View source for Henry Holden

Place of Birth: London

Date of enlistment: 9 January 1872

Age given at enlistment: 33

Rank: Private

Company: D

Location on 25 June 1876: In hilltop fight

The first verifiable reference therefore to this elusive Englishman can be found when he joined Captain Albert Cook’s Company C, 59th Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers, at Boston, on 5 January 1864. This regiment had been organised just a few weeks earlier and on the 20 April moved to Rappahannock Station, via Washington, D.C., to join the Army of the Potomac, where it was attached to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division of the 9th Army Corps under General Ambrose Burnside. The 59th fought in virtually every major engagement from the Battle of the Wilderness to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox on 9 April 18653 and, other than reputedly receiving a minor wound at Totopotomoy Creek, Holden survived the War between the States unscathed. He was transferred to Company C, 57th Massachusetts Volunteers on June 1, 1865 and mustered out at Delaney House, D.C., two months later.

On 9 January 1872, in Chicago, he was sworn into the United States Army by Captain Samuel Young, and assigned to Company D, 7th U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Captain Thomas B. Weir.

	

Holden was in Baltimore, Maryland on 23 November 1865 when he enlisted in the 8th U.S. Infantry and was assigned to Company E, then stationed at Hancock Barracks in the same city. The following April Companies E, G and I were sent to Charleston, South Carolina, and remained in that state on Reconstruction duty for several years. He was discharged as a “Private of Good Character,” in Columbia, South Carolina on 23 November 1868, and one month later re-enlisted in the same regiment and re-assigned to his old company. His enlistment papers show him as being 5 feet 5 inches in height, weighing 136 lbs, with grey eyes, light hair and a fair complexion, born London, England, age 30.

In 1870 the 8th Infantry, which the previous year had consolidated with the 23rd under its own number, was transferred to David’s Island, New York Harbor, to be on stand-by in readiness to proceed at short notice to the island of San Domingo should they be required to safeguard the interests of the United States there. In the event the troops were not deployed and were to remain in their barracks to await further orders, which came under the most unusual circumstances.

It was the calamitous fire that broke out late in the evening of 8 October 1871 that caused Companies D, E, G and I being sent to Chicago, Illinois, for the protection of property belonging to the victims of that conflagration. Holden’s second period of service with the 8th Infantry terminated while he was still in the Windy City and he was duly discharged on 23 December 1871; thus enabling him to celebrate his first Christmas out of uniform in seven years.

Along with several other new recruits he was sent to the depot at St. Louis, on 2 February to be kitted out before being transferred to Chester, South Carolina, where he joined his company eleven days later. Within a few weeks Company D was sent to Opelika, Alabama, and was to remain in that state for the rest of year.

Company D left Livingston, Alabama, by rail on March 13, 1873 and arrived at Memphis, Tennessee, the following day. It remained in camp there for the next three weeks before setting out for Fort Snelling, Minnesota, which they reached on the 11th of April, and were joined by Company I, under the command of Captain Myles W. Keogh. Both companies left  Snelling by rail and arrived at Fort Breckinridge, Dakota Territory (present-day Minnesota) two days later.

From there they marched 190 miles due north, via Fort Abercrombie, to Fort Pembina, on the Canadian border, which they reached on June 22. Ten days later they left Fort Pembina as escort to the [International] Northern Boundary Survey Commission (NBSC), as it marked the border between the United States and Canada [49th parallel] and prepared for the building of the railway. The Seventh Cavalry’s contingent was under the command of Major Marcus A. Reno, who had arrived at Pembina several weeks earlier. Captain James M. Bell, Company D, acted as his adjutant.

	

Their base camp, named Terry, was established on the Souris (or Mouse) River in Dakota Territory, a distance of some 250 miles west of Fort Pembina. For the next two months they were involved on guard and general duties, never actually encountering any hostile Indians. On October 10, they marched to Fort Stevenson, a distance of 119 miles, which they reached on the fourth day. From Fort Stevenson they set off for Fort Totten, a further 250 miles east, and arrived there late in the evening of October 12, 1873. Both companies were to remain at Fort Totten, by Devil’s Lake, until the following spring.

On 30 May 1874 Companies D and I left Fort Totten for a second stint of duty with the NBSC and the following day left the Devil’s Lake area and marched 24 miles to the Sheyenne River. Their journey resumed in earnest the next morning and continued until they reached “Camp 23″ on Porcupine Creek, Montana Territory, a distance marched of 399 miles. During the month of July both companies performed duties in the field as escort to the NBSC and, on the last day in the month left camp on Lime Creek and encamped in the Sweet Grass Hills, also in Montana Territory, having covered another 326 miles. Then, on 1 August, they headed back east and encamped near the Missouri River, between Fort Peck and Fort Buford, which added an further 347 miles to their near epic march.  The surely ‘saddle-sore’ column finally marched into Fort Totten on 14 September, but not before riding an incredible 369 miles.

The year, 1875, appears to have passed without any major incident and on 17 April 1876 Companies D and I left Fort Totten en route for Fort Abraham Lincoln, where they remained in camp near Fort Seward until the end of the month. On 1 May they set out for Lincoln to join the rest of the regiment, which would form part of General Alfred Terry’s Dakota Column, and arrived there three days later.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn is too well known to be recited here in detail other than to say that Company D was part of Captain Frederick W. Benteen’s battalion, which was ordered by Custer to “scout to the left” around noon on Sunday, June 25, 1876. However, after having crossed two lines of bluffs without finding any trace of a valley through which the hostiles might effect an escape they returned to the main trail and halted for a short while at ‘the morass’ where both men and horses took the unexpected opportunity to slake their thirst. A few miles further brought them to the beautifully decorated lone tepee and in a short while they met Reno’s shattered battalion immediately following its disorderly withdrawal from the disastrous valley fight. Company D dismounted, formed a skirmish line, secured the position and waited for the order to advance, which they felt sure would be given as it was clear from the sound of distant gunfire that Custer had engaged with the enemy. They were still there half an hour or so later until Captain Weir, acting on his own initiative, ordered them to ride to “a conspicuous crest a mile north of the Reno-Benteen position” – now known as Weir Point. Exactly how long they remained in the vicinity of Weir Point continues to be the subject of endless debate but when a band of hostile warriors threatened their line Company D, and the other companies that had joined them, beat a hasty retreat to the original defensive position. Along with the remnant of Lt. George D. Wallace’s Company G, they were placed on the north-eastern boundary where the men dug in as best they could. It was during the action on Reno Hill that Holden’s bravery under fire earned him the Medal of Honor.4 The story goes that he volunteered to retrieve ammunition from the pack mules that were concentrated in a shallow depression in the centre of the defence site. Lieutenant Winfield S. Edgerly witnessed Holden when he “brought up ammunition under a galling fire from the enemy,” which were the words used for his citation. The fighting continued in earnest until around noon the following day when the enemy fire began to slacken, and by the late afternoon, the battle was over.

Although several troopers were killed and many more wounded on Reno Hill Holden was very fortunate to survive unharmed. His name can be found among  235 survivors of the battle who, on the fourth of July, at a camp near the mouth of the Bighorn, where if flows into Yellowstone River, are  alleged to have signed a petition addressed to the President and Congress of the United States, asking that Major Reno be promoted to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the regiment’s lieutenant colonel, Custer, and that Captain Benteen be the promoted to fill the vacancy caused by the requested promotion of Reno.5 Like much associated with the battle and its aftermath, the authenticity of this document remains in doubt and the finger of suspicion for ‘this devious scheme’ points at First Sergeant Joseph McCurry, Company H, and, by association, his company commander, Frederick Benteen. Although this petition received a great deal of publicity in the Press and was endorsed by General William T. Sherman himself, it never did reach the President or Congress. However, it may have achieved its original objective of deflecting, if only temporarily, any potential criticism of the conduct of the two senior surviving officers during a crucial stage of the battle on June 25.

Four days later Holden was promoted to Corporal, effective from July 1, 1876, the only time he ever held a non-commissioned rank in over 15 years of service in the United States Army. Other than the wounded, which were transported in record-breaking time to Fort Abraham Lincoln aboard the steamer Far West, the regiment was to remain in the field for the rest of that summer and would not arrive back at the fort until the 26th of September. Shortly after, Company D was posted to Fort Rice where Holden was discharged as a “Corporal of Good Character” on 9 January 1877, having completed five years service.

For the next eighteen months his whereabouts remain unknown to this writer but on 10 July 1878 he presented himself at the recruiting office in Washington, D.C., when he was enlisted by Captain Corbin into the 2nd U.S. Artillery Regiment and assigned to Battery A, then garrisoned at Fort McHenry, Baltimore.

Colonel [Brevet Major General] William F. Barry [1818-1879].
Apparently, on his being discharged from the 7th Cavalry he left no forwarding address with the military authorities and consequently, when he was awarded the Medal of Honor on 5 October 1878, he was unable to be traced; his medal being retained by the Adjutant General’s Office. A few months later however he did learn of the award and, as a result, was presented with the medal by his commanding officer, Colonel William F. Barry, during a full dress parade at Fort McHenry on 10 April 1879.6  Barry died on 18 July 1879. “He had been suffering a long while from disease of the kidneys, and recently obtained leave of absence, and was preparing to leave his post for the springs. A few days since General Barry accompanied Collector Thomas, Mayor Latrobe and a party of distinguished gentlemen down the bay on the revenue cutter Ewing, and on his return was seized with an attack of dysentery, which becoming complicated with malarial fever, caused his death.”  [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 July 1879]

Holden’s service with the 2nd Artillery passed without further incident until 10 February  1882 when by a cruel twist of fate he received a serious injury to his lower right leg from a kick by a horse during a routine exercise at Washington Barracks. The tibia was broken and the leg very badly crushed, which resulted in Holden requiring treatment in the Post Hospital where he remained until he was discharged for “total disability” on 28 November 1882.7 His wound was never to totally heal and perhaps he would have suffered less if the lower part of the limb had been amputated. As it was, the leg was left permanently deformed and shortened, necessitating the use of crutches or a cane, and Holden was reduced to walking with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life. He took up residence at the National Soldiers’ Home, Washington, D.C., and was immediately granted a pension of $18 a month, which commenced on December 4, 1882. Three months later this was increased to $24, which was equivalent to approximately £5.00 sterling.

He was still at the National Soldiers’ Home as late as June 1883 but again sank into obscurity for the next four years until resurfacing at 36 White Hawk [now known as Whitehawk] Road, in the Kemp Town district of Brighton,8  When, or why, he returned to England and decided to settle in this fashionable seaside resort are just two further questions that have never been satisfactorily answered but bearing in mind his ongoing need for medical attention, White Hawk Road’s close proximity to a major surgical hospital was undoubtedly a most suitable place to live. Over the next 18 years he was an inpatient at the Sussex County Hospital, in Eastern Road, on at least four separate occasions and had several pieces of bone removed from his injured limb.9 Not surprisingly this had a detrimental effect on his general health and, according to his doctor, no doubt aggravated the diabetes which would ultimately be the cause of his demise. Early in 1890 the U.S. Department of the Interior – Bureau of Pensions – wrote to Dr. Joseph Ewart of Brighton asking him to examine Holden to ascertain whether the extent of his disability “ … is equal to the loss of a leg or foot. Does he walk with the aid of artificial means?” Dr. Ewart replied, “I have carefully examined Henry Holden … who is suffering from the effects of Fracture of the right leg, which, in my opinion, totally incapacitates him from the performance of manual labour, and is, therefore, equivalent to the loss of a limb or foot.” Accordingly, his pension continued to be paid.

 
	

Although Brighton had flourished for over a century, since the patronage of the Prince Regent (the future King George IV), its outward success disguised an underlying problem of deprivation and crime. Wealth was by no means evenly spread and by the time Holden arrived in the town poverty was approaching crisis levels. In common with many of his neighbours he took in a lodger to help make ends meet.10

The Census of Brighton, taken on the night of 5 April 1891, proved most informative as not only does it record that 53 year-old Holden was, for the first time, claiming to have been born in Brighton – not London as previously indicated – but he had taken a ‘local’ girl, known merely as Eleanor, to be his wife. The curious thing however is that there is no evidence of a marriage ever taking place in this country, which leads one to conclude that they never formally “tied the knot.”

Advertising poster for Colonel W. F. Cody's "Wild West" Show (1891).

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s “Wild West” Show arrived in Brighton in October 1891 and one can only wonder what effect this might have had on someone who had so recently participated in a real battle against some of the Indian performers. Did Holden even attend the show? If so, did he introduce to himself Mr. Cody? Did he arrive appropriately ‘suited and booted’ with his Medal of Honor proudly pinned on his chest?? What did he make of his former foes? Did he tell all those around him what “really happened” on the bluffs above the Little Big Horn River. Alas, another batch of questions that will forever remain unanswered.

Legally wedded or not, in 1892 the Holdens moved a few doors away to number 30 White Hawk Road, where Eleanor died of phthisis on 7 April 1894, age 55; having suffered from this dreadful disease for at least the previous 12 months.11 She was interred in the Brighton & Preston Cemetery, Hartington Road, a privately-owned burial ground which had opened less than eight years before. However as no records of interments from its early history have survived it has not been possible to locate her grave. To add to the mystery, in 1898 when Holden was asked to provide details of his first wife to the U.S. Bureau of Pensions, he guardedly avoided divulging her maiden name and simply referred to her as “Mrs Eleanor Holden,” rather than, for example, Eleanor “Smith” or “Jones” as one might more reasonably expect. The identity of Eleanor has never been established.

It seems that Holden had become accustomed to having a woman around the house as on November 17, 1894 – less than eight months from the time of Eleanor’s death – he married Frances Ann Little (née Saunders), a 45 year-old widow and mother of two young sons.12 The Littles had moved into 35 White Hawk Road, next door to Henry and Eleanor, sometime around 1890.13 Having no children of their own, it is quite likely that the Holdens befriended their  new young neighbours and one can visualise an avuncular Henry fuelling their imagination with thrilling tales of his adventures in the American West with such legendary characters as Sitting Bull, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, and, not least, the legendary General George Armstrong Custer. Frances Little may well have nursed Eleanor Holden during the last few months of her life and, in turn, was on hand to console a grieving widower at his time of loss.

Whether or not it was anything more than a practical arrangement, Henry Holden and Frances Little were married by the parish curate, the Reverend H. Forster Morris, at St. Mark’s Church, Eastern Road, Brighton, on 17 November 1894. The marriage certificate shows Henry Holden as being an Army Pensioner, son of Henry Holden (deceased), and 58 years of age.

St. Mark's Church, Eastern Road, Brighton [now no longer used for religious purposes] - June 2013. Author's photograph.

Now why would he suddenly decide to increase his age by two years when he was already almost certainly 11 years older than his bride? It may have been to show he was born in 1836, i.e. the year before civil registration was introduced in England and Wales, and thereby avoid the need to produce a birth certificate at the time of arranging his wedding, which was the accepted practice at this time.14 A cynic may think it would have revealed his real name and the fact he wasn’t a native of this seaside town after all!  We shall never know.

The witnesses to the marriage were Martha Emma Newman (née Bayley), originally from Birmingham, Warwickshire, the 57 year-old widow of John Newman, a railway engine driver, and Frances’ sons, William, aged twelve and Alfred, aged ten. The fact that no-one from his family was a witness adds to this writer’s existing doubts that Henry Holden was a local man.

45 Rugby Place, Brighton [centre] - June 2013. Author's photograph.

Soon after the wedding the family moved round the corner to 45 Rugby Place, a larger and better class of property where, on 14 December 1905, Holden died; having lapsed into a diabetic coma from which he was destined never to regain consciousness.15 His death was registered by his sister-in-law, Harriet Saunders, and the certificate states he was “69 years,” no doubt calculated from the age that appears on his wedding certificate.

Henry Holden was buried at a cost of £1 5s 0d (£1.25) in unconsecrated ground (plot U-25) in the Brighton & Preston Cemetery, Harrington Road, Brighton. No headstone was erected but his widow did pay an extra 17s (85p) to purchase the right for the grave to be opened to accommodate a subsequent interment. Why he should be buried in unconsecrated ground is yet one more question that is highly unlikely ever to be answered. One thing is almost certain: he was not given a military funeral as is stated in a previous account of his life.

Entrance gate to Brighton & Preston Cemetery, Hartington Road, Brighton, East Sussex

On the seventh of February, following Henry’s death, Frances Holden applied to the United States Pension Office for a widow’s pension but, being ineligible, her claim was not approved. However, under the provisions of the Act of May 1, 1920, “the widow of any person who served in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during the Civil War for ninety days or more, and was honourably discharged ….. may be entitled to pension, … provided she was married to him prior to June 27, 1905. The rate of pension being $30 per month, and $6 additional for each of his children under the age of 16 years. Pension commences from the date of filing a valid declaration in the bureau.” Quite how Frances Holden, who by this time had moved across the road to 20 Rugby Place, got to hear of this legislation is not known but on 10 August 1923 she completed the appropriate documentation in which she stated that her late husband “was born in England, 1838 at Brighton (probably).” [The fact that even after 11 years of marriage Frances Holden was uncertain of her late husband’s place of birth, adds further weight to the speculation that Brighton was not his hometown.] On this occasion her application was successful and she was granted a pension of $30 a month with effect from 24 February 1924, backdated to the previous August, which was increased to $40 per month on June 4, 1928.

Frances Holden (extreme left) with William Saunders Little (extreme right) and his wife Ellen (Appleby) and three children. Photograph taken in 1916. Courtesy David Butchers.

Frances Ann Holden died aged 89, on 25 May 1938,16 at 39, Elder Street, Brighton, and, as she had wished, was laid to rest with her beloved second husband in Plot U-25, in the Brighton & Preston Cemetery. At the time of her interment the gravesite was draped with grass matting and subsequently re-turfed at ten-yearly intervals for a modest sum payable to the cemetery company. Letters of Administration were granted to her elder son, William Saunders Little, an Insurance Agent, for the disposal of her personal effects which amounted to the sum of £304. 16s 5d (£304.82). A month after her death, her solicitor wrote to the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., advising them of the situation and refunding a cheque for $40 that had been received from them.

Alfred Saunders Little, the younger brother, then aged 60, and living at nearby 41 Bennett Road, Brighton, was killed on 23 February 1944 during one of the last major German bombing raids on the town. His brother, William, a widower for over 23 years, died on New Year’s Day, 1957. Both are buried in consecrated ground in the Brighton & Preston Cemetery, not far from their mother and step-father.

Sometime around 1960, Alfred C. Little of Southwick, near Brighton, son of Alfred above, inherited Holden’s papers and Medal of Honor and, realising their historical importance, presented them to the Hove Museum on the strict understanding that the medal would be put on public display. For whatever reason, this turned out not to be the case and it was subsequently retrieved. Then, in 1965, Little generously offered to donate the medal to the United States Army and a letter from the Army Attaché in London, dated July 28, advised him that the matter would be referred to the Chief of Military History, “who is best able to determine a suitable final disposition.”17 Not surprisingly a great interest was expressed by several agencies in America which included the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, then stationed in Vietnam, and a number of military posts which could trace their history back to the Seventh U.S. Cavalry and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. A decision was finally reached in October 1967 when it was deemed most appropriate to place the award in the Congressional Medal of Honor Grove at the Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where it remains on show to the public.18

In July 1987, the late John Carroll wrote to Lowell Smith, the editor of the LBHA Newsletter: “Some months ago I discovered one of the men from the Custer Battle who had been a recipient of a Medal of Honor who was buried there [Brighton] in an unmarked grave. I petitioned the Veterans Administration for a proper stone and the L.B.H.A. paid for the setting of the stone.”19 The belated provision of a white marble headstone, specifically designed for holders of the prestigious Medal of Honor, is a most fitting end to the remarkable story of service, courage, suffering and indubitable fortitude of Henry Holden – whoever he was – a decorated veteran of both the American Civil War and Plains Indian Wars.