James Calhoun (soldier)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Calhoun (August 24, 1845 – June 25, 1876) was a soldier in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the Black Hills War. He was the brother-in-law of George Armstrong Custer and was killed along with Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Calhoun was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. When the American Civil War broke out, he was travelling in Europe. Upon returning to the United States, he enlisted in the Union Army in 1864. By the end of the war, he was a sergeant.
After the war, he was appointed to Second Lieutenant in the infantry. He met Margaret Custer in 1870, and they fell in love. His soon to be brother-in-law George Armstrong Custer had him appointed to First Lieutenant in the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, and Custer placed him in command of L. Company.
Calhoun was known as "The Adonis of the Seventh" due to his handsome features, but he was never a womanizer as he married Margaret in 1872. He was part of the so-called "Custer Clan," which was a clique of close-knit relatives and friends of the former Civil War general. Calhoun was also the brother-in-law of fellow Clan member Myles Moylan. He often wrote letters to his brother and to Margaret, or Maggie as she was called, and writing with disdain of the Indian barbarianism. He often referred to them as "heathens" and foresaw a day when civilization would wipe them out.
At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory during the Black Hills War, he was killed along with most of his L Company, which was only one of two companies that seemed to show some organized resistance. His remains were initially buried on the battlefield, but were reinterred in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1877. A marble slab on the Little Bighorn battlefield marks the place where his body was discovered and initially buried.
[edit] References and links
- Son of the Morning Star, Evan S. Connell, 1984, ISBN 0-06-097161-4
- Classic Battles: Little Big Horn 1876, Peter Panzieri, 1995, ISBN 1-85532-458-X
- Cavalier in Bucksin, Robert M. Utley, 1988, ISBN 0-8061-2150-5
- Custer: A Soldier's Story, D.A. Kinsley, 1967, ISBN 0-88394-074-4
- The Custer Autograph Album, John M. Carroll, 1994, ISBN 0-932702-97-X
