Bible Encyclopedias
Nelson Appleton Miles

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

Search for…

Enter query below:

or

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Prev Entry
Nellore

Next Entry
Nelson River

Resource Toolbox

Print Article

NELSON APPLETON MILES (1839-), American soldier,. was born in Westminster, Massachusetts, on the 8th of August 1839. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Boston when the Civil War began, and he entered the army in September 186r as a lieutenant in the 22nd Massachusetts volunteer infantry. He served with distinction in the Peninsular campaign, and at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where he received a wound which incapacitated him up to the opening of Grant's Virginia campaign of 1864. He had been commissioned in September 1862 colonel of the 61st New York volunteers, commanded a brigade at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and in May 1864 was rewarded for his gallant leadership by the grade of brigadier-general of volunteers. He fought in the Cold Harbor and Petersburg operations in 1864-65, was brevetted major-general of volunteers for his conduct at Reams Station, and at the close of the war was in temporary command of an army corps. In July 1866 he was made colonel of a regular infantry regiment, and in 1867 he was brevetted brigadiergeneral in the regular army for his services at Chancellorsville and major-general for his services at Spottsylvania. He was promoted to be brigadier-general U.S.A. (Dec. 1880), and to be major-general (April 1890), and in 1895 succeeded General John McA. Schofield as commanding general of the United States army. He was conspicuously successful (1869-1886) in dealing with Indian outbreaks, fighting the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche on Llano Estacado (1875) and the Sioux in Montana (1876), capturing the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph (1877), and defeating the Chiricahua Apaches under Geronimo (1886), and he commanded the United States troops sent to Chicago during the railway riots in 1894. He was in nominal direction of military operations during the war with Spain in 1898, though his personal share of the operations was confined to directing the almost unopposed Porto Rico expedition. He was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general in June 1900, and retired from active service in August 1903. In1905-1906he was adjutant-general and chief-of-staff under Governor William L. Douglas in Massachusetts. He wrote Personal Recollections (1896), Military Europe (1898) and Observations Abroad (1899).