Robert H. Milroy

{{short description|American lawyer}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox military person |name= Robert Huston Milroy |nickname="the Gray Eagle"<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zT76KDv2rnUC&pg=PA21 |title="My Will Is Absolute Law": A Biography of Union General Robert H. Milroy |first=Jonathan A. |last=Noyalas |publisher=McFarland |year=2006 |isbn=9780786425082 |page=21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shenandoahatwar.org/robert-milroy |title=Robert H. Milroy |publisher=[[Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District]]}}</ref> |birth_date= {{birth date|1816|6|11}} |death_date= {{death date and age|1890|3|29|1816|6|11}} |birth_place= near [[Salem, Indiana|Salem]], [[Indiana]] |death_place= [[Olympia, Washington]] |burial_place= Masonic Memorial Park, [[Tumwater, Washington]] |burial_label= Place of burial |image= Robert H. Milroy - Brady-Handy.jpg |caption= Robert H. Milroy during the war |allegiance= {{Flag|United States of America|1865}}<br/>[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] |branch= [[United States Army]]<br/>[[Union Army]] |service_years= 1846–1847; 1861–1865 |rank= [[File:Union Army major general rank insignia.svg|35px]] [[Major general (United States)|Major General]] |commands= [[9th Indiana Infantry Regiment]] |unit= |battles= [[American Civil War]] * [[Battle of Rich Mountain]] * [[Battle of McDowell]] * [[Second Battle of Winchester]] * [[Third Battle of Murfreesboro]] |awards= |other_work= |signature = Signature of Robert Huston Milroy.png }} '''Robert Huston Milroy''' (June 11, 1816 – March 29, 1890) was a lawyer, judge, and a [[Union Army]] general in the [[American Civil War]], most noted for his defeat at the [[Second Battle of Winchester]] in 1863.

==Early life== Milroy was born on a farm near the hamlet of [[Canton, Indiana|Canton]], five miles east of [[Salem, Indiana]], but the family moved to [[Carroll County, Indiana|Carroll County]] in 1826. He graduated from [[Norwich University|Norwich Academy]] in [[Vermont]] in 1843. He moved to Texas in 1845, returning to Indiana in 1847. He was a [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] in the 1st Indiana Volunteers during the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican War]], but did not see any combat action. He graduated from [[Indiana University|Indiana University Law School]] in 1850 and became a lawyer and judge in [[Rensselaer, Indiana]].

==Civil War== Just before [[Abraham Lincoln]] was inaugurated, Milroy recruited a company for the 9th Indiana Militia with men living around Rensselaer<ref>Warner, p. 326.</ref> and was appointed its captain soon after [[Battle of Fort Sumter|Fort Sumter]], but on April 27, 1861,<ref>Eicher, p. 391.</ref> he was appointed to the Federal service as [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the 9th Indiana Infantry. He took part in the [[West Virginia in the Civil War|western Virginia campaign]] under [[Major general (United States)|Maj. Gen.]] [[George B. McClellan]] and was promoted to [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] on September 3, 1861. He commanded the Cheat Mountain District of the Mountain Department and served as a [[brigade]] commander in the Mountain Department during [[Stonewall Jackson]]'s [[Jackson's Valley Campaign|Valley Campaign]] of 1862. Milroy commanded another brigade in Maj. Gen. [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]]'s [[Army of Virginia]] for the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]]. He was promoted to [[Major general (United States)|major general]] on March 10, 1863, to rank from November 29, 1862.<ref>Eicher, p. 704.</ref>

On May 8–9, 1862, Milroy led Union forces in the [[Battle of McDowell]] against Maj. Gen. [[Stonewall Jackson|Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson]]. Milroy's "spoiling attack" surprised Jackson, seized the initiative, and inflicted heavier casualties, but did not drive the Confederates from their position.

Milroy led a brigade at the [[Battle of Cross Keys]] on June 8, 1862. His brigade consisted of 5 Virginia regiments loyal to the Union (later designated as West Virginia units,) 1 Ohio regiments and 3 Ohio artillery batteries.

At Second Bull Run, Milroy faced Jackson once again; leading his brigade into a gap in the Confederate line, he managed to surprise the brigade of Brig. Gen [[Isaac Trimble]], but was driven back by reinforcements and lost 300 men in the process.

The low point of Milroy's military career was during the early days of the [[Gettysburg campaign]]. He commanded the 2nd Division of the [[VIII Corps (Union Army)|VIII Corps]], Middle Department, from February 1863 until June. During the [[Second Battle of Winchester]], he was outmaneuvered and "gobbled up" by the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] corps of [[Lieutenant General (CSA)|Lt. Gen.]] [[Richard S. Ewell]], the vanguard of Gen. [[Robert E. Lee]]'s [[Army of Northern Virginia]] on its way north to invade [[Pennsylvania]]. Although ordered to withdraw his 6,900-man garrison from [[Winchester, Virginia|Winchester]], he chose to remain in the face of the Confederate invasion, assuming that the fortifications of Winchester would withstand any assault or siege.

General-in-chief [[Henry W. Halleck]] never favored this "forward" position, so far from the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]], and he wanted Milroy to withdraw his 6,900-man garrison from [[Winchester, Virginia|Winchester]]. The commander of VIII Corps, Major General [[Robert C. Schenck|Robert Schenck]], was seemingly undecided and gave contradicting orders on the evacuation of Winchester, as Milroy convinced Schenck that he could hold Winchester and its extensive fortifications against any Confederate invasion, for months if necessary. Schenck capitulated and left Milroy with a final telegram to wait further orders. The telegraph wire into Winchester was cut by Confederate raiders.

As Ewell's Confederate Second Corps closed in on Winchester, Milroy was further blinded by the fact that his [[Vedette (sentry)|vedette]]s and pickets were not extensively placed in the surrounding territory, due to heavy and repeated bushwhacking of his men, and he never realized that an entire Confederate corps was bearing down upon him. A [[Presbyterian]] and abolitionist, Milroy believed that eradicating slavery was God's will and that secessionists needed to be punished in an [[Old Testament]] fashion.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}} His maltreatment of Winchester citizens had been such that even many pro-Unionists had changed their sympathies, serving to further isolate Milroy's ability to gather intelligence around him.<ref>Fremantle, diary entries for June 23–24. Fremantle, a British colonel on an observation trip with the Confederate army during the [[Gettysburg campaign]], noted there were many traces of Milroy's troops (and of their leader's) harsh conduct during their occupation of Winchester.</ref>{{Additional citation needed|reason= primary, biased|date=September 2025}} [[File:General Robert H. Milroy - NARA - 527012 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|Major General Robert Milroy]] On June 15, 1863, Milroy escaped with his staff, but over 3,000 of his men were captured, as were all of his artillery pieces and 300 supply wagons. He was called before a court of inquiry to answer for his actions, but after ten months he was relieved of any culpability for the debacle.

During the attack on Winchester, Milroy's horse was hit by an exploding shell. He was thrown from the saddle and bruised his left hip in the process, but did not seek any medical attention and instead merely mounted another horse.

After this period of inactivity, Milroy was transferred to the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]], recruiting for Maj. Gen. [[George Henry Thomas]]'s [[Army of the Cumberland]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]] in the spring of 1864. Much like in western Virginia, Milroy gained a reputation for his harsh treatment of civilians and frequent banishments and public executions of those who expressed pro-Confederate sympathies.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}} He also commanded the Defenses of the [[Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad]] in the Department of the Cumberland until the end of the war. Although it was not anticipated that this would be a combat assignment, he fought briefly in the [[Battle of Murfreesboro III|Third Battle of Murfreesboro]], part of the [[Franklin-Nashville Campaign]] in 1864. Anxious to reduce some of the stigma of Winchester, he ordered the 13th Indiana Cavalry to make a mounted charge directly at an enemy artillery position, assuming that it was only a portion of Maj. Gen. [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]'s dismounted cavalry. The Hoosiers suffered heavy casualties. When Milroy realized that he was facing not cavalry, but an infantry division of Maj. Gen. [[Benjamin F. Cheatham]]'s corps, he returned to the safety of "Fortress Rosecrans" in Murfreesboro. The following day General [[Lovell H. Rousseau]], commander of all Union forces in the Murfreesboro area, reinforced Milroy with two infantry brigades. Milroy attacked and routed the combined Confederate infantry and cavalry. The battle was "well conducted by Maj. Gen. Milroy" in the words of General Rousseau.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=6316|title=Rousseau's Official Report|website=murfreesboropost.com |date=January 17, 2023 }}</ref> Milroy resigned his commission on July 26, 1865.

==Postbellum career== After the war, Milroy was a trustee of the [[Wabash and Erie Canal]] Company and, from 1872 to 1875, he was the superintendent of Indian Affairs in the [[Washington Territory]] and an Indian agent for the following ten years. During this time he was active in ensuring that the aging [[Yakama]] chief, [[Chief Kamiakin|Kamiakin]], would not be evicted from his ancestral land by area ranchers. [[File:Milroy house, Olympia, Washington 1872.jpg|left|thumb|Robert's home in Olympia, Washington purchased for $5,500 circa 1872.]] Not long after the war ended, Milroy began suffering extensive pain from his hip injury at Winchester which worsened as he got older, eventually impairing his mobility and requiring him to use a cane. Doctors diagnosed his condition as chronic inflammation of the ligaments around the hip joint. Milroy died from heart failure in [[Olympia, Washington]] on May 29, 1890, and is buried in the Masonic Memorial Park at [[Tumwater, Washington]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64613068/gen-milroy-is-dead/ |title=Gen. Milroy is Dead |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |location=Olympia, Washington |page=2 |date=1890-03-30 |access-date=2020-12-04 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

He was the author of ''Papers of General Robert Huston Milroy'', published posthumously in 1965 and 1966.

==Commemoration== Milroy is the namesake of the city of [[Milroy, Minnesota]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/minnesotageogra00uphagoog/page/n469 450]}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|American Civil War}} *[[List of American Civil War generals (Union)]] *[[White Top]], on which Fort Milroy — named for the General — was emplaced.

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]], ''Civil War High Commands'', Stanford University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8047-3641-3}}. * [[Arthur Fremantle|Fremantle, Arthur Lyon]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=1YynchhHIAsC ''Three Months in the Southern States: April–June 1863''], New York: John Bradburn, 1864. * Sword, Wiley, ''The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville'', University Press of Kansas, 1992, {{ISBN|0-7006-0650-5}}. * Warner, Ezra J., ''Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders'', Louisiana State University Press, 1964, {{ISBN|0-8071-0822-7}}.

==Further reading== * Grunder, Charles S. and Brandon H. Beck, ''The Battle of Second Winchester'', H.E. Howard, Inc., {{ISBN|978-0-930919-90-0}}.

==External links== *{{Commons category-inline}} *[http://myjcpl.org/Milroy General Milroy Collection - Jasper County (Indiana) Public Library]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milroy, Robert H.}} [[Category:1816 births]] [[Category:1890 deaths]] [[Category:People from Rensselaer, Indiana]] [[Category:People from Washington County, Indiana]] [[Category:People of Indiana in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Indiana lawyers]] [[Category:United States Army officers]] [[Category:Union army generals]] [[Category:Indiana University Maurer School of Law alumni]] [[Category:Norwich University alumni]]