Degree Recipient

Life Experience

Robert Huston Milroy was born near the town of Salem in the Indiana Territory. He was educated at and graduated from Norwich University in Norwich, Vermont. He received both his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degrees and delivered the valedictory oration in 1843. He returned to Delphi, Indiana, before moving to Texas in 1845. He volunteered for military service in 1846 and became a captain in the Mexican War. He had the challenge and responsibility of keeping order and discipline among eager young Indiana volunteers stationed for an entire year along the banks of the Rio Grande River and in Mexico without seeing any enemy action. After the war, he returned to Indiana. In 1850, he graduated from IU Law School, practiced law in Delphi, and then became a judge in Rensselaer.

Milroy enlisted in the U.S. Army in February of 1861. He was already in the military when the Civil War started, and he served in the Union Army until the last day of the war. He rose to the rank of major general. He led Union forces in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Third Battle of Murfreesboro, the Battle of Rich Mountain, the Second Battle of Winchester, and the Battle of McDowell. Confederate President Jefferson Davis offered a reward of one hundred thousand dollars for Milroy’s capture, dead or alive. He defended the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad from Confederate attack. During the Second Battle of Winchester, his horse was hit by an exploding shell, and he was thrown from the saddle. He bruised his left hip but mounted another horse without seeking medical attention. Judge Gould wrote of Milroy, “He has a striking military air, being over six feet in stature, as straight as an arrow in form, and he has a sharp and piercing eye. He was beloved by all of his soldiers. In private life, of strict integrity and of a pure and unsullied character.”

Milroy returned to Indiana after the war. From 1865 to 1871, he was Indiana trustee of the Wabash & Erie Canal. From 1872 to 1885, he was Indian agent for the Washington Territory. He actively ensured that the aging Yakima chief, Kamiakin, would not be evicted from his ancestral land by area ranchers. Milroy eventually settled in the town of Olympia in the Washington Territory, where he was an elder in the Presbyterian church. His war injury caused him increasing suffering in his last years due to inflamed ligaments, which required him to use a cane. Milroy died in Olympia on March 29, 1890.

Marriage and Family

Milroy married Mary Jane Armitage in May 1849. In the 1850s, two of their seven children died young. His wife and his five surviving children joined him in the Washington Territory in 1873. Just before the turn of the century, his sons, Walter and Robert, went to the Alaska Territory to participate in the Klondike Gold Rush and stayed there for some years afterward. Walter resided in the settlements of Immachuck and Candle, in the latter as a U.S. Commissioner.

Interesting Anecdote

In 1891, a Women’s Relief Corps for wives, daughters, and widows of Civil War veterans was created and named in Milroy’s honor.

References

1. Wylie
2. Findagrave.com
3. Wikipedia
4. civilwartalk.com/threads/brigadier-general-Robert-h-Milroy-usa.128814/
5. thurstontalk.com/2019/05/25/memories-of-the-civil-war-the-grand-army-of-the-republic-in-olympia/
6. Indiana University (1875)
7. Washington Standard (Olympia, WA) 11/03/1899
8. Morning Olympian 02/24/1904
9. Bloomington World 09/09/1921
10. Indiana University Alumni Quarterly (1922) Vol. 9
11. The Remington Press 07/12/1935
12. The New York Times 06/02/2011