Luther P. Bradley
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Brigadier General Luther Prentice Bradley was born December 22, 1822, in New Haven, Connecticut. For a short period he served as a lieutenant in the Connecticut militia but his mother was quite opposed to this as he was her only son. Later, Bradley moved to Chicago and entered the book business. When the Civil War began in 1861, he became a lieutenant colonel in the 51st Illinois Infantry Regiment. His mother again prevailed upon him to not join the military but he wrote her a letter in which he told of his need to serve in the military for his country. |
Before the campaigns of 1862 began he was promoted to colonel and with his regiment fought at New Madrid, Farmington, Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and Franklin, Tennessee. During his campaigning he was twice wounded.
His recollection of the early years of the war, 1861 and 1862, was that the volunteer Union army consisted of 500,000 men in units that were the flower of the North. From the latter years, 1863-65, he learned that the best soldiers were the younger men, ages 17 to 20, whom he called "boys", who could be more easily trained and molded into soldiers. He also came to believe that bravery in men changes based on time and condition, that a man who is usually brave and stalwart maybe, at another time, shrink from duty due to variable conditions such as exhaustion or health. He also nostalgically recalled how men on the march would often sing in unison to raise their spirits, especially on night marches.
Luther P. Bradley left the volunteer army at the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865. He then received a commission in the Regular Army and from 1866 to 1868 served as a lieutenant colonel in the 27th Infantry Regiment. In 1867 he married Ione Dewey who loved the Army and its way of life. From the very beginning of their marriage until 1886 she accompanied him to several location in the American West, or Indian Country. While assigned to Jackson Barracks at New Orleans in 1880 she first witnessed Mardi Gras. She left a detailed and spirited account of the many preparations of the floats and costumes and parades. She also reported that Bradley's troops provided an escort and band for the arrival of the "King" and other parade dignitaries.
Bradley was involved in the construction of several western forts used during the Indian Wars. While in Nebraska and Wyoming during the early years of his Western service he came into frequent contact with many noted Indian chiefs. He and the chiefs established and maintained such a great level of mutual respect that the chiefs called Bradley Eagle Eye. Mrs. Bradley also reported on an unannounced visit by a group of Indians to the front porch of their quarters where the Indians and General Bradley sat in a circle and passed a peace pipe. Bradley also attended the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as an official attendee for the Army.
After New Orleans, General Bradley was posted to Fort Wingate in the far northwestern New Mexico. Mrs. Bradley joined him later in 1880, traveling from New Orleans to St. Louis by boat, to Fort Leavenworth by train, then to Colorado Springs, next to Santa Fe, new Mexico and finally to Fort Wingate. This would be the final assignment for General Bradley. From there he retired to Tacoma, Washington, where he engaged in civic activities. He died in 1909 at age 87.
More about General and Mrs. Bradley's military service coming soon.
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