Alfred Sully

Sully was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 22, 1820^[1] or 1821.^[2][3] His father was the famous portrait painter, Thomas Sully,^[4] and Alfred was an amateur painter who worked in watercolor and oil.^[5] By the age of 13, he was making professional sketches of subjects such as the Walnut Street Prison.^[4] He entered the United States Military Academy^[6] in 1837 as a second lieutenant in 1841.^[4]

He fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in the fall of 1842,^[4] and the Mexican-American War where he fought in the Siege of Veracruz in 1847.^[7] Between 1849 and 1853, after California fell under American jurisdiction, Sully served as chief quartermasterinMonterey, California.^[8] He created several oil and watercolor paintings that depicted the social life in Monterey at that time.^[5]

He was promoted to captain in 1852 and placed in command of Company F of the Second RegimentatFort Ridgely and Fort Pierre.^[7] He was involved in expeditions against the Rogue River Indians in 1853^[2] and led the construction of Fort Randall in 1856.^[7] He served under brigadier general William S. Harney and fought in the Battle of Ash Hollow.^[9] He left the Dakota Territory in July 1857^[10] and traveled to Europe in 1858 on detached duty to learn from their armies.^[7]

He led military actions against the Cheyenne from 1860 to 1861^[2] and was promoted to major in early 1861.^[7] He commanded US troops that occupied the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, due to secessionist uprisings.^[11]

He fought in the Peninsula campaign including at the Siege of Yorktown, the Battle of Seven Pines, the Battle of Savage's Station, the Battle of White Oak Swamp, the Battle of Malvern Hill,^[2] and sustained a minor wound at Glendale. He led a brigade at the Seven Days Battle and the Battle of Fredericksburg.^[8] He was brevetted lieutenant colonel for his performance at Seven Pines and fought at the Battle of South Mountain.^[2] He was promoted to colonel on March 4, 1862, for his actions at Malvern Hill^[2] and placed in command of the First Minnesota Regiment.^[7] Sully was promoted to brigadier general on September 26 for his actions leading his regiment at the Battle of Antietam^[12] and led a brigade in the II Corps during the Battle of Chancellorsville.^[13]

On May 1, 1863, he was removed from command by his division commander, brigadier general John Gibbon after failing to suppress a mutiny by the 34th New York when several of its companies refused to fight on the grounds that their two-year enlistment term was about to expire. Gibbon attempted to have Sully court-martialed for dereliction of duty, but a court of inquiry found him innocent of these charges. After the charges were dropped, he was sent West to the Dakota Territory to serve in the Sioux Wars.^[3]

Sully established headquarters at Sioux City, Iowa, and a base camp at Fort Pierre to stage expeditions against the Sioux. Major General John Pope ordered general Henry Hastings Sibley to march against the Sioux to drive them west toward the Missouri River, and Sully to proceed north to intercept the Sioux before they crossed the river.^[14]

On September 3, 1863, at the Battle of Whitestone Hill, his troops demolished a village of approximately 500 tipisofBlackfeet, Dakota, Hunkpapa, Lakota, and Yankton.^[15] Sully's troops killed approximately 300 native Americans and captured 250 women and children. The U.S. Army casualties were twenty-two killed and 50 wounded.^[16][8][17] In his report, Sully stated that, "I can safely say that I gave them one of the most severe punishments that the Indians have ever received."^[15]

On June 28, 1864, in response to the killing of his topographical engineer, Captain John Feilner, during a field survey, Sully ordered the heads of the two native Americans responsible placed on stakes overlooking the Missouri River as a warning.^[18][19][20]

In July 1864, Supply lead the 30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment to build Fort Rice as a base of operations for expeditions against the Sioux.^[21]

A pioneer woman named Fanny Kelly was kidnapped by the Sioux and Sully led troops to re-capture her.^[22] On July 19, 1864, Sully left Camp Rice with about 3,000 troops including those from the 1st Dakota Cavalry Battalion, 6th Iowa Cavalry Regiment, 7th Iowa Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment, and the 8th Minnesota Infantry Regiment, along the Missouri River. The caravan also included emigrants who sought the protection of U.S. troops. On July 23, Sully left the emigrants and approximately 800 troops near the Heart River and continued the expedition. At the Battle of Killdeer Mountain, he led two brigades of soldiers, approximately 2,200 men, and attacked a village of 8,000 native Americans from several tribes including Hunkpapa, Santee, Blackfoot, Yanktonai, Sans Arc, and Minneconjous near a hilltop in the Killdeer Mountains.^[23] The Sioux defenders included Sitting Bull, Gall, and Inkpaduta.^[22] The Sioux warriors repeatedly charged the U.S. troops but were repelled by gunfire.^[24] The U.S. troops fired upon the village with artillery, took possession of the hilltop,^[25] and drove the remaining Sioux into the badlands near the present-day Theodore Roosevelt National Park.^[22]

Sully regrouped and led his troops through the badlands in order to reach the Yellowstone River for resupply.^[26] Sully described the badlands as "Hell with the fires put out."^[27] The Battle of the Badlands was fought from August 7, 1864 to August 9, 1864, when the column of Sully's troops was repeatedly attacked by the Sioux. The U.S. troops suffered 9 deaths and the Sioux suffered 100. The U.S. troops pushed the Sioux into Montana which ended the fighting in the Dakota Territory.^[26]

With the end of the Civil War, Sully's commission as a brigadier general expired and he reverted to the rank of major in the regular army. From June to September 1867, he served in the Idaho Territory and fought in the Nez Perce War.^[28] In 1867, he was scrutinized for his harsh treatment of native Americans by the committee on Indian Affairs led by James R. Doolittle. Sully recommended to the committee that the Bureau of Indian Affairs should fall under military control rather than the Interior Department.^[15]

In September 1868, Sully led 500 men out of Fort Dodge and into Indian territory to punish "hostiles" responsible for raids into Kansas. However, the troops were ambushed and became exhausted hauling heavy wagon trains through dense countryside. The troops returned to Fort Dodge unsuccessful and Sully took the blame for the failure.^[6]

In November 1868, Sully and George Armstrong Custer led troops into Indian territory. The two disagreed on the military strategy of the expedition but agreed to construct Fort Supply in what is now Oklahoma. The two leaders continued to fight over who should have command on the expedition. The issue was resolved with the arrival of General Philip Sheridan who selected Custer to lead and sent Sully to Fort Harker.^[6]

In 1869, Sully was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Montana. In 1873, he was appointed colonel and given command of the 21st Infantry Regiment.^[6] Despite frequent bouts of ill health, he continued to serve in the U.S. Army until his death at Fort Vancouver on April 27, 1879. Sully was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.^[1]

Sully was married three times.

During his service as Quartermaster in Monterrey, California, he married María Manuela Antonia Jimeno y de la Guerra, the 15 year old granddaughter of the California military officer and ranchero, Jose de la Guerra y Noriega. The family initially objected to the marriage since Sully was Protestant and not wealthy and the couple eloped. The family eventually accepted the marriage and granted Sully a tract of land in California. The couple had a son together,^[3] however, soon after childbirth, Manuela died in 1852 from eating poisoned fruit, possibly from a rejected suitor. Less than three weeks after the death of his wife, his newborn son, Thomas, was accidentally strangulated.^[3][29]

From September 1856 through May 1857, while serving at Fort Pierre, he met and, by Sioux tribal custom, married a young French-Yankton girl of the Yankton Sioux tribe. With this marriage, Sully became the son-in-law of Saswe, a.k.a. François Deloria (Saswe being the Dakota pronunciation of François), a powerful Yankton medicine man and chief of the "Half-Breed band".^[30]

In 1866, Sully married Sophia Webster.^[31]

Sully's daughter by his Yankton Sioux wife, Pehanlutawinj,^[10] was named Mary Sully and also known as Akicita Win (Soldier Woman).^[11] She married Rev. Philip Joseph Deloria, an Episcopal priest, a.k.a. Tipi Sapa (Black Lodge), a leader of the Yankton/Nakota band of the Sioux Nation.^[32] Tipi Sapa is featured as one of the 98 Saints of the Ages at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as the first Dakota Christian minister to his own people.^[33] Among their descendants are ethnologist Ella Cara Deloria, artist Mary Sully,^[31] and Vine Deloria, Jr., a scholar, writer, author of Custer Died for Your Sins.^[34]

In 1864, Fort Sully was named in his honor.^[35] Sully County, South Dakota, the location of Fort Sully and was named in his honor when the town was formed in 1883.^[36]

Citations

Sources

• Deloria, Philip J. (2019). Becoming Mary Sully. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295745244.
• Kelly, Fanny (1871). Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians. Mutual Publishing Company.
• Kingsbury, David L. (1898). Sully's Expedition Against the Sioux in 1864.
• Michino, Gregory F. (2003). Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850-1890. Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-87842-468-9.
• Myers, Frank (1888). Soldiering in Dakota, Among the Indians, in 1863-4-5. Huronite Printing House.

• Barth, Aaron L. "Imagining a Battlefield at a Civil War Mistake: The Public History of Whitestone Hill, 1863 to 2013." The Public Historian, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 72–97, University of California Press, August 2013. ISSN 0272-3433, electronic ISSN 1533-8576.
• Beck, Paul Norman. "Columns of Vengeance : Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions, 1863-1864" Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, May 17, 2013. ISBN 978-0806143446
• Deloria, Vine, Jr. "Singing for a Spirit: A Portrait of the Dakota Sioux" Clear Light Publishing (August 1, 1999). ISBN 978-1574160253
• Sully, Langdon. "No Tears for the General: The Life of Alfred Sully, 1821-1879" American West Publishing Co. (1974). ISBN 978-0910118330
• Williams, Paul. The Dakota Conflict and Its Leaders, 1862-1865 - Little Crow, Henry Sibley and Alfred Sully. McFarland & Company, Inc. (2020). ISBN 978-1-4766-8069-9

• Alfred Sully Papers. Archives at Yale in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• Alfred SullyatFind a Grave
• Pictures of Alfred Sully
• Portrait of Alfred Sully, a Cadet at West Point, 1839, by his father Thomas Sully