

Death and Legacy
Nelson A. Miles died on May 15, 1925, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His legacy is complex and consequential. He was a decorated Civil War combat leader who rose from volunteer officer to the Army's top post; a frontier commander whose campaigns against Indigenous nations were decisive and controversial; a reform-minded modernizer who nonetheless resisted administrative changes he believed ill-suited to the profession of arms; and a senior leader who did not hesitate to challenge superiors, from Russell A. Alger to Elihu Root and Theodore Roosevelt, when he thought the Army's standards or ethics at risk. Place names such as Miles City, Montana, and the enduring study of battles like Wolf Mountain, Bear Paw, and the Puerto Rico expedition testify to his imprint on American military history. Through his writings and the service of those around him, from Oliver O. Howard and George Crook to Charles Gatewood, and from Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, and Geronimo to colleagues like Winfield Scott Hancock and Andrew A. Humphreys, the life of Nelson A. Miles continues to illuminate the turbulent passage of the United States from civil war through continental conquest and into the era of global power.

Our collection contains 19 quotes who is written by Nelson, under the main topics: Justice - Freedom - Equality - Human Rights - War.

Other people realated to Nelson: Sitting Bull (Statesman), Elihu Root (Lawyer), John Gibbon (Soldier)