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(November 10, 1867–December 16, 1890)
Militia Officer, Army General
After a distinguished Civil War career, Alfred Howe Terry was one of the few volunteer generals to remain in the regular army. He commanded the Department of Dakota throughout the Sioux War of 1876 and bore the criticism and controversy arising from the disastrous defeat at Little Bighorn strongly and in silence. Although he did not attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Terry flourished on account of merit and is regarded as one of the most capable senior officers to lead on the western frontier.
Terry was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 10, 1867, the scion of an old New England family. In 1848, he briefly attended Yale Law School but quit a year later after being admitted to the state bar. From 1854 to 1860, he clerked at the New Haven County court and also served as an officer in a local militia unit, rising to colonel. When the Civil War began in April 1861, Terry’s unit passed into service as the Second Regiment of Connecticut Militia, and its recruits enlisted for 90 days. He led the regiment competently at Bull Run that July, and two months later he helped recruit a new regiment, the Seventh Connecticut Infantry, which mustered into federal service for three years. Terry fought at the capture and occupation of Port Royal, South Carolina, in November 1861 and also distinguished himself during the capture of Fort Pulaski in April 1862. In light of his good performance, he was appointed garrison commander and promoted to brigadier general of volunteers. Terry next deployed at Charleston, South Carolina, where he rendered useful service in the many maneuvers and attacks on that city. In December 1863, he transferred over to Gen. Ben Butler’s Army of the James, then operating in Virginia. Terry’s division fought well in many unsuccessful actions against Richmond and Petersburg, and covered the army’s withdrawal following the defeat at Drewry’s Bluff in May 1864. Accordingly, he was promoted to brevet major general of volunteers in August 1864 and rose to command the X Corps in the Army of the James. In December 1864, Butler, in concert with the fleet of Adm. David D. Porter, made an unsuccessful and halfhearted attempt to storm Fort Fisher outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. This was the last Southern port to remain open during the war and a target of strategic significance. Butler was consequently dismissed, and Terry was ordered to succeed him. After a continuous three-day pounding by Porter’s fleet, Terry landed and stormed Fort Fisher in a brilliant action, taking 2,000 prisoners and 165 cannon on January 15, 1865. For this action, he obtained the thanks of Congress and a promotion to brigadier general in the regular army, despite the fact he never served in it. After occupying Wilmington, Terry subsequently operated with Gen. John M. Schofield’s Army of the Ohio and marched inland to link up with Gen. William T. Sherman at Goldsboro, North Carolina. Shortly after the war ended, he rose again to full major general of volunteers before mustering into the regular service.
Terry briefly commanded the Department of Virginia in 1865, but the following year he transferred to the Department of Dakota, where he remained for three years. In 1869, he headed the Department of the South in Georgia during Reconstruction, restoring civil order and suppressing Ku Klux Klan activities. Terry transferred back to the Department of Dakota in 1872 as white settlers and prospectors were invading the Black Hills region, which was sacred to the Sioux Indians. When Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull refused relocation to reservations, war erupted on the plains and Philip H. Sheridan, commanding the Division of the Missouri, ordered a three-pronged expedition against the insurgents. Terry led the column marching west out of North Dakota with orders to link up with Gen. George Crook and Col. John Gibbon. His principal subordinate, the flamboyant Lt. Col. George A. Custer, was originally supposed to lead one of the columns on Terry’s behalf. However, when Custer implicated the brother of President Ulysses S. Grant in a profiteering scheme involving army post traderships, Grant relieved him of command. Terry, however, intervened on his behalf and the president relented, but only allowed Custer to lead his own regiment. In June 1876, Terry dispatched Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry on a scouting mission along the Bighorn River to locate the enemy’s position. On June 25, Custer exceeded his orders by attacking a large Indian encampment and was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Terry’s men arrived the next day and rescued the survivors under Maj. Marcus A. Reno and Capt. Frederick W. Benteen. Thereafter, he took no part in the controversy surrounding Custer’s actions and accepted full responsibility for the tragedy. Subsequent campaigning wore down Indian resistance until Sitting Bull fled with a few hundred survivors into Canada. In 1877, Terry parleyed with the recalcitrant chief at Fort Walsh, Canada, and failed to convince him to return. The following year, he also sat with a board of officers that reexamined the court-martial and conviction of Gen. Fitz John Porter. Terry then resumed administering the Department of Dakota until March 1886, when he was promoted to major general and succeeded Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock as commander of the Division of the Missouri, headquartered in Chicago. Poor health prompted Terry to resign his commission in April 1888, and he returned to Connecticut. He died in New Haven on December 16, 1890, one of the most outstanding citizen-soldiers of the 19th century.
Bibliography
Bailey, John W., Pacifying the Plains: General Alfred Terry and the Decline of the Sioux, 1866–1890, 1979; Darling, Roger, A Sad and Terrible Blunder: General Terry and Custer at the Little Big Horn, 1990; Gragg, Rod, Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher, 1991; Majeske, Penelope A., “Your Obedient Servant”: The United States Army in Virginia during Reconstruction, 1865–1867,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1980; Marino, Carl W., “General Alfred Howe Terry: Soldier from Connecticut,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1968; Robertson, William G., Backdoor to Richmond: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, April-June, 1864, 1987; Robinson, Charles M., Hurricane of Fire: The Union Assault on Fort Fisher, 1998; Schiller, Herbert M., Sumter Is Avenged! The Siege and Reduction of Fort Pulaski, 1995; Terry, Alfred A., The Field Diary of General Alfred H. Terry: The Yellowstone Expedition—1876, 1970; Terry, Alfred A., The Terry Letters: The Letters of Gen. Alfred H. Terry to His Sisters during the Indian War of 1876, 1980.
