William S. Harney became the First Prisoner taken by the South in the Civil War! At the start of the Civil War, in 1861, some of William's old comrades of the Indian and Mexican Wars became political leaders. In February, Abe Lincoln became the new President of the U.S., and four days later, Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Southern Confederacy. William Harney was then the Commander of the Department of the West in St. Louis, Missouri. In April 1861, he was ordered to report to Washington by Lincoln's new Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. The train on which he was traveling was stopped at Harper's Ferry, and a young confederate office boarded announcing "General Harney, sir, you are my prisoner!" He was told a Confederate battalion had surrounded the train, sent with orders to intercept him before he reached Washington. In this way, William S. Harney became the first prisoner taken by the South in the Civil War. Later, in Virginia, William received apologies for the manner in which he was brought there, and he was offered a Confederate command under Robert E. Lee. He had previously served with Lee in the U.S. Army in the Mexican War. William refused, and he was allowed to continue on his trip to Washington. Harney, who has been described as "politically naive" was engulfed in a rush of political events. Arriving in Washington, he was shocked to discover he was being relieved of his command. This was a political maneuver of the powerful Blair family, who wanted their own man as Commander of the Department of the West. Even General Winfield Scott, who had many confrontations with William Harney over the years, respected his ability to make peace with the Indians. Scott predicted that this political move by the Blair family would cost the government 100,000 lives and $100 million dollars in military equipment. Later President Lincoln was to agree, when he told Montgomery Blair, "The removal of General Harney was one of the greatest mistakes of my administration."He began his military career at the age of 17, when he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the U.S. First Infantry, 13 Feb. 1818. His older brother Benjamin F. Harney was already an Army surgeon, and General Andrew Jackson was a family friend and neighbor of the Harneys.William S. Harney's first military assignment was to chase the Pirate, Jean Lafitte, out of the Gulf area, forcing Lafitte to move his pirate operations to the Spanish Main. Then William was sent to Florida during the 1st Seminole War. This began his long career working towards peace with the Indians. While the popular idea of the day was to remove and eliminate the Indian populations, Harney proposed the idea to avoid Indian wars by pursuing a good neighbor policy. He held challenge foot races with the Indians outside the log walls of the fort. His long strides impressed his Crow competitors who he continued to outrun. The Crow awarded him with an Indian name "Man-who-runs-like-the-Deer." Throughtout his career, Harney worked to improve the nation's treatment of the Indians.William S. Harney's exploits include chasing General Santa Anna in the Mexican War, fighting the Sauk chief Black Hawk with Col. Zachary Taylor, Captain Abe Lincoln, and Lieut. Jefferson Davis, and working with the Jesuit missionary Father DeSmet, in the northwest. He led a precedent-setting expedition against the Sioux Indians on the Great Plains in 1855; commanded American troops in Bleeding Kansas in 1857; and commanded the Utah Expedition against the Mormons in 1857-58. In 1860 and 1861 he was in command of the Department of Oregon and the Department of the West. And from the standpoint of the Indians was the key figure in the Indian Peace Commission that negotiated treaties with all the Plains Indian tribes in 1867-68.William S. Harney retired from service 1 August 1863, and he was made Brevet Major General, 13 March 1865, for long and faithful service. He died May 9, 1889, in Orlando, Florida. He was well-liked by many Indian Nations for he tried, although in vain, to have the Indians treated fairly, and consistently urged Congress to honor past treaties with the Indians. After his retirement, he was recalled to service of his country to work on various Indian Commissions. After his death the Sioux changed his name from Man-who-runs-like-the-Deer to one of which he would have been very proud, "Man-who-always-kept-his-word".
William S. Harney (1800-1889) has a book written about him entitled, "PRINCE OF DRAGOONS" by George Rollie Adams, 2001, published by the University of Nebraska Press. According to Cecil Currey, this book shows Harney to be one of the major military figures of the pre-Civil War era, Harney then enjoyed a national reputation. Between 1821 and 1861 he was one of only eighteen officers to hold the rank of Brigadier General or higher, and he served forty-five years in the U.S. Army. His record, however, could hardly be called an unblemished one.Adams tells us, and he is possibly correct, that Harney should be acknowledged for his bravery at Cerro Gordo and his leadership of cavalry forces during the Mexican War; for his service in "Bleeding Kansas"; for his mission into Utah territory to establish federal authority; and for his successful command of troops in conflicts with Indians in Texas and the Great Plains. Surely such a list of achievements would earn most men a place in the pantheon of Mars' Legions.Harney, however, constantly broke the mold for uncivil behavior. Even Adams can hardly stand the man. Just some of the epithets with which he labels Harney include: contentious, quarrelsome, foul-mouthed, vindictive, impulsive, offensive, obstinate, opportunistic, callous, arrogant, boisterous, and peevish. We are shown how in 1834, in a fit of temper, he beat a female household servant to death. Harney constantly abused the soldiers under him, fought with fellow officers, and defied the orders of his superiors. He was hardly a model for a recruitment poster, although he may well have been an "army of one." Throughout his career Harney was court-martialed four times, but somehow this unprincipled and vindictive man always managed to survive with his career and rank intact. The Harney Mansion in Missouri is listed on the National Register of historic places as the Major General William S. Harney Summer Home.
For further information about William S. Harney see the following book: Indian Foe, Indian Friend: The Story of William S. Harney, by Jules Archer, 1970; and contact the William S. Harney Historical Society, Sullivan, Missouri. Photos from the National Archives. Army Register - 1815-1879. Additional references: Biography Index (BioIn) 7, 8; Dictionary of American Biography (DcAmB); The National Cyclopedia of American Biography (NatCAB) 5; The Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West (REnAW); Webster's American Military Biographies (WebAMB); WhAmHS.