Thomas Mower McDougall

Early life and family

The son of Brevet Brigadier General Charles McDougall (Army Medical Corps) and Marie Hanson McDougall, he was born at Fort Crawford, near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He attended St. Mary's Academy near Baltimore, MD.

He appeared on the 1860 Federal census of Cornwall, Orange County, New York, in the household of his parents Dr Charles McDougall and Maria Griffith Hanson.

McDougall would marry a woman named Alice, who died in 1920. His brother-in-law was Lawrence Babbitt.

Career in U.S. Army prior to Little Bighorn Battle

McDougall started his army service during the Civil War. Before receiving a commission, he was with General Grant at the siege of Vicksburg in 1863 and he served without pay as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General J.P. Hawkins from Oct 1863 to Feb 1864, when only 17. From Kansas, at the age of 18 in 1864, he was appointed 2nd Lt, 10th US Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent, later redesignated as 48th US Colored Infantry. He was severely wounded in the battle of Lakeville, Louisiana. He was honorably mustered out of volunteer service on June 1, 1865, at Benton Barracks, Missouri, and the next day he was commissioned a Captain, Company G, 5th US Volunteer Infantry.

While serving with the 5th U.S. Volunteeer Infantry, he was in an Indian skirmish near Ellsworth Kansas, and was mustered out of service with "volunteer" forces, again, on August 10, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

From civil life McDougall was offered a commission as Second Lieutenant, 14th US Infantry, May 10, 1866. He accepted the commission on July 21, 1866, at Fort Laramie. On September 21, 1866, he was transferred to the 32nd US Infantry and received promotion to First Lieutenant to rank from January 14, 1867. After a brief service at Fort Vancouver and Fort Walla Walla, Washington McDougall went to Arizona in 1867, and engaged in scouting and had fights with Indians at Aravipa Canyon, Tonto Basin, Point of Mountain and Rock Springs, Arizona.

During the reorganization of the Army he was transferred to the 21st US Infantry on April 19, 1869, and was unassigned on October 21, 1869. He was assigned to the 7th US Cavalry on December 30, 1870, and was stationed in South Carolina during the Ku Klux Klan troubles in that state. He married Alice M. Sheldon on 21 May 1872 in Spartanburg, SC.

After the 7th Cavalry was reassembled at Fort Abraham Lincoln, he was engaged with Sioux at the mouth of the Big Horn River, Montana August 11, 1873 when accompanying the David Stanley Yellowstone Expedition. He also was on Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition, Commanding Company E.

Charged with being drunk on duty, he was acquitted during a court-martial in March 1875 and subsequently he was appointed Captain, 15 Dec 1875.

Participation in the Battle of the Little Bighorn

In 1876 Captain McDougall commanded Company B and accompanied the 7th Cavalry Regiment, under command of Lt. Col. George A. Custer in its fateful departure from Fort Abraham Lincoln to participate in what became known as the Great Sioux War of 1876, which culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.

On the early morning of the day of battle, June 25, 1876, Custer was on the divide between Rosebud Creek and the Little Bighorn River. From this divide, the Crow scouts had discovered a large Sioux and Cheyenne village in the Valley of the Little Bighorn River at about 12 to 15 miles distance. Custer divided his command into 4 groups. Colonel Custer retained five troops (C, E, F, I, and L); Major Reno had three troops (A,G, and M); Captain Benteen had three troops(H, D, and K), and Captain McDougall and his Troop B was assigned to guard the pack train. Lt. Edward G. Mathey was in charge of the pack train, but since it had the column's extra ammunition as well as their supplies one troop was assigned to guard it.

On the 25th, the mules of the pack train under McDougall's charge lagged behind the advancing 3 groups under Custer, Reno, and Benteen. The Indian village was large and historians believe that the village was much larger than Custer had anticipated. Reno engaged the Indians first by attacking the south end of the village in the Little Bighorn valley. Response by Indians from the village almost immediately outflanked Reno and his troops were driven under heavy pressure back to the timber along the river, and then up to the bluffs east of the river where he took up a fortified position. The rapidly growing force of Indian warriors then shifted their focus to deal with the approach from the north and east by the five troops with Custer. During this lull, Reno's battered contingent was joined and reinforced by Benteen, whose three troops had been sent on a lateral and fruitless scout to look for other Indian villages.

Benteen had received a message from Custer which said:"Benteen. Come on, Big Village, Be quick, Bring packs. P.S. Bring Packs." Benteen sent a messenger back to get McDougall's pack train. When the pack train came up to the position of Reno and Benteen on the bluffs, increased intensity of the Sioux and Cheyenne attack as well as a lack of knowledge of the location or fate of Custer's and his five troops caused Reno to direct Captain McDougall and the pack train to remain with him.

McDougall's troop and the pack train remained under attack with Reno and Benteen's troops on the bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn valley throughout the rest of the 25th, and until the late afternoon of the 26th when the Indian warriors withdrew and the Indian village in the valley packed up and moved south, going up the Little Bighorn valley. On the night of June 26, McDougall with two enlisted men recovered the body of Lieutenant Hodgson who had fallen in the valley fight and buried it on Reno Hill. On the June 27 Col. Gibbon arrived at the site of the battle with infantry reinforcements to relieve the 7th.

Later Career

in 1877, the year after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, McDougall was engaged with the 7th cavalry in scouting in Montana during the Nez Perce troubles in 1877, and commanded part of the escort for the surrendered Chief Joseph and his people from Bear Paw Mountain, Montana, to Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota.

He remained in Montana and Dakota Territory until 1880 and returned to Dakota in 1882 remaining until 1888. McDougall remained in the 7th Cavalry until retired for disability in the line of duty on July 22, 1890.

For his Civil War service, he was promoted to Major of Cavalry (Retired) on May 24, 1904, to rank from April 23, 1904.

He appeared on the 1880 Federal census of Billings, Custer County, Montana Territory, enumerated 12 June 1880.

Comment in 1897 letter from Captain Benteen

From Benteen's letter of March 29, 1897, to photographer D.F. Barry regarding Capt. McDougall: "Where is Tom McDougall now? I rather think that Washington---with its thousands of Army visitors---was too hot a place for Tom to make a permanent residence, as good fellow that he is, with a long practice of making astronomical observations thro' the bottom of a tumbler. It is almost an impossible place to correct such a habit. The last letter I had from Tom---which was long ago---he said he hadn't had a drink for---well, I can't say how long, but an almost impossible number of months."

Death

He died on July 3, 1909 in Brandon, Vermont. Both he and Alice are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.