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{{Infobox military person
|name= Nelson Appleton Miles
|birth_date= {{Birth date|1839|8|8}}
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1925|5|15|1839|8|8}}
|birth_place= [[Westminster, Massachusetts|Westminster]], [[Massachusetts]]
|death_place= [[Washington, D.C.]]
|placeofburial= [[Arlington National Cemetery]]
|placeofburial_label= Place of burial
|image= [[File:Nelson A. Miles by Brands Studios, 1898.jpg|240px]]<br/>[[File:Nelson A Miles Signature.svg|200px]]
|caption= Nelson A. Miles
|nickname=
|allegiance={{flag|United States of America|1861}}
|branch={{army|USA}}
|serviceyears= 1861&ndash;1903
|rank=[[File:US-O9 insignia.svg|35px]] [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]]
|commands={{flagicon|New York|1778}} [[61st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment]]<br>[[Military Division of the Missouri]]<br>[[Commanding General of the United States Army]]
|unit= 
|battles= [[American Civil War]]<br/>[[Indian Wars]]<br/>[[Spanish-American War]]
|awards=[[Medal of Honor]]
|laterwork= [[Governor of Puerto Rico|Military Governor of Puerto Rico]]
}}
'''Nelson Appleton Miles''' (August 8, 1839 &ndash; May 15, 1925) was a United States soldier who served in the [[American Civil War]], [[Indian Wars]], and the [[Spanish-American War]].

==Early life==
Miles was born in [[Westminster, Massachusetts]], on his family's farm. He worked in [[Boston]] and attended night school, read military history, and mastered military principles and techniques, including battle drills.

==Civil War==
Miles was working as a crockery store clerk in Boston when the Civil War began. He entered the [[Union Army]] on September 9, 1861, as a volunteer and fought in many crucial battles. [[File:Nelson Appleton Miles.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Miles during Civil War]]He became a lieutenant in the [[22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry]], and was commissioned [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]] of the [[61st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] on May 31, 1862. He was promoted to [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] after the [[Battle of Antietam]]. Other battles he participated in include [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]], [[Battle of Chancellorsville|Chancellorsville]], and the [[Appomattox Campaign]]. Wounded four times in battle (he was shot in the neck and abdomen at Chancellorsville), he was awarded the honorary grade (on March 2, 1867) of [[Brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] in the [[Regular Army (United States)|regular army]] in recognition of his actions at Chancellorsville, and the honorary grade of brevet major general for [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania Court House]]. He received the [[Medal of Honor]] (on July 23, 1892) for gallantry at Chancellorsville. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers as of May 12, 1864, for the Battles of [[Battle of the Wilderness|the Wilderness]] and [[Battle of Spotsylvania Court House|Spotsylvania Court House]]. On October 21, 1865, he was appointed [[Major general (United States)|major general]] of volunteers at age 26.<ref>Eicher, p. 389.</ref> After the war, he was commandant of [[Fort Monroe, Virginia]], where former Confederate President [[Jefferson Davis]] was held prisoner. During his tenure at Fort Monroe, Miles was forced to defend himself against charges that Davis was being mistreated.

==Indian Wars==
[[File:General Nelson Miles and other soldiers on horseback Puerto Rico..JPG|thumb|right|250px|General Nelson Miles and other soldiers on horseback in Puerto Rico.]]
In July 1866, Miles was appointed a colonel in the regular army. In March 1869 he became commander of the [[5th Infantry Regiment (United States)|5th U.S. Infantry Regiment]]. On June 30, 1868, he married Mary Hoyt Sherman (daughter of [[Charles Taylor Sherman]], niece of [[William Tecumseh Sherman|William T. Sherman]] and [[John Sherman (politician)|John Sherman]], and granddaughter of [[Charles Robert Sherman|Charles R. Sherman]]).<ref>{{cite book|author=Wooster, Robert|title=Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=5nlFAa-kiHsC&pg=PA50|year=1996|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|pages=50-51}}</ref>  

Miles played a leading role in nearly all of the Army's campaigns against the [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] tribes of the Great Plains. In 1874-1875, he was a field commander in the force that defeated the [[Kiowa]], [[Comanche]], and the Southern Cheyenne along the Red River. Between 1876 and 1877, he participated in the campaign that scoured the Northern Plains after Lt. Col. [[George Armstrong Custer]]'s defeat at the [[Battle of Little Big Horn]] and forced the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] and their allies onto [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. In the winter of 1877, he drove his troops on a forced march across [[Montana]] and intercepted the [[Nez Perce tribe|Nez Percé]] band led by [[Chief Joseph]]. For the rest of Miles' career, he would quarrel with General [[Oliver O. Howard]] over credit for Joseph's capture. While on the [[Yellowstone River|Yellowstone]], he developed expertise with the [[heliograph]] for sending communications signals, establishing a {{convert|140|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} line of heliographs connecting Fort Keogh and Fort Custer, Montana in 1878.<ref>{{cite news|title=Signal Service Station on Mount Hood|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&cl=search&d=DAC18840920.2.58&%20srpos=1&e=------188-en--20--1--txt-IN-heliograph----1884#|accessdate=21 April 2013|newspaper=Daily Alta California|date=9/20/1884}}</ref> <ref name=188001UnS>{{cite journal|last=Reade|first=Lt. Philip|title=About Heliographs|journal=The United Service|year=1880|month=January|volume=2|pages=91–108|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=nLCgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA91|accessdate=June 21, 2011}}</ref>  The heliographs were supplied by Brig. Gen. [[Albert J. Myer]] of the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Signal Corps]].<ref name="Coe">Coe, Lewis (1993) ''The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and its Predecessors in the United States'' McFarland, Jefferson, N.C., p. 10, ISBN 0-89950-736-0</ref>  In December 1880, he was promoted to Brigadier General, Regular Army.

In 1886, Miles replaced General [[George Crook]] as Army Commander against [[Geronimo]] in [[Arizona]]. Crook had relied heavily on Apache scouts in his efforts to capture the [[Chiricahua]] leader. Instead, Miles relied on white troops, who eventually traveled {{convert|3000|mi|km}} without success as they tracked Geronimo through the tortuous Sierra Madre Mountains.  Finally, First Lieutenant [[Charles B. Gatewood]], who had studied Apache ways, succeeded in negotiating a surrender, under the terms of which Geronimo and his followers, agreed to spend two years in a [[Florida]] reservation. Geronimo agreed on these terms, being unaware of the real plot behind the negotiations (that there was no intent to let them go back in their native lands.) The exile included even the Chiricahuas who had worked for the army, in violation of Miles' agreement with them. Miles denied Gatewood any credit for the negotiations and had him transferred to the Dakota Territory. During this campaign, Miles's special signals unit used the [[heliograph]] extensively, proving its worth in the field.<ref name="Coe"/> The special signals unit was under the command of Captain W. A. Glassford.<ref name="Coe"/>

In April 1890, Miles was promoted to Major General, Regular Army.  That same year, the last major resistance of the [[Sioux]] on the Lakota reservations, known as the [[Ghost Dance]], brought Miles back into the field. His efforts to subdue the Sioux led to [[Sitting Bull]]'s death and the massacre of about 300 Sioux.  This included women and children at [[Wounded Knee Massacre|Wounded Knee]] on December 29, 1890. Miles was not directly involved at Wounded Knee and was critical of the commanding officer. Overall he believed that the US should have authority over the Indians, with the Lakota under military control.

==Spanish-American War and later life==
[[File:NelsonMiles.jpg|thumb|250px|Miles' portrait at [[United States Army Center of Military History]]]] 
Miles commanded the troops mobilized to put down the [[Pullman strike]] riots. He was named [[Commanding General of the United States Army]] in 1895, a post he held during the Spanish-American War. Miles commanded forces at Cuban sites such as Siboney. After the surrender of [[Santiago de Cuba]] by the Spanish, he personally led the invasion of [[Puerto Rico]], landing in [[Guánica, Puerto Rico|Guánica]] in what is known as the [[Puerto Rican Campaign]]. Miles was a vocal critic of the army's quartermaster for providing rancid canned meat to the troops in the field during what was known as the [[Army beef scandal]]. 

He served as the first head of the military government established on the island, acting as both head of the army of occupation and administrator of civil affairs. He achieved the rank of [[Lieutenant general (United States)|Lieutenant General]] in 1900 based on his performance in the war. Called a "brave peacock" by President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], Miles stepped down from the army in 1903 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64. A year later, at the [[1904 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]], he received a handful of votes. Upon his retirement, the office of Commanding General of the U.S. Army was abolished by an Act of Congress and the [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]] system was introduced.

When the U.S. entered [[World War I]] in 1917, the 77-year old general offered to serve, but President Wilson turned him down.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

Miles died in 1925 at the age of 85 from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] while attending a circus in Washington, D.C., with his grandchildren. He was one of the last surviving of those who served as a general officer on either side during the Civil War<ref>Warner, pp. 323-24, states that Miles was the "last survivor of the full rank major generals of Civil War vintage" and of all general officers, was outlasted only by [[John R. Brooke]] (died 1926) and [[Adelbert Ames]] (died 1933).</ref> He is buried at [[Arlington National Cemetery]] in the [[Miles Mausoleum]]. It is one of only two [[mausoleum]]s within the confines of the cemetery.

[[George Burroughs Torrey]] painted his portrait.

==Medal of Honor citation==
[[File:medal of honor old.jpg|80px|left|]]

'''Rank and Organization:'''
:Colonel, 61st New York Infantry. Place and date: At Chancellorsville, Va., 2_May 3, 1863. Entered service at: Roxbury, Mass. Birth: Westminster, Mass. Date of issue: July 23, 1892.

'''Citation:'''
:Distinguished gallantry while holding with his command an advanced position against repeated assaults by a strong force of the enemy; was severely wounded.<ref name=AMOHW>
{{Cite web
  |publisher = American Civil War website
  |title = MILES, NELSON A., Civil War Medal of Honor recipient
  |date = 2007-11-08
  |url = http://americancivilwar.com/medal_of_honor6.html
  |accessdate = 2007-11-08}}</ref>

==Memberships==

General Miles was a member of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]], the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] and the [[Sons of the American Revolution]].

==Legacy==
[[Miles City, Montana]] is named in his honor. A [[steamship]], the ''[[General Miles]]'', was likely named for him.

His legacy as an Indian fighter has seen him portrayed by [[Kevin Tighe]] in the film ''[[Geronimo: An American Legend]]'' and by Shaun Johnston in the film adaptation of ''[[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (film)|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee]]''.

Miles Street and the Miles Neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona are named in his honor.

There is a bust of General Miles in the [[Massachusetts State Capitol]] in Boston.

==See also==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Portal|Biography|United States Army|American Civil War}}

*[[List of Medal of Honor recipients]]
*[[List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: M–P]]
*[[List of American Civil War generals#Union-M|List of American Civil War generals]]
*[[List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War]]
*[[Puerto Rican Campaign]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==References==
* Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]]. ''Civil War High Commands''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
* Miles, Nelson Appleton. [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Miles ''Personal Recollections and Observations of General Nelson A. Miles'']. Chicago: Werner Co., 1896. {{OCLC|84296302}}.
* Warner, Ezra J. ''Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.

==Further reading==
* Freidel, Frank. ''The Splendid Little War''. Short Hills, NJ: Burford Books, 1958. ISBN 0-7394-2342-8.
* DeMontravel, Peter R. ''A Hero to His Fighting Men, Nelson A. Miles, 1839-1925''. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-87338-594-2.

==External links==
*{{Find a Grave|2289|work=Claim to Fame: Medal of Honor recipients|accessdate=2007-10-28}}
*[http://www.history.army.mil/books/CG&CSA/Miles-NA.htm Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff]
*[http://cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16635coll16/id/772 Nelson A. Miles Collection] US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
*[http://azstarnet.com/news/local/tucson-street-smarts-miles-street-named-for-famed-general/article_f79ae9d0-4a93-5d52-8e02-f5e8042e3da0.html David Leighton, "Tucson Street Smarts: Miles Street named for famed general," Arizona Daily Star, March 19, 2013]

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{{Succession box|title=[[Commanding General of the United States Army]]|before=[[John M. Schofield]]|after=''None (Office abolished)''<br/>[[Samuel Baldwin Marks Young|Samuel B.M. Young]]<br/><small>([[Chief of Staff of the United States Army]])</small>|years=1895&ndash;1903}}
{{Succession box|title=[[Governor of Puerto Rico|Military Governor of Puerto Rico]]|before=''None''|after=[[John Ruller Brooke]]|years=1898<br/><small>''(Commandant)''</small>}}
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{{US Army Chiefs of Staff}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=42641397}}

{{Persondata
|NAME= Miles, Nelson A.
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[United States Army]] [[Medal of Honor]] recipient and [[Union Army]] [[General officer|general]]
|DATE OF BIRTH= August 8, 1839
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Westminster, Massachusetts|Westminster]], [[Massachusetts]]
|DATE OF DEATH= May 15, 1925
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[Washington, D.C.]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Nelson A.}}
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1925 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Westminster, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:United States Army Medal of Honor recipients]]
[[Category:People of the Great Sioux War of 1876]]
[[Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery]]
[[Category:Comanche Campaign]]
[[Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Nez Perce War]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:Union Army generals]]
[[Category:United States Army generals]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Indian Wars]]
[[Category:Consumer rights activists]]
[[Category:Apache Wars]]
[[Category:American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor]]