George Crook

Notable people · Military · Civil War · Indian Wars

George Crook

Montgomery County farm boy who commanded the 36th Ohio and the Kanawha Division in the Civil War, then led the Army's campaigns against the Apache and Lakota and spoke for Native rights in Standing Bear v. Crook.

Born September 8, 1828, Thomas Crook's farm, Wayne Township (post office Taylorsville), near Dayton
Died March 21, 1890, Chicago, Illinois

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: September 8, 1828, Thomas Crook's farm, Wayne Township (post office Taylorsville), near Dayton (Montgomery County) source
Died: March 21, 1890, Chicago, Illinois source
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Section 2, Site 974 (first buried at Oakland, Maryland; reinterred 11 November 1890) source
Also known as: George W. Crook, General Crook
Known as: Military, Civil War, Indian Wars

Life story

George Crook was born in 1828 on his father Thomas Crook's half-section farm in Wayne Township, Montgomery County, north of Dayton. Congressman Robert C. Schenck nominated him to West Point, where he graduated near the bottom of the class of 1852. After nine years with the 4th Infantry in California and Oregon, he came east in 1861 as colonel of the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then commanded the Kanawha Division at South Mountain and Antietam and later cavalry in Tennessee and the Shenandoah Valley. At Cloyd's Mountain in 1864 one of his brigades was led by Rutherford B. Hayes, and Hayes named a son after him. After the war he fought the Paiute, Yavapai, Apache and Lakota, fighting at the Rosebud in 1876 and negotiating with Geronimo in 1886. In 1879 he was the nominal defendant when a federal judge ruled that the Ponca chief Standing Bear had some of the rights of U.S. citizens, and in his last years he spoke against the imprisonment of his own Apache scouts. He died in command of the Division of the Missouri in Chicago in 1890 and is buried at Arlington.

Ohio ties

Wayne Township, opposite Johnson's station (post office Taylorsville) (1828-1848)
born and raised on his father's farm; the family settled there in 1814 Montgomery County · source

Timeline

1814 His father Thomas Crook, a Baltimore morocco dresser, rode to Ohio, bought the Montgomery County farm where he lived until his death, and brought the family west with his Matthews brothers-in-law. source
1828 Born on 8 September on the family farm, one of ten children of Thomas and Elizabeth Matthews Crook. source
1848 Entered West Point. source
1852 Graduated from West Point on 1 July, near the bottom of his class, and joined the 4th U.S. Infantry in California. source
1857 Commanded the Pitt River Expedition in northern California and was badly wounded by an arrow; Fort Crook was named for him. source
1861 Appointed colonel of the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in August and led it in western Virginia. source
1862 Commanded a brigade of the Kanawha Division at South Mountain and Antietam and was promoted brigadier general. source
1864 Led the Union victory at Cloyd's Mountain, Virginia, with Col. Rutherford B. Hayes's brigade leading the assault. source
1865 Captured by Confederate raiders at Cumberland, Maryland, in February and exchanged a month later; commanded a cavalry division in the Appomattox campaign. source
1874 His father Thomas Crook died on the Montgomery County farm. source
1876 Fought the Lakota and Cheyenne at the Rosebud and at Slim Buttes. source
1879 Was the named defendant in Standing Bear v. Crook, in which a federal judge held that the Ponca chief Standing Bear had some of the rights of U.S. citizens; Crook spoke for the Ponca. source
1883 Filed his annual report as commander of the Department of Arizona. source
1886 Met Geronimo at Cañon de los Embudos in March; when Geronimo's band slipped away, Crook was replaced by Nelson Miles. source
1888 Promoted major general and given command of the Military Division of the Missouri in Chicago. source
1890 Died suddenly in Chicago on 21 March; first buried at Oakland, Maryland, and reinterred at Arlington on 11 November. source
1891 His aide John G. Bourke published On the Border with Crook. source

Stories

A farm opposite Johnson's station

Thomas Crook was a morocco (fine leather) dresser in Baltimore whose health failed at the trade. In 1814 he rode to Ohio on horseback, bought a farm in what became Wayne Township, Montgomery County, then went back and brought his family west by wagon with his brothers-in-law, Judge Mathews and John Mathews. The 1909 county history places the half-section 'opposite Johnson's station', and says George was born there on 8 September 1828. Thomas served several terms as a justice of the peace, donated the lot for the Montgomery Chapel in 1852, and lived on the farm until his death in 1874. George's brother Charles was still farming there, with Taylorsville as his post office, when the 1882 county history was written.

Source

Hayes's commander

In the spring of 1864 Crook led a raid into southwest Virginia without telling his men where they were going. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, commanding one of his brigades, wrote in his diary that 'all things point to early action'. At Cloyd's Mountain, Crook stationed himself with Hayes's brigade, which led a frontal assault down a slope so steep that officers had to dismount, across a meadow under 'galling' fire and through a waist-deep creek. The Confederates broke. Hayes, a future president, admired Crook so much that he named a son George Crook Hayes, born in 1864, who died of scarlet fever before his second birthday.

Source

No tobacco, no coffee, no oaths

Lt. John G. Bourke, Crook's aide for years in Arizona and on the northern plains, described a commander who was 'as retiring as a girl', disliked publicity, and kept his plans to himself with a taciturnity that could exasperate his staff. Crook, he wrote, never took a stimulant of any kind, 'not so much as tea or coffee', never used tobacco, and was never heard to swear. He issued few orders, preferring to lead in person from the point nearest the skirmish line. Bourke's book, published the year after Crook's death, remains the main first-hand portrait of him.

Source

Named for George Crook

Crook County, Wyoming; Crook County, Oregon; Crook, Colorado source
Fort Crook, California (1857) and Fort Crook, Nebraska (1891, now part of Offutt Air Force Base) source
General Crook House, Fort Omaha, Nebraska (Omaha, Nebraska) source
General Crook Trail (Forest Road 300), Coconino National Forest, Arizona (Arizona) source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments.

Site of the Thomas Crook farm, birthplace of George Crook, 'opposite Johnson's station' (unknown)
Wayne Township (post office Taylorsville), Montgomery County Montgomery County · source
Crook grave, Arlington National Cemetery, Section 2, Site 974
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia source

Ohio places

Where George Crook was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Thomas Crook's farm, Montgomery County Montgomery County
Connected: Wayne Township, Montgomery County Montgomery County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about George Crook, and what the record shows.

Often said Crook was born in Taylorsville, Highland County, Ohio (the place Wikipedia's infobox links to).

The record That Taylorsville was laid out in 1846, 18 years after his birth. The Montgomery County histories place his birth on his father's farm in Wayne Township north of Dayton, and his brother Charles's post office there was Taylorsville. Find a Grave simply says Dayton. source

Often said Crook was born in Butler Township, Montgomery County.

The record The 1909 Dayton history says Butler Township in one chapter but puts the Crook farm in its Wayne Township chapter, and the 1882 county history places Thomas Crook among the Wayne Township pioneers. Wayne Township is better supported. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

The History of Montgomery County, Ohio (W. H. Beers, 1882), with the Charles Crook family sketch, p. 325-326 1882, Internet Archive
A. W. Drury, History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, vol. 1 (1909), Wayne Township chapter 1909, Internet Archive
John G. Bourke, On the Border with Crook (New York: Scribner's, 1891) 1891, Newberry Library (Internet Archive)
Annual report of Brigadier General George Crook, U.S. Army, commanding Department of Arizona, 1883 1883, Newberry Library (Internet Archive)
Annual report of Brigadier General George Crook, U.S. Army, commanding Department of Arizona, 1885 1885, Newberry Library (Internet Archive)

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Title: "Frank Grouard a Sandwich Islander who lived with Sitting Bull from Infancy. Gen. Crook's best scout."
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Print of bust portraits of five Union generals. Subjects include Generals Wesley Merritt, Alfred H. Terry, Joh...
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Al-Che-Say White Mountain Apache Scout under General Crook
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Portrait drawing of 19th-century United States Army general George Crook.
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Illus. in: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1876 Oct 14.: General Crook's Army crossing the west fork of ...
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Gen. George Crook, U.S.A., between 1873 and 1880. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Brady-...
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Original Caption: Gen. George Crook U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 111-B-2018 From:: Series: Mathew...
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