Thomas T. Fauntleroy

At this time (1854) Fort Leavenworth was garrisoned by one company of the Fourth Artillery and one of the First Dragoons, under Col. Fauntleroy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_T._Fauntleroy

The Second Dragoons

"The Second Dragoons, 1853—1854," by H. Charles McBarron, Jr. Company of Military Collections and Historians

The Ute War of 1855

Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy, 1st Dragoons, led the campaign against the Utes in 1855. Meserve Collection.

Many of the Jicarillas whom Cooke's campaign had failed to subdue took refuge with the Ute Indians, who lived in the mountains bordering the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado (then part of the Territory of New Mexico). Hardly had the Jicarilla troubles subsided than the Utes went on the rampage. On Christmas Day 1854 about 100 Utes and a few Jicarillas descended on the settlement of Hardscrabble, which later became Pueblo, Colo. They killed 15 men, captured 2 women, and ran off all the stock. Then they crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and attacked a settlement recently founded in the San Luis Valley near where Alamosa now stands. General Garland decided to treat the Utes as he had the Jicarillas.

Col. Thomas T. Fauntleroy and units of the 1st Dragoons had replaced Cooke and the 2d Dragoons at Fort Union. Strengthened by regular companies from other forts and six companies of New Mexico volunteers under Lt. Col. Ceran St. Vrain, Colonel Fauntleroy took the field with some 500 men early in February 1855.

Establishing a base of operations at Fort Massachusetts, on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, Fauntleroy scoured the basin and surrounding mountains for hostile camps. Men and horses suffered from intense cold and deep snow such as plagued Cooke a year earlier, but relentless pursuit yielded results. On March 19 the troops skirmished with a war party near Poncha Pass, killed eight warriors, and after a 4-day chase captured the party's entire pony herd.

Next, Fauntleroy split his command. While he and the regulars continued to search the San Luis Valley, St. Vrain's volunteers rode to the plains east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to look for Utes. On April 25 the New Mexicans jumped a band of 60 Indians on the Huerfano River, killing or capturing 13 and putting the rest to flight.

Fauntleroy, too, tasted victory. On the night of April 28, his men crept undetected into positions on 2 sides of a Ute camp estimated to contain 150 warriors. Bonfires illumined the village, and the Indians were in the midst of a riotous war dance. Suddenly the blackness at the edge of the village erupted with rifle fire that raked the lodges with devastating effect. It "swept the enemy like chaff before the wind," Fauntleroy recalled, and they scattered in fright in the opposite direction. The soldiers charged through the village and for about 25 minutes pressed the surprised dancers in a running fight. Then they returned to burn the lodges, food, and other supplies in the village. The colonel counted 40 Utes slain by the murderous fire of his men.

This battle broke Ute resistance. There were several more skirmishes, but in July 1855 the Indians sued for peace. Fauntleroy returned to Fort Union, and the volunteers were mustered out of the service. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/35/hh35e.htm

Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

FAUNTLEROY, Thomas Turner, soldier, born in Richmond County, Virginia, 6 October 1796; died in Leesburg, Virginia, 12 September 1883. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the war of 1812'15 when but seventeen years old. He studied law in Winchester, practiced in Warrenton, and in 1823 was elected to the legislature. In 1836 he was commissioned a major of dragoons in the regular army, and served in the Seminole war. In September 1845, he was detached from General Taylor's army to hold in check the Indians on the frontier of Texas. From this duty he was ordered to join General Taylor, and subsequently, in Mexico, he commanded the cavalry of General Scott's army. In 1849 he was promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy of the 1st dragoons, and commanded the troops on frontier duty in Texas. In 1850 he was promoted colonel.

In the winter of 1854'5 he conducted a campaign against the hostile Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains, and in 1858 he made another midwinter campaign against the Indians in New Mexico. In May 1861, he entered the Confederate service. He was commissioned a brigadier general by the convention of Virginia, and placed in command of Richmond and its defenses. But, after the organization of the Confederate government, it refused to confirm his commission, although he ranked all the officers but one that had resigned from the U. S. army to serve the Confederacy.

His son, Archibald Magill Fauntleroy, physician, born in Warrenton, Virginia, 8 July 1837; died in Staunton, Virginia, 19 June 1886, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1856, and in 1857 entered the U. S. army as assistant surgeon; but he and his brother, a lieutenant in the navy, resigned at the same time with their father. He became a surgeon in the Confederate army, and was president of the board for the admission of surgeons, and chief officer on the medical staff of General Joseph E. Johnston, and served with him until the battle of Seven Pines. He was then ordered to build and organize the hospitals at Danville, Virginia, and afterward had charge of the military hospital at Staunton, Virginia, until the war ended. He remained and practiced at Staunton after the war, and was for several years superintendent of the lunatic asylum at that place. His contributions to medical literature include papers on bromide of potassium, chloral hydrate, the use of chloroform in obstetrical practice, and a "Report upon Advance in Therapeutics," which was printed in the "Transactions" of the Virginia medical society.

Another son, Thomas T. Fauntleroy, became judge of the Virginia Supreme Court of appeals. Their sister, Mary Thurston Fauntleroy, married Surgeon General Barnes, of the U. S. army.

--appletons encyclopedia? http://famousamericans.net/thomasturnerfauntleroy/