commanded the infantry company in which the latter 

 spent the entire 24 years of his Army career. Brother- 

 ton's career itself is an interesting sidelight on the 

 West of the period and an excellent if somewhat sad 

 commentary on the promotion system in the Army 

 during a period when the development of the West 

 was so heavily dependent on the Army's curbing 

 Indian depredations. 



Brotherton was graduated from the U.S. Military 

 Academy with the class of 1854 along with several 

 officers who later distinguished themselves in the Con- 

 federate States Army, including George Washington 

 Custis Lee, son of Robert E. Lee, John Pegram, 

 J. E. B. Stuart, Stephen D. Lee, and William Dorsey 

 Pender.^ Assigned to the 5th Infantry, Brotherton 

 by 1861 had risen to the rank of captain and had 

 acquired considerable experience against the Coman- 

 ches and Apaches in the Southwest, the Seminoles in 

 Florida, and the Mormons in LUah. Electing to 

 remain with his regiment at the outbreak of the Civil 

 War rather than resign and enter a volunteer or 

 militia unit where he easily might have risen to 

 general rank as did so many of his contemporaries, he 

 remained a captain in the Army until 1879 when a 

 vacancy occurred and he was promoted to major. 

 He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1883 after 

 29 years of service, but only at the expense of trans- 

 ferring from his old regiment to the 7th Infantry, 

 where there was a vacancy at that rank. He retired 

 for disability in 1885 after 30 years of almost constant 

 service in the field. 



We know little of Stieflel the man. He was born in 

 Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1826, and ijecame a printer 

 by trade, indicating a fair amoimt of education. He 

 emigrated to this country at an unknown date and in 

 December 1857 at New York City enlisted in the 

 Army as a private of infantry. He was 31 years old at 

 the time, and was described as being five feet five and 

 one-half inches tall with blue eyes, sandy hair, and a 

 fair complexion.'' He remained a private for the 



5 The information on Bmthcrton's career has Ijeen culled 

 IVom: Register of Grndualei and Former Cadeli United Stales Military 

 Academy, 1S02-1946, New York, The West Point Alumni Foun- 

 dation, Inc., 1946; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and 

 Dictionary of the United States Army, Washington, Government 

 Printing Office, 1903, vol. 1; George W. CuUum, Biographical 

 Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, 

 Boston, 1891-1930, vol. 3. 



<> Enlistment papers of Hermann Stieffel dated December 17, 

 1857, Adjutant General's Records, National Archives, Wash- 

 ington. 



entire time of his military service. After recruit 

 training at a general depot, he was assigned to Com- 

 pany K, 5th Infantry, joining that unit late in August 

 1858 at Camp Floyd (later Fort Crittenden), Utah 

 Territory, where the regiment was an element of Col. 

 Albert Sidney Johnston's "Army of Utah" sent west- 

 ward to police the recalcitrant Mormons.'' 



Stieflfel's record shows nothing of note until Decem- 

 i^er 1859 when he was court-martialed and fined.' 

 This court-martial .seemed to set the pace for him. 

 Although the precise charge on which he was tried is 

 not stated, in view of his later record it can be sur- 

 mised that it was for drunkenness — a very coinmon 

 offense in the frontier ariny — for in October 1861 

 .Stieffel owed a sutler $27.95, a heavy debt for a day 

 when a private's net pay was less than $11.00 a 

 month. ^ The debt remained unpaid through 1862 

 and even increasing an additional $15.00. During 

 this period Stieffel also was in confinement on a num- 

 ber of occasions for crimes or misdeineanors un- 

 specified.'" 



In 1860 the 5th Infantry was transferred from Utah 

 southward to the Department of New Mexico. It 

 was here in 1862 that Stieffel saw his first combat in 

 Col. E. R. S. Canby's " LJnion force, which frus- 

 trated the wild Confederate attempt under Brig. Gen. 

 H. H. Sibley to invade the present states of New 

 Mexico and Arizona and concjuer California.'- Cap- 

 tain Brotherton, Private Stieffel, and the remainder 

 of Company K fought in the sharp action at Valverde, 

 New Mexico, on February 21, 1862, and evidently 



' Theo F. Rodenbough and William L. Haskin, The Army of 

 the United States, New York, Maynard, Merrill & Co., 1896, pp. 

 471-472; Remarks on Muster Roll, Company K, 5th Infantry 

 (hereinafter cited as Muster Roll, Co. K), August 31, 1858, 

 Adjutant General's Records, National .\rchivcs, Washington. 



« Muster Roll, Co. K, op. cit. (footnote 7), December 31, 

 1859. 



» In 1861 a private's pay was $13.00 per month with $2.00 

 withheld until expiration of his enlistment and $.12' 2 withheld 

 for support of the U.S. Soldiers' Home at Washington. {U.S. 

 .Army Regulations, 1861.) 



'"Muster Roll, Co. K, op. cit. (footnote 7), October 31, 1861; 

 December 31, 1861; April 30, 1862; June 30, 1862; December 

 31 , 1862; February 28, 1863; .Vil 30, 1863; February 28, 1864; 

 June 30, 1864. 



" Canby was murdered by the Modoc Captain Jack in 18^3 

 while engaged in a peace conference. 



'2 For details of these operations, see: The War of the Reheltion: 

 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 130 vols., 

 Washington, War D.-partment, 1880-1901, scr. 1, vol. 9, pp. 

 487-522. 



PAPER 1 2 : HERMANN STIEFFEL, SOLDIER .\RTIST (JF THE WEST 



