David S. Stanley

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Portrait of David Sloane Stanley by Mathew Brady, ca. 1860–1870

David Sloane Stanley (June 1, 1828 – March 13, 1902) was a Union general in the American Civil War and a Medal of Honor recipient.

Stanley was born in Cedar Valley, Ohio. He graduated from West Point in 1852 and went to the Western frontier to survey railroad routes. He engaged in Indian fighting and was promoted to captain shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.

He fought at several battles in Missouri, including the Battle of Wilson's Creek. He quickly rose in rank to brigadier general by September 1861. Fighting in the Western Theater, he participated in numerous major battles, including Corinth, Stones River and Chickamauga. In 1864, he fought under William Tecumseh Sherman, during the Atlanta Campaign and was promoted to command of the IV Corps in the Army of the Cumberland. After the capture of the city, instead of marching to the sea, Sherman dispatched Stanley and his IV Corps to Tennessee to protect the state from invasion by John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.

For leading one of his brigades in a successful assault, during a critical moment in the fighting, at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, the United States Congress presented him with the Medal of Honor on March 29, 1893.

After the war, Stanley was appointed colonel of the 22nd U.S. Infantry, primarily serving in the Dakota Territory until 1874. He commanded the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, successfully conducting his troops through several unmapped areas, and his favorable reports on the country led to subsequent settlement of the region. In 1879, Stanley and his regiment were reassigned to Texas to suppress Indian raids in the western portion of the state. He was ordered to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1882, and placed in command of the District of New Mexico. In March 1884, he was appointed a brigadier general in the Regular Army, and assigned command of the Department of Texas.