* During the Civil War, Commissary Sergeants were one of three Non-Commissioned Staff Sergeants, along with the Quartermaster Sergeant and Sergeant Major. The Commissary Sergeant was responsible for helping the Assistant Commissary of Subsistence, typically a Captain or Lieutenant, with overseeing the distribution of rations to the soldiers. Future President, and at the time, 19-year-old William McKinley, served as the Commissary Sergeant of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
DOB/DOD: December 17, 1842 (Hartford, CT) – March 22, 1908 (San Diego, CA); 65 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Mary E. Strickland (1850-1937) in 1870 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
CHILDREN: Eight daughters, Amanda S. (1870-1937), Clara W. Forsyth Fisher (1871-1951), Mary E. Forsyth Barrett (1874-1940), Isabella Forsyth Platt (1881-1938), Margaret J. (1883-1949), Pauline (1886-1886), Mabel A. Forsyth Hartigan [twin of Thomas H. III] (1887-1928), and Patience Forsyth Rowan May (1890-1953). Three sons, Henry H. (1879-1929) and George A. “Harvey” (1885-1972), and Thomas H. III [twin of Mable] (1887-1957).
ENLISTMENT: July 20, 1861.
FAMILY: Born to Thomas H. Sr. (1808-1865) and Isabella Macaulay Forsyth (1819-1865). One sister, Jean “Jennie” Forsyth Rolshouse (1843-1908). In 1900, he retired from the Army and became a rancher in Silver City, New Mexico.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: Indian Campaigns
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Army
UNIT: Company M, 4th U.S. Cavalry
DATE OF ISSUE AND PRESENTATION: July 14, 1891 (15 years later)
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 33
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to First Sergeant Thomas Hall Forsyth, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 25 November 1876, while serving with Company M, 4th U.S. Cavalry, in action at Powder River, Wyoming. Though dangerously wounded, First Sergeant Forsyth maintained his ground with a small party against a largely superior force after his commanding officer had been shot down during a sudden attack and rescued that officer and a comrade from the enemy.
From “Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyenne’s (1876)
As it became apparent that some of the warriors, trying to save the ponies from capture, had been pressed into the gulch near the base of the Red Butte and were trying to move up that rugged zigzag defile to escape,9 Mackenzie sent Lieutenant Henry W. Lawton to direct two companies (H of the Third Cavalry and M of the Fourth, operating as the rear units of Gordon’s battalion but far in advance of Mauck’s second battalion reserves) to thwart the movement and intercept the Indians. Immediately, the units raced ahead, rounded the Red Butte on its north side, and approached the largely unseen ravine in columns of fours. Company M led the way with Memphis-born First Lieutenant John A. McKinney, an 1871 West Point graduate, out in front, and Company H of the Third under Captain Henry W. Wessels following close behind. As the troops, pistols raised, closed on the gulch, they suddenly drew point-blank gunfire from fifteen or twenty warriors hidden therein, a volley that ripped into the thirty-year-old McKinney, knocking him from his saddle with four gunshot wounds, three of them mortal. McKinney’s horse was shot under him, and as the lieutenant fell, he screamed to his men, “Fall back! Fall back!” Two men, First Sergeant Thomas H. Forsyth and Private Thomas Ryan, dismounted and rushed to the officer’s side, their weapons blazing at the Indians. Two others, Sergeant Frank Murray and Corporal William J. Linn, also hurried forward. Within moments, a bullet grazed Forsyth’s head, and another struck Linn in the right hip joint, yet both were able to continue to discharge their weapons into the ravine while protecting the fallen lieutenant. The abruptness of the assault, together with the succeeding volley, caused Company M to reel to the right, back from the ravine, and many of the panicked cavalrymen started to retreat up a rise twenty or so yards to the rear. Adding to the confusion, the wounded horse of McKinney’s trumpeter, George Hicks, slumped atop its rider, pinning the man’s leg and trapping him, but using the animal as a breastwork, he was able to twist around and open fire on the warriors in the gorge. At the roar of gunfire and the sudden halting and repulse of McKinney’s first ranks, the men of Wessels’s Company H, riding directly behind, skewed their mounts sharply to the right to avoid a collision with McKinney’s horses and pulled up along the ravine on their flank, tumbling from their saddles at Wessels’s barked command to “Dismount and Fight on Foot!” and mixing in with the remaining horsemen of Company M. Although McKinney’s second in command, Second Lieutenant Harrison G. Otis, soon moved up and managed to help restore order, it had been Wessels’s prompt action near the ravine that had saved the teetering command from a possible rout.
Meanwhile, Forsyth and Linn, both wounded, remained at the scene close to the ravine, and with Sergeant Murray and Private Ryan, they surrounded and protected the stricken McKinney until he could be moved to the rear. Their action in staying at the ravine also most certainly saved Trumpeter Hicks from being killed. Forsyth’s head injury shortly rendered him unconscious. Things now happened rapidly, confusedly. The led horses were rushed to a point east of the Red Butte out of the line of fire, and the remaining soldiers of the two companies—seemingly moving in undisciplined bunches—advanced on the ravine and opened a fusillade that killed some of the tribesmen. “Just as we swung out of the saddle,” remembered Sergeant McClellan, “those in the gully poured in another volley, which passed over our head.” By the time of McKinney’s fall, Mackenzie had individual honors for the soldiers who attacked Morning Star’s people were not presently forthcoming. No soldiers were immediately nominated for the Medal of Honor. The closest such distinction came on November 30, 1876, when Lieutenant Harrison G. Otis, Company M, Fourth Cavalry, presented to Mackenzie a recommendation to recognize three of the individuals who had shielded Lieutenant McKinney as he lay unconscious at the edge of the ravine following his wounding. “I have the honor to call the attention of the Regimental Commander to the gallant conduct of 1st Sergeant Thomas H. Forsyth, Sergeant Frank Murray, and Corporal William J. Linn, Co. M, 4th Cavalry, as displayed in their successful efforts to defend the person of 1st Lieutenant John A. McKinney, 4th Cavalry, mortally wounded, from being outraged by the Indians during the fight of November 25, 1876. While thus engaged, 1st Sergeant Forsyth and Corporal Linn were wounded, yet all three maintained their positions, protecting the body of Lieutenant McKinney until its recovery, and I take great pleasure in recommending them to the Regimental Commander for honorable mention.” Despite this endorsement, none of the men won recognition for their valor for some time, and Private Thomas Ryan, Company M, Fourth Cavalry, who had played an important role during the moments following McKinney’s fall, did not even receive mention in Otis’s citation. But in 1880, Ryan received a Certificate of Merit for “extraordinary gallantry,” entitling him to two dollars extra pay each month for “maintaining his stand with but two of his comrades, one of them disabled, thus rallying the troop in time to rescue the body of his commanding officer.” By that time, however, Murray and Linn, mentioned in Otis’s initial communication, had left the service and received nothing. In 1891, following a petition by former adjutant Joseph H. Dorst and others, Forsyth was granted a Medal of Honor – the only such recognition accorded any participant in the engagement. Finally, six officers received brevet commissions in 1894 for their performances at the Red Fork. Besides the deceased McKinney, they were Second Lieutenant Hayden DeLany, Ninth Infantry; Second Lieutenant Homer W. Wheeler and Captain Wirt Davis, Fourth Cavalry; and Captains John M. Hamilton and Walter S. Schuyler, Fifth Cavalry.
From “The History of Fort Davis” (1991)
Sergeant Thomas Hall Forsyth, one of Fort Davis’s most interesting characters, was a member of both the Good Templars’ and Oddfellows’ lodges. A Civil War veteran, Hall’s heroic action in protecting the body of his commanding officer in 1876 was later rewarded with the Medal of Honor. The sergeant married in 1871 and had eleven children, one of whom wed a Third Cavalryman at Fort Davis. From a wealthy family, he enjoyed dancing, music, and chess and subscribed to several Eastern newspapers. Forsyth became commissary sergeant at the post on the Limpia in 1885. Holding down one of the army’s most honored noncommissioned slots, Forsyth was allotted an individual adobe house befitting his position.
The following are letters obtained from the Arizona Historical Society, Forsyth papers, MS 1090, Box 1, Folder 15. Used with permission.
Fort Davis, Texas.
March 9th, 1891.
To Capt. J. H. Dorst,
4th Cavalry.
Sir:
I see by Act of Congress that the law awarding certificates of merit to privates for acts of a meritorious character has been amended so that all classes of enlisted men can obtain this recognition, and since reading this amended law, I have been debating in my mind the propriety of asking for it and have at last concluded to do so for this reason.
I am now in a position in which it is almost impossible to render any distinguished or meritorious service that would meet the requirements. I, of course, can render faithful service, which I hope to do, but that will not answer, so I have to call on my service in the old Regiment, which is a matter of record. I believe that General MacKenzie, were he alive, would endeavor to procure me the recognition he failed to get at Garland in 1880. I presume you will call it to mind as you were Adjutant at the time.
I would like to leave my children something besides my name when I answer the last roll call, and anything that could bear testimony to bravery and gallantry on the part of their father in action would be the best and noblest remembrance that a soldier’s children could have,
To this end, I respectfully ask that you take the matter in hand, in conjunction with the old officers of the 4th who remember me and try to obtain for me what I deserve.
The Regimental records will give you full information to guide you in this matter, or if you so desire, I will send you copies from the extracts given me by you when I was made Company Sergeant. I do not particularly care for the money consideration accompanying the certificate of merit would far rather be recognized in some other way, and men have been decorated for less cause, but if I cannot obtain the decoration, I will gladly accept the other,
Trusting that you will take this into favorable consideration, I am, sir.
Very Respectfully
Your obedient servant
T.H. Forsyth, Company Sergeant U.S.A.
Fort Davis, Texas.
April 6th, 1891.
Captain J. H. Dorst,
4th U.S. Cavalry,
Presidio of San Francisco, Cal,
Sir:
Yours of 28th March at hand, and in reply, I enclose your copies of endorsements, etc., bearing on the matter in question.
Your recollection of the affair is fairly correct, except that instead of having five or six, I was only able to get two. Sergeant Murray and Captain Limm are to stay with me. The number of Indians I do not know. Some of the men say thirty, others say about twenty-five. I was too busy working my carbine to count them, but I think your estimate of fifteen is about right. There were that many, at least, but it would have been the same if there had been fifty.
The facts are thus.
On entering the broken ground from the mouth of the canyon, I removed my overcoat and fur gloves and strapped them to my saddle. Lieutenant McKinney, watching me, asked what I was doing that for, and I told him I thought it would be warm enough without them when we got into the fight. He followed suit and told me to stick to him no matter what happened. I told him I would, and I believe I kept my word.
When the Indians opened on us, we were in a column of fours with drawn pistols. The head of the column received the first volley. Lieutenant McKinney and Trumpeter Hicks went down. The Lieutenant ordered us, “fall back,” “fall back.” The Company, except Private Ryan and myself, who had dismounted, instantly turned by the right flank and retreated up the little hill about twenty yards in rear of us. I had ordered the Company to halt, dismount, and deploy to the front as skirmishers. Sergeant Murray and Corporal Limm remained with me. Private Ryan and myself had opened with our carbines, and so far, all the credit is due to him as had he not acted as he did, the Indians would, in all probability, either killed me or driven me back. The Company, under Lieutenant Otis, had by this time recovered from the momentary panic and advanced with “F” Co, under the command of Captain Davis. Corporal Linn and I were both wounded, but we could still handle our arms and covered Lieutenant McKinney’s body until it was it was recovered and carried back. I fainted from the loss of blood about then and remember nothing further until I found myself with other wounded men back out of the line of fire.
The above facts are, so far as my memory serves me correctly, giving Col Lawton, I think, observed the whole or part of the affair related and can verify my statement.
Now, as to my making application for this, I do not think that I should do so for this reason that a soldier cannot himself say what is distinguished gallantry on the battlefield. Consequently, it would come with poor grace from me to apply for a certificate for such services when my commanding officers have not thought fit to do so: the application should come from some officer who was then and is cognizant of the facts, and you and Colonel Lawton are the only officers I know of whom I could ask to do this, have not written to Colonel Lawton and would much rather you would make the recommendation to the Colonel commanding the Regiment, and have it referred to Col. Lawton for such remarks as he may deem fit. Then, have him return it to Regimental Headquarters and, from there, forwarded to the proper authority.
I know I am putting you to considerable trouble, but if you deem my services at the time worthy of recognition, you will not, I believe, regard the time and trouble given to obtain for me what I should always be proud of.
I am sir,
Very Respectfully
Your obedient servant
T. H, Forsyth
Commissary Sgt, U.S.A.
Troop “K” 4th Cavalry
Presidio of S. F. Calif
May 10, 1892
The Adjutant General, U.S.A.
Washington, D.C.
Post Headquarters
Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith two letters from Commissary Sergeant T.H. Forsyth U.S.A., late Sergeant Major of the 4th Cavalry, and certain papers in connection with them. The letters explain themselves, and the statements in the one dated April 6th concerning certain incidents in an affair with hostile Indians near the Sioux Pass of the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming, on November 25, 1876, I am sure, are correct. I know of but three officers now in the service who were with the regiment in that fight. They are Lieutenant Colonel Lawton, Inspector General’s Department, Major Wirt Davis of the 5th Cavalry, and myself. Colonel Lawton was then 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster, Major Davis was a captain, and I was a 2nd Lieutenant and adjutant, though my appointment as adjutant was afterward revoked by orders from Washington because there was a supernumerary 1st Lieutenant in the regiment. The troops engaged were six troops, 4th Cavalry, two 3rd Cavalry, and two 5th Cavalry, with Colonel Mackenzie, 4th Cavalry, commanding the whole.
The Indians were the whole of the northern Cheyennes, then numbering about 1,500 people and a few Sioux. The village lay in a deep canyon in the heart of the mountains and was attacked at daylight. Sergeant Forsyth was the late Sergeant of Troop M, 4th Cavalry, Lieutenant John McKinney commanding. The troop was the sixth in the column, and all were delayed so long in reaching the village by having to cross a very boggy stream and then pick their way through a wild growth of high and almost impenetrable brush that the head of the column was engaged for some time before the rear troops could come into action. They had to advance about half a mile after getting clear of the brush. The village lay on the left side of the canyon on the stream. The canyon was probably 600 yards wide with precipitous walls on either side, that on the right being at least 800 feet high. The ground between that side and the village sloped toward the stream was uneven and cut up by ravines heading at the right side of the canyon and running towards the stream. These ravines were washed-out gullies, about twenty feet deep with almost vertical sides, and were not noticeable until they were nearly reached.
When the troops at the head of the column rushed through the village, the Indians fled in all directions, and many ran up into the ravines for shelter and followed them up to get under the cover of the rocks and trees on the side of the canyon.
I am aware of only the following facts concerning the matter in question. After the fighting commenced, Colonel MacKenzie sent me back with some instructions for the troops in the rear coming up. While going back, I was passed by Troop M moving to the front at a fast gallop in a column of fours with Lieutenant McKinney at the head. While I was returning, I saw Troop “M” several hundred yards in front of me, falling back on some disorder. It came possibly 80 or 100 yards and then rallied. When I came up with it, I saw about a dozen wounded men lying about that belonged to different troops, and Lieut, McKinney was dying, having received six wounds. I learned afterward that Lieutenant Me Kinney had come upon one of the ravines, which in the gray of the morning was not seen until it was reached, and he had then encountered one of the bands of Indians that were running up the ravine for shelter. The ravine was too deep and wide, and the sides too nearly vertical for the columns to cross it mounted, and he turned to the right, evidently to go around its head. The column was within eight or ten feet of the ravine, and just as the column turned, the Indians fired. At the lowest estimate, this band numbered fifteen men, but some said the number was greater. As the Indians fired, Lieutenant McKinney called out “all back” and fell from his horse, The horse of Trumpeter Hicks Troop “M” was killed and fell on him so that he could not get away. Hicks was not hurt, and the horse served as a breastwork till the Indians were driven away. Second Lieutenant Otis, the other officer with the troop, had his cap torn by a bullet and started back with nearly all the troop as ordered, not noticing that Lieutenant McKinney was hurt but Sergeant Forsyth and a few men that remained with him by his orders, stopped when the troop fell back, opening fire on the Indians and alone kept them from getting Lieutenant McKinney’s body and killing Trumpeter Hicks. Sergeant then Corporal Linn was shot in the hip joint while dismounting to help Sergeant Forsyth, and before relief came, the latter was himself shot in the head. For a long while, it was uncertain that he would live, and I know that he suffered from the wound up to the time he was made Commissary Sergeant in 1880. The speedy succor of these men was due to Lieutenant now Lieutenant Colonel Lawton, who noticed the disorder in the troops, at once assumed command of it, rallied it, and took it back to the place it had fled from.
Of the men mentioned by Sergeant Forsyth, I think that Sergeant Murray is now out of the service. Sergeant Linn was discharged in ’78 or ’79 for disability, and Private Ryan was lately a member of Battery B, 5th Artillery, at this post. He was discharged for disability about a month ago and died in Oakland while on his way to the Hot Springs of Arkansas. There was no officer who was cognizant of everything Sergeant Forsyth did. The above statements were common talk at the time and are a summary of the statements made to Colonel MacKenzie by Lieutenant Lawton, Lieutenant Otis, and a number of enlisted men when he was investigating the circumstances of Lieutenant McKinney’s death.
Private Ryan received a certificate of merit for his conduct that day, but as those certificates could only be given to privates, soldier Sergeant Forsyth was not recommended for one. I know that Colonel Mackenzie wished him to have one and preferred to recommend for that instead of for a Medal of Honor because the certificate carried extra pay with it, and the Sergeant, being a married man, needed the money.
I know Sergeant Forsyth well, having had him as Sergeant Major for three years while I was regimental adjutant, and I know that he is honest, brave, modest, sensitive, and conscientious in every respect. I have as high a degree of respect for him as I have for any man, and it is only because he knows I understand him that a man so quiet and unassuming would write me so freely. I do not believe that under the law, he can get a certificate of merit now for gallant conduct fifteen years ago. But there are precedents for granting Medals of Honor long after they were won. It is reported by the newspapers that only a short time ago, General Martin T. McMahon received one for his gallantry in the Civil War. I believe that Gen Mackenzie, who was most of the praise, would recommend this soldier for one now. Without stopping to count the Indians opposed to him when his commander was shot down, and his other officer and all but one man was retreating and while under hot fire from a greater superior force at a distance of not more than 10 yards, he had the resolution and moral and physical courage to stand his ground and keep other men with him and by his action, protected his body from desecration and saved the life of a comrade. In doing so, he received a wound that, for a long time, threatened his life and caused him suffering for years. I think he is fully entitled to a medal and request that these papers be submitted to Lieutenant Colonel W. Lawton, Inspector General U.S.A., for his report and opinion.
Very Respectfully-
Your Obedient Servant
W.H. Dorest, Captain 4th Cavalry, Troop K
From Motor Travel Magazine for July 1930, pp. 15-18; these items are in blocked-off inserts in an article titled “A Day with the ‘Fighting Cheyennes’.”
“Gallant Conduct Promptly Acknowledged”
Company M, 4th Cavalry, Camp on
Crazy Woman’s Creek, Wyoming Territory
November 30, 1876.
Colonel R.S. Mackenzie
Commanding 4th Cavalry.
Sir:
I have the honor to call the attention of the Regimental Commander to the gallant conduct of 1st Sergeant Thomas H. Forsyth, Sergeant Frank Murray, and Corp. William J. Linn, Co. M, 4th Cavalry, as displayed in their successful efforts to defend the person of 1st Lieutenant John A. McKinney, 4th Cavalry, mortally wounded, from being outraged by the Indians during the fight of November 25, 1876.
While thus engaged, 1st Sergeant Forsyth and Corp. Linn were wounded, yet all three maintained their positions, protecting the body of Lieutenant McKinney until its recovery, and I take great pleasure in recommending them to the Regimental Commander for honorable mention.
Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
(Signed) H.G. Otis, 2nd Lt.,
4th U.S. Cavalry, Commanding Co, M,
An excellent type of heroic non-commissioned officer of the Old Army, Sergeant Forsyth carried with him into the Powder River Expedition of 1876 scars from wounds received in the Civil Wars and also had the experience of service under Colonel Mackenzie in the Southwest during the early 1870s. When Lieutenant McKinney’s company was ordered into the charge, Forsyth was in the forefront of the attack, and after McKinney had been killed, he, with two comrades, beat back the savage warriors and rescued the body of his former commander, for which a Congressional Medal of Honor was well bestowed.
Born at Hartford, Conn., December 17, 1842; first enlistment at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 20, 1861; eighth enlistment, October 14, 1897; placed on the retired list after long and faithful service, December 20, 1898; died at San Diego, California, March 22, 1908. A wound in the back, made by a bullet which struck his spine sideways during the Civil War, and one in his temple received in the Dull Knife fight, undoubtedly hastened his death. Sergeant Forsyth had other but less severe wounds. It would be difficult to find a better record than his. Mrs. Forsyth, the widow who married the sergeant in 1871, still resides in San Diego.
“A Medal of Honor for the Dull Knife Fight”
Particularly in view of the number of officers, several of high rank, participating in that engagement, it is interesting to note that the only Medal of Honor ever bestowed by the Government for conspicuous gallantry in action was to a non-commissioned officer, Thomas H. Forsyth. This was granted to him on July 14, 1891, with the following citation:
FORSYTH, Thomas Hall, Commissary Sergeant: for distinguished gallantry in action against hostile *Sioux Indians near the Sioux Pass* (see note below) of the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming Territory, November 25, 1876, where he was dangerously wounded, maintaining his ground with a small party against a largely superior force of Indians during a sudden attack, after his commanding officer had been shot down, and rescuing that officer # (see note below) and a comrade from the enemy; while serving as 1st Sergeant, Troop M., 4th Cavalry.
* an incidental error–should have stated Northern Cheyenne Indians; reference to the “Sioux Pass” corresponds with Colonel Mackenzie’s report of November 26, 1876, as to the march on the hostile village having been “in a southwesterly direction toward the Sioux Pass of the Big Horn Mountains.” Now correctly defined as along the Red Fork of Powder River at the eastern edge of those mountains near Barnum, Johnson Co., Wyoming.
# Lieutenant John A. McKinney, commanding Troop M in that engagement and the only commissioned officer killed in it.
Wirt Davis, then Captain, Company F, 4th Cavalry, received a Brevet Commission (February 27, 1890) as Lieutenant Colonel for gallant service in action in Texas (1872) and in the Dull Knife fight; and Walter S. Schuyler, then 1st Lieutenant, 5th Cavalry, a Brevet Commission (February 27, 1890) as Captain for gallantry in action in the Dull Knife fight — Sergeant Forsyth’s Medal of Honor and these two brevet commissions being the only official honors from that engagement.
Buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, 3751 Market Street, San Diego, California; Masonic Section P, Lot 5, Grave 6B. Photos from FindAGrave.com.
END