Samuel D. Sturgis was born in Shippensburgh, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1822. His father took part in the Revolutionary War, and his uncle, Captain William Sturgis, was killed at Lundy's Lane while serving with General Scott in the War of 1812. Mary Sturgis, his mother, was a sister of the brilliant Judge Lemuel Brandeburg, early governor of Utah.
Through the recommendation of General Scott, Samuel Sturgis received an appointment to West Point in 1842, and graduated in 1846 with such future generals as McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, and Pickett. Sturgis distinguished himself in the Mexican War as a lieutenant of the Second Dragoons under General Taylor. Captured while on a reconnaissance mission before the battle of Buena Vista, he escaped to bring back information which helped win the battle. Later he marched northward to California, where he was stationed for some time.
Returning east in 1851, he married Miss Jerusha Wilcox of St. Louis, and proceeded to Ft. Leavenworth for a year's duty before transfer to Santa Fe. A brilliant victory over the Apache Indians in January 1855 gained him a vote of thanks from the territorial legislature, in March 1855, and a recommendation to the President that he be promoted. Sturgis was commissioned Captain in the First Cavalry, stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, and, during the ensuing years, became famous as an Indian fighter. During this period he was called upon to help keep peace in troubled Kansas.
At Ft. Smith, Arkansas, in April 1861, Sturgis was abandoned by his commissioned officers, who resigned to fight for the Confederacy. When the fort was attacked by an overwhelming force, he succeeded in slipping away with all the men in his command as well as his supplies. Mrs. Sturgis remained at the fort, but she was later released.
Placed in charge of the district of Kansas in 1862, Sturgis was later called to command the defenses of Washington, D.C. In August of the same year he commanded a force sent to relieve General Pope in Virginia, and took part in the second battle of Bull Run.
Sturgis showed excellent generalship in many major battles, such as Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the central Kentucky and Tennessee campaigns. His only severe defeat was at the battle of Brice's Cross Roads near Guntown, Mississippi. For this defeat he was charged with inefficiency and cowardice. Because of the difficult circumstances of the battle, and because of his record of efficiency and bravery, he was exonerated at a special hearing. During his forty years of military service General Sturgis was brevetted five times for gallant and meritorious service.
After the war he was placed on a board of officers for revision of cavalry tactics, and in the winter of 1869-1870 he was ordered south with his command to repress the Ku Klux Klan. He held the rank of Colonel in the peace time Army. Again, in 1877, he resumed the role of Indian fighter, to march against the Sioux (Dakota) and Nez Perce Indians in successful campaigns.
Samuel D. Sturgis' eldest son, James Garland Sturgis, was killed in the Custer Massacre of 1876, the battle of the Little Big Horn River. Another son, Samuel Davis Sturgis II, became a general in the Army. General Samuel Davis Sturgis III was his grandson.
A daughter, Nina Linn Sturgis, born at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, April 20, 1852, was married in St. Paul, November 19, 1873, to H. Louis Dousman, son of the noted pioneer of the west and owner of the famed Villa Louis at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
General Sturgis was appointed Governor of the Soldiers Home at Washington, D.C. in 1881 by President Garfield. He remained at this post until 1886, when he retired after forty years of military service. He died September 28, 1889, at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota.
