Frank Crawford Armstrong

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Frank Crawford Armstrong
November 22, 1835 – September 8, 1909

Allegiance	United States of America, Confederate States of America
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	American Civil War - First Battle of Bull Run - Battle of Chickamauga

Frank Crawford Armstrong (November 22, 1835 – September 8, 1909) was a United States Army cavalry officer and later a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Frank C. Crawford was born on the Choctaw Agency in the Indian Territory, where his father, an army officer, was stationed. When Armstrong was a boy, his father died and his mother married former Mexican-American War general Persifor Smith. In 1854, Armstrong accompanied his stepfather on an expedition of U.S. Army troops into the New Mexico Territory. His performance in a battle against local Indians near Eagle Spring gained him a commission as a lieutenant following his graduation from Holy Cross Academy in Massachusetts.

By the time of the Civil War, Armstrong was a captain in the Regular Army. He led Union cavalry forces at the First Battle of Bull Run. However, following the decisive Union defeat, Armstrong resigned his commission and, in August 1861, enlisted in the Confederate Army. He later served as a staff officer under Confederate generals James McIntosh and Ben McCulloch before their deaths at the Battle of Pea Ridge.

He was subsequently elected as colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry and soon given command of the cavalry of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. He won promotion to brigadier general in early 1863, and commanded a cavalry division under Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Chickamauga.

In February 1864, he requested a transfer to the command of Gen. Stephen D. Lee. Armstrong was assigned command of a brigade of Mississippi cavalry. He and his men accompanied Leonidas Polk's corps to Georgia and served in the Atlanta Campaign before participating in John B. Hood's north Georgia campaign and the subsequent advance into Tennessee. He saw considerable action during the campaign against Murfreesboro, and capably led much of Forrest's rear guard after the Confederates' disastrous defeat at the Battle of Nashville.

On March 23, he was assigned to the defenses of Selma, Alabama, one of the Confederacy's last remaining industrial centers. On April 2, his troops participated in efforts to defend the town against a much larger Union force under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson. When the war ended, Armstrong was in command of the Mississippi division of cavalry, with his headquarters at Macon. He surrendered and disbanded his troops.

After the war, Armstrong worked for the Overland Mail Service in Texas. With his frontier and military experience, he served as United States Indian Inspector from 1885 until 1889, and the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1893 to 1895.

He died in Bar Harbor, Maine, and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.. His brother-in-law, Lucius Marshall Walker, also served as a Confederate general.

[edit] See also

United States Army Portal

[edit] References

Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History, Vol. VIII. Atlanta, Georgia: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899.
Linedecker, Clifford L., ed. Civil War, A-Z: The Complete Handbook of America's Bloodiest Conflict. New York: Ballentine Books, 2002. ISBN 0-89141-878-4