USMA Class of 1865. Cullum No. 2063.
USMA Post Cemetery staff have verified that his remains were interred at West Point on October 25, 1909 and the cemetery has no record that his remains were removed elsewhere.
There is a cenotaph for him at Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan where his parents are interred.
He was the son of Alfred Gould Bates and Elizabeth Elliott Bates.
On December 1, 1875 as Alfred Bates, he married Caroline E. McConkle at Manhattan, New York.
They were the parents of two children including Eliza Morgan Bates Swift (1879-1923).
The Evening Star Friday, October 15, 1909
Washington, D.C.
To Rest at West Point
The body of Major General Alfred E. Bates, formerly Paymaster General of the Army, who died in New York last Wednesday, probably will be buried in the cemetery attached to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Forty-First Annual Reunion Of The Association of Graduates Of The United States Military Academy, June 14, 1910.
He died in New York City – suddenly as he had wished he might – and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Thirty-Ninth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 12th 1908
Alfred E. Bates
No. 2063. Class Of 1865.
Died, October 13, 1909, at New York, New York, aged 69.
Alfred Elliott Bates was born on his father's farm, near Monroe, Michigan, July 15, 1840 and until his ambition to enter the Military Academy at West Point, New York, was gratified by his designation to a cadetship at that most democratic of our specialized institutions of learning, passed his younger years in the varied employments of a prosperous farmer's boy.
Admitted to the academy in July 1861 he graduated a few months after the termination of our momentous struggle of 1861-1865; was assigned to the Cavalry - an arm of service most suited to his energetic temperament - and entered upon the practical duties of a soldier as Second Lieutenant, Second Cavalry, in June 1865. Quickly promoted First Lieutenant in October of the same year, he attained his Captaincy, with the command of Troop B, in the same regiment in 1869.
After four years active service on the western frontier, Captain Bates was recalled to West Point and for four years performed the duties pertinent to his detail as Instructor of Cavalry Tactics. But it was on rejoining his old regiment at the termination of this agreeable detail on the banks of the Hudson - the site so wisely selected for a military post by Governor George Clinton, in December 1777 - that opportunity came to show the caliber of the man and the quality of the officer.
The occasion was the expedition which, by Lieut. General Sheridan's order, Captain Bates, with marked success, led against hostile Indians in the summer of 1874. His expeditionary command consisted of Lieuts. Robinson and Young, thirty-five men of Troop B, Second Cavalry, twenty Indian scouts and one hundred and sixty friendly Shoshones under Chief Washakie. They proceeded from Fort Brown, Wyoming and after traveling by forced night marches about 130 miles north of Fort Brown, they located, in the early morning of July 4th, the hostile band of 112 lodges of Northern Arapahoes who had been committing depredations in the vicinity of Wind River and South Pass, Wyoming. The attack instantly occurred and resulted in the routing of the hostiles after killing 25, wounding 70, (of whom 21 died after return to their agency) and capturing between 200 and 300 ponies. The casualties to Captain Bates' command were, one officer and three men wounded.
For this prompt, energetic and decisive action the officers and men of B Troop received high commendation in orders from General Ord, the Department Commander, in July 1874 and from Lieutenant-General Sheridan in his report of October 1874, to Headquarters of the Army.
In the attack, the Shoshone allies under Chief Washakie were of little or no use. With the exception of Washakie and a handful of friendlies it may be said that the balance failed to cooperate with the command and by their untimely shouts and yells, deprived the assailants of the advantage of a complete surprise. In General Ord's order extending his sincere thanks for the signal service performed by Captain Bates, Lieuts. Robinson and Young and to the men of Company B, Second Cavalry, he refers in the following terms to the shortcomings of our Indian allies:
The fact that three officers and thirty-five men, impeded, rather than assisted by their Indian allies, successfully attacked and carried a village of 112 lodges, killing twenty-five and wounding a large number of the enemy and this, without the advantage of a complete surprise, is sufficient evidence of the quality of the troops and of their gallantry upon this occasion.
The foregoing is the most conspicuous of several engagements with Indians, but, it serves to show the fighting ability of the officer. He possessed dash, daring and self-confidence in a large degree and had he graduated during the War of the Rebellion there may be little doubt that his soldierly instincts would have carried him high in the ranks of Cavalry Commanders of that long and critical period of his country's history.
In March 1875, Captain Bates passed from the line to one of the Staff Corps of the Army with the rank of Major. While the Pay Department gained an efficient and most desirable member, the Cavalry lost a soldier in every aspect of the title. In January 1889, he was promoted to a Lieut. Colonelcy in the Pay Department, in March 1899, to a Colonelcy. In December 1897, he was detailed to our Embassy at London as Military Attaché with directions to obtain military information abroad.
In April 1898, anticipating hostilities between this country and Spain, he wrote to the Adjutant-General of the Army requesting immediate relief from duties abroad and an order to return to the United States. The Adjutant-General replied that, the President thought he could be most useful abroad in gathering information along certain specified lines relative to impending hostilities and he was obliged to remain at his foreign post, but, in order that the importance of his mission might be dignified by higher rank, he was commissioned, Brigadier General of Volunteers, in May 1898. He was finally recalled home in May 1899, for duty as Assistant to the Paymaster-General which recall however was but a preliminary step to his appointment as Paymaster-General of the Army on the retirement of Paymaster-General Carey, July 12, 1899. On January 21, 1904, he was made a Major-General of the Army and retired the following day at his own request, with over forty-two years of active service to his credit.
During his retirement General Bates' abilities in other than military lines was recognized by Mr. Root while Secretary of State and who in February, 1908, appointed him a member of the newly organized body of International American Conferences and assigned to him the duty of preparing a paper on the moneys of the world. He was also, later, one of four gentlemen composing the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Committee of the United States of America. These duties under the Department of State were preceded by his selection by the Secretary of War in 1906 to proceed to San Francisco to devise and apply an accounting system for the care of the Government and Red Cross relief funds contributed for earthquake sufferers. The Order of Indian Wars of the United States had made him its President. These and other activities of a studious nature gave him congenial mental employment during the period of his retirement.
He died in New York City - suddenly as he had wished he might - and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Few men were possessed of a personality more attractive. Let us summarize some of his admirable traits: Good fellowship enhanced by affectionate geniality. Loyalty to friends which never relaxed without proven cause. Absolute faith in the word of those he trusted. Impartial official treatment of subordinates, in order that those he did not know could have no cause of complaint of favors bestowed on those he did. Unstinted in praise of extraordinary official accomplishment and unsparing in condemnation of any act of a subordinate which in the slightest degree was discreditable to the service. Mentally keen and comprehensive, full of initiative, aggressive for the right. A man of wide reading, courteous and of a charming hospitality.
These are some of the characteristics and accomplishments disclosed during a daily official and social intimacy which continued unmarred almost five years and through the exigencies of service ended, to the keen regret of the writer. An officer and gentleman" has departed from among us. And, after all, what more can be said—when it can be said in truth-in praise of any man who has worn his uniform throughout his military career, as an officer and a gentleman should wear it.
C.C. Sniffen,
Brigadier-General, United States Army, Retired.
Washington, D.C., May 10, 1910.
USMA Post Cemetery staff have verified that his remains were interred at West Point on October 25, 1909 and the cemetery has no record that his remains were removed elsewhere.
There is a cenotaph for him at Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan where his parents are interred.
He was the son of Alfred Gould Bates and Elizabeth Elliott Bates.
On December 1, 1875 as Alfred Bates, he married Caroline E. McConkle at Manhattan, New York.
They were the parents of two children including Eliza Morgan Bates Swift (1879-1923).
The Evening Star Friday, October 15, 1909
Washington, D.C.
To Rest at West Point
The body of Major General Alfred E. Bates, formerly Paymaster General of the Army, who died in New York last Wednesday, probably will be buried in the cemetery attached to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Forty-First Annual Reunion Of The Association of Graduates Of The United States Military Academy, June 14, 1910.
He died in New York City – suddenly as he had wished he might – and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Thirty-Ninth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 12th 1908
Alfred E. Bates
No. 2063. Class Of 1865.
Died, October 13, 1909, at New York, New York, aged 69.
Alfred Elliott Bates was born on his father's farm, near Monroe, Michigan, July 15, 1840 and until his ambition to enter the Military Academy at West Point, New York, was gratified by his designation to a cadetship at that most democratic of our specialized institutions of learning, passed his younger years in the varied employments of a prosperous farmer's boy.
Admitted to the academy in July 1861 he graduated a few months after the termination of our momentous struggle of 1861-1865; was assigned to the Cavalry - an arm of service most suited to his energetic temperament - and entered upon the practical duties of a soldier as Second Lieutenant, Second Cavalry, in June 1865. Quickly promoted First Lieutenant in October of the same year, he attained his Captaincy, with the command of Troop B, in the same regiment in 1869.
After four years active service on the western frontier, Captain Bates was recalled to West Point and for four years performed the duties pertinent to his detail as Instructor of Cavalry Tactics. But it was on rejoining his old regiment at the termination of this agreeable detail on the banks of the Hudson - the site so wisely selected for a military post by Governor George Clinton, in December 1777 - that opportunity came to show the caliber of the man and the quality of the officer.
The occasion was the expedition which, by Lieut. General Sheridan's order, Captain Bates, with marked success, led against hostile Indians in the summer of 1874. His expeditionary command consisted of Lieuts. Robinson and Young, thirty-five men of Troop B, Second Cavalry, twenty Indian scouts and one hundred and sixty friendly Shoshones under Chief Washakie. They proceeded from Fort Brown, Wyoming and after traveling by forced night marches about 130 miles north of Fort Brown, they located, in the early morning of July 4th, the hostile band of 112 lodges of Northern Arapahoes who had been committing depredations in the vicinity of Wind River and South Pass, Wyoming. The attack instantly occurred and resulted in the routing of the hostiles after killing 25, wounding 70, (of whom 21 died after return to their agency) and capturing between 200 and 300 ponies. The casualties to Captain Bates' command were, one officer and three men wounded.
For this prompt, energetic and decisive action the officers and men of B Troop received high commendation in orders from General Ord, the Department Commander, in July 1874 and from Lieutenant-General Sheridan in his report of October 1874, to Headquarters of the Army.
In the attack, the Shoshone allies under Chief Washakie were of little or no use. With the exception of Washakie and a handful of friendlies it may be said that the balance failed to cooperate with the command and by their untimely shouts and yells, deprived the assailants of the advantage of a complete surprise. In General Ord's order extending his sincere thanks for the signal service performed by Captain Bates, Lieuts. Robinson and Young and to the men of Company B, Second Cavalry, he refers in the following terms to the shortcomings of our Indian allies:
The fact that three officers and thirty-five men, impeded, rather than assisted by their Indian allies, successfully attacked and carried a village of 112 lodges, killing twenty-five and wounding a large number of the enemy and this, without the advantage of a complete surprise, is sufficient evidence of the quality of the troops and of their gallantry upon this occasion.
The foregoing is the most conspicuous of several engagements with Indians, but, it serves to show the fighting ability of the officer. He possessed dash, daring and self-confidence in a large degree and had he graduated during the War of the Rebellion there may be little doubt that his soldierly instincts would have carried him high in the ranks of Cavalry Commanders of that long and critical period of his country's history.
In March 1875, Captain Bates passed from the line to one of the Staff Corps of the Army with the rank of Major. While the Pay Department gained an efficient and most desirable member, the Cavalry lost a soldier in every aspect of the title. In January 1889, he was promoted to a Lieut. Colonelcy in the Pay Department, in March 1899, to a Colonelcy. In December 1897, he was detailed to our Embassy at London as Military Attaché with directions to obtain military information abroad.
In April 1898, anticipating hostilities between this country and Spain, he wrote to the Adjutant-General of the Army requesting immediate relief from duties abroad and an order to return to the United States. The Adjutant-General replied that, the President thought he could be most useful abroad in gathering information along certain specified lines relative to impending hostilities and he was obliged to remain at his foreign post, but, in order that the importance of his mission might be dignified by higher rank, he was commissioned, Brigadier General of Volunteers, in May 1898. He was finally recalled home in May 1899, for duty as Assistant to the Paymaster-General which recall however was but a preliminary step to his appointment as Paymaster-General of the Army on the retirement of Paymaster-General Carey, July 12, 1899. On January 21, 1904, he was made a Major-General of the Army and retired the following day at his own request, with over forty-two years of active service to his credit.
During his retirement General Bates' abilities in other than military lines was recognized by Mr. Root while Secretary of State and who in February, 1908, appointed him a member of the newly organized body of International American Conferences and assigned to him the duty of preparing a paper on the moneys of the world. He was also, later, one of four gentlemen composing the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Committee of the United States of America. These duties under the Department of State were preceded by his selection by the Secretary of War in 1906 to proceed to San Francisco to devise and apply an accounting system for the care of the Government and Red Cross relief funds contributed for earthquake sufferers. The Order of Indian Wars of the United States had made him its President. These and other activities of a studious nature gave him congenial mental employment during the period of his retirement.
He died in New York City - suddenly as he had wished he might - and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Few men were possessed of a personality more attractive. Let us summarize some of his admirable traits: Good fellowship enhanced by affectionate geniality. Loyalty to friends which never relaxed without proven cause. Absolute faith in the word of those he trusted. Impartial official treatment of subordinates, in order that those he did not know could have no cause of complaint of favors bestowed on those he did. Unstinted in praise of extraordinary official accomplishment and unsparing in condemnation of any act of a subordinate which in the slightest degree was discreditable to the service. Mentally keen and comprehensive, full of initiative, aggressive for the right. A man of wide reading, courteous and of a charming hospitality.
These are some of the characteristics and accomplishments disclosed during a daily official and social intimacy which continued unmarred almost five years and through the exigencies of service ended, to the keen regret of the writer. An officer and gentleman" has departed from among us. And, after all, what more can be said—when it can be said in truth-in praise of any man who has worn his uniform throughout his military career, as an officer and a gentleman should wear it.
C.C. Sniffen,
Brigadier-General, United States Army, Retired.
Washington, D.C., May 10, 1910.
USMA Class of 1865. Cullum No. 2063.
USMA Post Cemetery staff have verified that his remains were interred at West Point on October 25, 1909 and the cemetery has no record that his remains were removed elsewhere.
There is a cenotaph for him at Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan where his parents are interred.
He was the son of Alfred Gould Bates and Elizabeth Elliott Bates.
On December 1, 1875 as Alfred Bates, he married Caroline E. McConkle at Manhattan, New York.
They were the parents of two children including Eliza Morgan Bates Swift (1879-1923).
The Evening Star Friday, October 15, 1909
Washington, D.C.
To Rest at West Point
The body of Major General Alfred E. Bates, formerly Paymaster General of the Army, who died in New York last Wednesday, probably will be buried in the cemetery attached to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Forty-First Annual Reunion Of The Association of Graduates Of The United States Military Academy, June 14, 1910.
He died in New York City – suddenly as he had wished he might – and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Thirty-Ninth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 12th 1908
Alfred E. Bates
No. 2063. Class Of 1865.
Died, October 13, 1909, at New York, New York, aged 69.
Alfred Elliott Bates was born on his father's farm, near Monroe, Michigan, July 15, 1840 and until his ambition to enter the Military Academy at West Point, New York, was gratified by his designation to a cadetship at that most democratic of our specialized institutions of learning, passed his younger years in the varied employments of a prosperous farmer's boy.
Admitted to the academy in July 1861 he graduated a few months after the termination of our momentous struggle of 1861-1865; was assigned to the Cavalry - an arm of service most suited to his energetic temperament - and entered upon the practical duties of a soldier as Second Lieutenant, Second Cavalry, in June 1865. Quickly promoted First Lieutenant in October of the same year, he attained his Captaincy, with the command of Troop B, in the same regiment in 1869.
After four years active service on the western frontier, Captain Bates was recalled to West Point and for four years performed the duties pertinent to his detail as Instructor of Cavalry Tactics. But it was on rejoining his old regiment at the termination of this agreeable detail on the banks of the Hudson - the site so wisely selected for a military post by Governor George Clinton, in December 1777 - that opportunity came to show the caliber of the man and the quality of the officer.
The occasion was the expedition which, by Lieut. General Sheridan's order, Captain Bates, with marked success, led against hostile Indians in the summer of 1874. His expeditionary command consisted of Lieuts. Robinson and Young, thirty-five men of Troop B, Second Cavalry, twenty Indian scouts and one hundred and sixty friendly Shoshones under Chief Washakie. They proceeded from Fort Brown, Wyoming and after traveling by forced night marches about 130 miles north of Fort Brown, they located, in the early morning of July 4th, the hostile band of 112 lodges of Northern Arapahoes who had been committing depredations in the vicinity of Wind River and South Pass, Wyoming. The attack instantly occurred and resulted in the routing of the hostiles after killing 25, wounding 70, (of whom 21 died after return to their agency) and capturing between 200 and 300 ponies. The casualties to Captain Bates' command were, one officer and three men wounded.
For this prompt, energetic and decisive action the officers and men of B Troop received high commendation in orders from General Ord, the Department Commander, in July 1874 and from Lieutenant-General Sheridan in his report of October 1874, to Headquarters of the Army.
In the attack, the Shoshone allies under Chief Washakie were of little or no use. With the exception of Washakie and a handful of friendlies it may be said that the balance failed to cooperate with the command and by their untimely shouts and yells, deprived the assailants of the advantage of a complete surprise. In General Ord's order extending his sincere thanks for the signal service performed by Captain Bates, Lieuts. Robinson and Young and to the men of Company B, Second Cavalry, he refers in the following terms to the shortcomings of our Indian allies:
The fact that three officers and thirty-five men, impeded, rather than assisted by their Indian allies, successfully attacked and carried a village of 112 lodges, killing twenty-five and wounding a large number of the enemy and this, without the advantage of a complete surprise, is sufficient evidence of the quality of the troops and of their gallantry upon this occasion.
The foregoing is the most conspicuous of several engagements with Indians, but, it serves to show the fighting ability of the officer. He possessed dash, daring and self-confidence in a large degree and had he graduated during the War of the Rebellion there may be little doubt that his soldierly instincts would have carried him high in the ranks of Cavalry Commanders of that long and critical period of his country's history.
In March 1875, Captain Bates passed from the line to one of the Staff Corps of the Army with the rank of Major. While the Pay Department gained an efficient and most desirable member, the Cavalry lost a soldier in every aspect of the title. In January 1889, he was promoted to a Lieut. Colonelcy in the Pay Department, in March 1899, to a Colonelcy. In December 1897, he was detailed to our Embassy at London as Military Attaché with directions to obtain military information abroad.
In April 1898, anticipating hostilities between this country and Spain, he wrote to the Adjutant-General of the Army requesting immediate relief from duties abroad and an order to return to the United States. The Adjutant-General replied that, the President thought he could be most useful abroad in gathering information along certain specified lines relative to impending hostilities and he was obliged to remain at his foreign post, but, in order that the importance of his mission might be dignified by higher rank, he was commissioned, Brigadier General of Volunteers, in May 1898. He was finally recalled home in May 1899, for duty as Assistant to the Paymaster-General which recall however was but a preliminary step to his appointment as Paymaster-General of the Army on the retirement of Paymaster-General Carey, July 12, 1899. On January 21, 1904, he was made a Major-General of the Army and retired the following day at his own request, with over forty-two years of active service to his credit.
During his retirement General Bates' abilities in other than military lines was recognized by Mr. Root while Secretary of State and who in February, 1908, appointed him a member of the newly organized body of International American Conferences and assigned to him the duty of preparing a paper on the moneys of the world. He was also, later, one of four gentlemen composing the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Committee of the United States of America. These duties under the Department of State were preceded by his selection by the Secretary of War in 1906 to proceed to San Francisco to devise and apply an accounting system for the care of the Government and Red Cross relief funds contributed for earthquake sufferers. The Order of Indian Wars of the United States had made him its President. These and other activities of a studious nature gave him congenial mental employment during the period of his retirement.
He died in New York City - suddenly as he had wished he might - and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Few men were possessed of a personality more attractive. Let us summarize some of his admirable traits: Good fellowship enhanced by affectionate geniality. Loyalty to friends which never relaxed without proven cause. Absolute faith in the word of those he trusted. Impartial official treatment of subordinates, in order that those he did not know could have no cause of complaint of favors bestowed on those he did. Unstinted in praise of extraordinary official accomplishment and unsparing in condemnation of any act of a subordinate which in the slightest degree was discreditable to the service. Mentally keen and comprehensive, full of initiative, aggressive for the right. A man of wide reading, courteous and of a charming hospitality.
These are some of the characteristics and accomplishments disclosed during a daily official and social intimacy which continued unmarred almost five years and through the exigencies of service ended, to the keen regret of the writer. An officer and gentleman" has departed from among us. And, after all, what more can be said—when it can be said in truth-in praise of any man who has worn his uniform throughout his military career, as an officer and a gentleman should wear it.
C.C. Sniffen,
Brigadier-General, United States Army, Retired.
Washington, D.C., May 10, 1910.
USMA Post Cemetery staff have verified that his remains were interred at West Point on October 25, 1909 and the cemetery has no record that his remains were removed elsewhere.
There is a cenotaph for him at Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan where his parents are interred.
He was the son of Alfred Gould Bates and Elizabeth Elliott Bates.
On December 1, 1875 as Alfred Bates, he married Caroline E. McConkle at Manhattan, New York.
They were the parents of two children including Eliza Morgan Bates Swift (1879-1923).
The Evening Star Friday, October 15, 1909
Washington, D.C.
To Rest at West Point
The body of Major General Alfred E. Bates, formerly Paymaster General of the Army, who died in New York last Wednesday, probably will be buried in the cemetery attached to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Forty-First Annual Reunion Of The Association of Graduates Of The United States Military Academy, June 14, 1910.
He died in New York City – suddenly as he had wished he might – and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Thirty-Ninth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 12th 1908
Alfred E. Bates
No. 2063. Class Of 1865.
Died, October 13, 1909, at New York, New York, aged 69.
Alfred Elliott Bates was born on his father's farm, near Monroe, Michigan, July 15, 1840 and until his ambition to enter the Military Academy at West Point, New York, was gratified by his designation to a cadetship at that most democratic of our specialized institutions of learning, passed his younger years in the varied employments of a prosperous farmer's boy.
Admitted to the academy in July 1861 he graduated a few months after the termination of our momentous struggle of 1861-1865; was assigned to the Cavalry - an arm of service most suited to his energetic temperament - and entered upon the practical duties of a soldier as Second Lieutenant, Second Cavalry, in June 1865. Quickly promoted First Lieutenant in October of the same year, he attained his Captaincy, with the command of Troop B, in the same regiment in 1869.
After four years active service on the western frontier, Captain Bates was recalled to West Point and for four years performed the duties pertinent to his detail as Instructor of Cavalry Tactics. But it was on rejoining his old regiment at the termination of this agreeable detail on the banks of the Hudson - the site so wisely selected for a military post by Governor George Clinton, in December 1777 - that opportunity came to show the caliber of the man and the quality of the officer.
The occasion was the expedition which, by Lieut. General Sheridan's order, Captain Bates, with marked success, led against hostile Indians in the summer of 1874. His expeditionary command consisted of Lieuts. Robinson and Young, thirty-five men of Troop B, Second Cavalry, twenty Indian scouts and one hundred and sixty friendly Shoshones under Chief Washakie. They proceeded from Fort Brown, Wyoming and after traveling by forced night marches about 130 miles north of Fort Brown, they located, in the early morning of July 4th, the hostile band of 112 lodges of Northern Arapahoes who had been committing depredations in the vicinity of Wind River and South Pass, Wyoming. The attack instantly occurred and resulted in the routing of the hostiles after killing 25, wounding 70, (of whom 21 died after return to their agency) and capturing between 200 and 300 ponies. The casualties to Captain Bates' command were, one officer and three men wounded.
For this prompt, energetic and decisive action the officers and men of B Troop received high commendation in orders from General Ord, the Department Commander, in July 1874 and from Lieutenant-General Sheridan in his report of October 1874, to Headquarters of the Army.
In the attack, the Shoshone allies under Chief Washakie were of little or no use. With the exception of Washakie and a handful of friendlies it may be said that the balance failed to cooperate with the command and by their untimely shouts and yells, deprived the assailants of the advantage of a complete surprise. In General Ord's order extending his sincere thanks for the signal service performed by Captain Bates, Lieuts. Robinson and Young and to the men of Company B, Second Cavalry, he refers in the following terms to the shortcomings of our Indian allies:
The fact that three officers and thirty-five men, impeded, rather than assisted by their Indian allies, successfully attacked and carried a village of 112 lodges, killing twenty-five and wounding a large number of the enemy and this, without the advantage of a complete surprise, is sufficient evidence of the quality of the troops and of their gallantry upon this occasion.
The foregoing is the most conspicuous of several engagements with Indians, but, it serves to show the fighting ability of the officer. He possessed dash, daring and self-confidence in a large degree and had he graduated during the War of the Rebellion there may be little doubt that his soldierly instincts would have carried him high in the ranks of Cavalry Commanders of that long and critical period of his country's history.
In March 1875, Captain Bates passed from the line to one of the Staff Corps of the Army with the rank of Major. While the Pay Department gained an efficient and most desirable member, the Cavalry lost a soldier in every aspect of the title. In January 1889, he was promoted to a Lieut. Colonelcy in the Pay Department, in March 1899, to a Colonelcy. In December 1897, he was detailed to our Embassy at London as Military Attaché with directions to obtain military information abroad.
In April 1898, anticipating hostilities between this country and Spain, he wrote to the Adjutant-General of the Army requesting immediate relief from duties abroad and an order to return to the United States. The Adjutant-General replied that, the President thought he could be most useful abroad in gathering information along certain specified lines relative to impending hostilities and he was obliged to remain at his foreign post, but, in order that the importance of his mission might be dignified by higher rank, he was commissioned, Brigadier General of Volunteers, in May 1898. He was finally recalled home in May 1899, for duty as Assistant to the Paymaster-General which recall however was but a preliminary step to his appointment as Paymaster-General of the Army on the retirement of Paymaster-General Carey, July 12, 1899. On January 21, 1904, he was made a Major-General of the Army and retired the following day at his own request, with over forty-two years of active service to his credit.
During his retirement General Bates' abilities in other than military lines was recognized by Mr. Root while Secretary of State and who in February, 1908, appointed him a member of the newly organized body of International American Conferences and assigned to him the duty of preparing a paper on the moneys of the world. He was also, later, one of four gentlemen composing the Executive Committee of the Pan-American Committee of the United States of America. These duties under the Department of State were preceded by his selection by the Secretary of War in 1906 to proceed to San Francisco to devise and apply an accounting system for the care of the Government and Red Cross relief funds contributed for earthquake sufferers. The Order of Indian Wars of the United States had made him its President. These and other activities of a studious nature gave him congenial mental employment during the period of his retirement.
He died in New York City - suddenly as he had wished he might - and was buried at West Point with the military honors of his rank and in the presence of his family and relatives and many of his closest friends in military and civil life who journeyed to his final resting place to witness the laying away of one who was very dear to them all in life.
Few men were possessed of a personality more attractive. Let us summarize some of his admirable traits: Good fellowship enhanced by affectionate geniality. Loyalty to friends which never relaxed without proven cause. Absolute faith in the word of those he trusted. Impartial official treatment of subordinates, in order that those he did not know could have no cause of complaint of favors bestowed on those he did. Unstinted in praise of extraordinary official accomplishment and unsparing in condemnation of any act of a subordinate which in the slightest degree was discreditable to the service. Mentally keen and comprehensive, full of initiative, aggressive for the right. A man of wide reading, courteous and of a charming hospitality.
These are some of the characteristics and accomplishments disclosed during a daily official and social intimacy which continued unmarred almost five years and through the exigencies of service ended, to the keen regret of the writer. An officer and gentleman" has departed from among us. And, after all, what more can be said—when it can be said in truth-in praise of any man who has worn his uniform throughout his military career, as an officer and a gentleman should wear it.
C.C. Sniffen,
Brigadier-General, United States Army, Retired.
Washington, D.C., May 10, 1910.
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