Frontier Duty and West Point
After the war's end, Merritt continued to serve in the cavalry along the frontier. He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly-raised U.S. 9th Cavalry on July 28, 1866, and in July 1867 was sent to command Fort Davis, Texas, garrisoned by six of the regiment's companies. He was made colonel of the 5th Cavalry on July 1, 1876, which he commanded in the Battle of Slim Buttes during the Indian Wars. He served on the frontier until being appointed superintendent of West Point, a post he filled from 1882 to 1887. In 1887, he was appointed a brigadier general in the regular army. He was promoted to major general in the U.S. Army in 1895. As colonel of the 5th Cavalry, Merritt was a member of the court of inquiry which first sat on January 13 1879 presided over by Colonel John H King 9th Infantry, which was convened to consider the behaviour of Major Marcus A Reno 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn ( June 25/26 1876 ) which resulted in the death of General George Armstrong Custer and over 200 men of the 7th Cavalry.
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Famous quotes containing the words west point, frontier, duty, west and/or point:
“You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open, and you see if he gets shot. They thought that one up at West Point.”
—Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter. Zab (Robert Carradine)
“It is very perplexing how an intrepid frontier people, who fought a wilderness, floods, tornadoes, and the Rockies, cower before criticism, which is regarded as a malignant tumor in the imagination.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“an age of unscrupulous and shameless book-making, it is a duty to give notice of the rubbish that cumbers the ground. There is no credit, no real power required for this task. It is the work of an intellectual scavenger, and far from being specially honourable.”
—Richard Holt Hutton (1826–1897)
“His role was as the gentle teacher, the logical, compassionate, caring and articulate teacher, who inspired you so that you wanted to please him more than life itself.”
—Carol Lawrence, U.S. singer, star of West Side Story. Conversations About Bernstein, p. 172, ed. William Westbrook Burton, Oxford University Press (1995)
“What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution.”
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)