>Robert Milroy was one of the Civil War's most controversial generals. An Indiana native who became a lawyer and judge in Rensselaer, he obtained the colonelcy of the 9th Indiana Infantry when the Civil War began and saw his first combat action in George McClellan's summer 1861 West Virginia campaign, after which he was promoted to brigadier general. Milroy led a brigade in the Mountain Department and fought Stonewall Jackson's command at the battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862 and again at Cross Keys and 2nd Bull Run, when he led his brigade to a gap in Jackson's line and drove back Isaac Trimble's Confederate brigade, but Jackson sent in reinforcements and Milroy was repulsed with a loss of over 300 men. He was promoted to major general in March 1863.>At 2nd Winchester in June, Milroy ignored orders to evacuate the garrison of the town, only to be surprised when Richard Ewell's entire army corps arrived. Milroy and his staff escaped but 3,000 men were captured. During his tenure in the Shenandoah Valley, Milroy made numerous enemies among civilians; a fanatic Presbyterian and abolitionist, he believed eradicating slavery was God's will and that secessionists were to be punished in an Old Testament fashion. He openly referred to himself as a dictator who made laws and administered justice and punishment. Milroy nearly faced a court martial for his willful disregard of orders when he did not evacuate the Winchester garrison, but his popularity with Radical Republicans protected him and he was ultimately exonerated.
>Milroy returned to active duty in 1864 when he went to Tennessee and angered locals with similar harsh treatment of anyone who expressed secessionist beliefs. Mostly performing garrison duty on railroads, it was not assumed that he would lead troops in another battle, but at the 3rd Battle of Murfreesboro in December he led a successful defense of the town against a Confederate attack, which he initially assumed was just Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry but also turned out to be the infantry division of Benjamin Cheatham. Milroy withdrew into the safety of Murfreesboro's fortifications, after which General Lovell Rousseau sent him two additional infantry brigades. Thus reinforced, he counterattacked and drove off the Confederates.>He left the army the following summer and returned to civilian life as a canal trustee and then as an Indian agent in Washington Territory, where he protected the aging Yakima chief Kamiakin from being evicted from his ancestral land by ranchers. Milroy had been bruised in the right hip by a shell fragment at Winchester and suffered chronic pain and inflammation from the injury in his later life. He passed away in Olympia, Washington in 1890 at the age of 73.
>>18284046>and that secessionists were to be punished in an Old Testament fashion. He openly referred to himself as a dictator who made laws and administered justice and punishment.absolutely based
Yankee war criminals general thread?
>>18284071you lost, Cletus
>The soldiers from the Winchester garrison were released later in a prisoner exchange and returned to duty; they were added to the Army of the Potomac during the Overland Campaign under the command of Brig. Gen James Ricketts and were often mocked as "Milroy's weary boys" by the rest of the army.
