Henry Moore Harrington
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Henry Moore Harrington (April 30, 1849 – June 25, 1876) was a military officer in the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment who perished with George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in the Montana Territory.
Harrington was born in Albion, New York, the son of Shelby A. Harrington and Nancy K. (Moore) Harrington. Early in his childhood, his family relocated to Coldwater, Michigan. He attended the Cleveland Institute at University Heights, Ohio before accepting an appointment to West Point in 1868. Upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy (ranking 17th the Class of 1872), he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Cavalry and assigned to Company C, 7th United States Cavalry with an initial posting to North Carolina. He married Grace Berard, the granddaughter of a West Point professor. The couple had two children.
In 1873, Company C was reassigned to the Dakota Territory and Harrington accompanied Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer on the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition. In 1874, he took part in the Black Hills Expedition.
In 1876, Custer's column departed Fort Abraham Lincoln and embarked on the Little Big Horn campaign. The 7th Cavalry was short of officers, and Harrington commanded Company C during Major Marcus Reno's scout along the Rosebud River. A few days later during the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Harrington was likely killed in action on Calhoun Hill, aged 27. His remains were not identified on the battlefield, and he was declared missing in action and presumed dead.
His bereaved wife made a series of trips to the area to look for his body or information regarding his whereabouts if he had survived the savage fight, but to no avail. Recent forensic evidence suggests that his smashed skull was recovered from the battlefield and has been in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's Anthropology Department for over 100 years.
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[edit] Sources and references
- Coldwater Republican, Coldwater, Michigan (1868 - 1876)
- Cross, Walt, Custer's Lost Officer: The Search for Lieutenant Henry Moore Harrington, 7th U.S. Cavalry, Cross Publications (2005).
- Horsted, Paul and Ernest Grafe, Exploring with Custer: The 1874 Black Hills Expedition, Custer, South Dakota: Golden Valley Press (2002).
- Mills, Charles K., Harvest of Barren Regrets the Army Career of Frederick William Benteen 1834 – 1898, Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company (1985).
- Magnussen, Daniel O. Ed., Peter Thompson’s Narrative of the Little Bighorn Campaign 1876, Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company (1974).
- Scott, Douglas D. et al, They Died With Custer, Norman, Oklahoma and London: University of Oklahoma Press (1998).
- Utley, Robert M., Custer and the Great Controversy: The Origin and Development of a Legend, Pasadena, California: Westernlore Press (1980).
