Brigadier General Frazier Augustus Boutelle | |
---|---|
Born | Troy, New York |
Died | February 12, 1924 83) Seattle, Washington | (aged
Service/ | U.S. Army |
Years of service | 1861-64, 1865-1895, 1896-97 |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Frazier Augustus Boutelle (September 12, 1840 – February 12, 1924) served in the US Army for 57 years, fighting in the Civil War and the Indian Wars and working as a recruiter in World War I. In 1889-1890 he was Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park.
Boutelle was born in Troy, New York. His father, James Augustus Boutelle (1808–1889), was from Massachusetts and descended from Revolutionary War fighter Ebenezer Boutwell. (The family name has variant spellings.) Little is known about his mother, Emeline Lamb Boutelle, but by 1871 she was married to E.F. Gordon and living with a daughter in Ontario. James Boutelle relocated to northern California in the 1850s, and lived with his sister, Susan Boutell Messenger Sterling, in Arcata.
In 1873 Frazier married "Dollie", Mary Adolphine Augusto Hayden, at Vancouver, Washington. Dollie was the daughter of Mary Jane and Gay S.B. Hayden, pioneers who left Wisconsin in 1850 for Vancouver. One of Dollie's sisters, Adelle Spaulding, lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the two held shares in an Alaskan mine in the 1920s. Frazier and Dollie had one child, Henry Moss Boutelle, born June 17, 1875, at Vancouver. "Harry" attended Stanford University for a year and then received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery Regiment in the Philippines. He was killed in action leading the Macabebe Scouts at Aliago on November 2, 1899, during the Philippine–American War. In memory of Harry Boutelle, his name was applied to a place in Macabebe Province, a Boston Harbor steamer of the Quartermaster's Department, and a still-extant battery near the Presidio of San Francisco.
Frazier Boutelle's military career began June 4, 1861, when he enlisted as one of the first volunteers of the 5th New York Cavalry, Company A. Entering as a quartermaster sergeant, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant November 4, 1862. Following an injury, and promoted to first lieutenant April 2, 1864. During the latter half of 1863, following an injury he was assigned as an ambulance officer to 3rd Cavalry. He was mustered out on disability August 31, 1864, but returned to duty as a captain in the 5th New York on January 10, 1865. Boutelle served at Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Wilderness, Gettysburg, and the Second Battle of Bull Run. He served on the staff of General James H. Wilson, under General Philip Sheridan, and was mustered out on July 19, 1865.
On February 12, 1866, he reenlisted as a private in the regular Army, and was sent, via Panama, to the West to join the First Cavalry's Company F. By November 1866 Boutelle was at Fort Boise, Idaho, at the beginning of Crook's Winter Campaign. By 1867 he was a sergeant major. He was commissioned as brevet second lieutenant January 2, 1869, and confirmed May 8, and rose to first lieutenant July 31, 1873. Boutelle served in the Indian Wars against the Apache, Piute, Snake, Modoc, and Nez Perce. Most of 1872 was spent in the Klamath region where he was active in the Modoc War and, in a scuffle with Scarface Charley, precipitated a Battle of Lost River that subsequently gained him a brevet promotion and a citation for distinguished service. He was also given a medal during the Nez Perce conflict. Boutelle was promoted to captain on April 24, 1886, and retired August 27, 1895.
In June 1889, Captain Frazier Boutelle was appointed as the second acting superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and given command of the U.S. Army contingent (Company M, 1st Cavalry Regiment) in the park. Established as a park in 1872, Yellowstone was initially administered by civilian superintendents appointed by the Secretary of Interior. The Department of Interior was unable to establish sufficient control of the park to protect wildlife, geothermal other park resources. In 1886, the War Department was given authority over the park and the U.S. Army began administering the park in August 1886. The Army established Camp Sheridan (Fort Yellowstone) at Mammoth Hot Springs as park headquarters and developed systems for conservation and resource management between 1886 and 1916 that served as foundations for the National Park Service, created in 1916. Boutelle supported the conservation of bison, advocated stocking streams to maintain fish populations, insisted that travelers use established campgrounds, and developed a system for rapid and effective response to fires, which at that point were primarily caused by park visitors. Of the many decisions made by Captain Boutelle in managing the park, his approach to fisheries had significant and lasting impact. Boutelle was an avid angler and recognized the angling potential in Yellowstone waters. In 1889 he suggested the U.S. Fish Commission consider stocking many of the fish-less lakes and streams in Yellowstone.
Besides the beautiful Shoshone and other smaller lakes, there are hundreds of miles of as fine streams as any in existence without a fish of any kind. I have written Col. Marshall McDonald, U.S. Fish Commission, upon the subject, and have received letters from him manifesting a great interest. I hope through him to see all of these waters so stocked that the pleasure-seeker in the Park can enjoy fine fishing within a few rods of any hotel or camp.
— Acting Superintendent's Report, 1889, Captain Frazier Augustus Boutelle [2]
This suggestion was acted upon and in 1889 the first non-native fish were stocked into Yellowstone waters, a practice that continued until 1955 and helped create the angling experience Yellowstone National Park is renowned for. [3]
He gained recognition in conservation circles for his advocacy of protection for wildlife, landscape, and natural features. 1889 was a particularly bad year for fires in the region, and Boutelle's demands for more resources for firefighting, supported by conservationist George Bird Grinnell, caused Secretary of the Interior John Willock Noble to dismiss him from the superintendent's post on February 14, 1891. He returned to service with the 1st Cavalry's Company K.
Boutelle retired from the Army a second time on August 27, 1895, but immediately took up work with the Washington National Guard. In 1896 Gov. John H. McGraw appointed Boutelle to head the Guard as Adjutant-General, with the rank of brigadier general. Boutelle developed a streamlined reporting system, among other efficiencies, and coped with a Sand Island incursion of armed Oregon fishermen. (Six cyanotypes related to the Sand Island incident are tipped into Boutelle's copy of the Sixth Biennial Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Washington for the years 1895 and 1896.) Adjutant-General had previously been an elected post, and political turmoil ended Boutelle's term in January 1897.
Frazier Boutelle returned to duty in 1905 as a recruiting officer. He was active at the Seattle office during World War I, the oldest serving officer of his time, and when the office closed in 1919, he retired from military service for the third and final time. Frazier Boutelle died at his home in Seattle on February 12, 1924.
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. He served as a military governor after the war.
The Modoc War, or the Modoc Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Native American Modoc people and the United States Army in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon from 1872 to 1873. Eadweard Muybridge photographed the early part of the US Army's campaign.
The First Battle of the Stronghold was the second battle in the Modoc War of 1872–1873. The battle was fought between the United States Army under Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton and a band of the Native American Modoc tribe from Oregon and California, led by Captain Jack.
The Battle of Lost River in November 1872 was the first battle in the Modoc War in the northwestern United States. The skirmish, which was fought near the Lost River along the California–Oregon border, was the result of an attempt by the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army to force a band of the Modoc tribe to relocate back to the Klamath Reservation, which they had left in objection of its conditions.
The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict in 1877 in the Western United States that pitted several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies, a small band of the Palouse tribe led by Red Echo (Hahtalekin) and Bald Head, against the United States Army. Fought between June and October, the conflict stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians," to give up their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Indian reservation in Idaho Territory. This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres of their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish on lands ceded to the U.S. government.
Samuel Baldwin Marks Young was a United States Army general. He also served as the first president of Army War College between 1902 and 1903. He then served from 1903 until 1904 as the first Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
John Green was a United States cavalry officer who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery and leadership at the First Battle of the Stronghold during the Modoc War.
Fort Yellowstone was a U.S. Army fort, established in 1891 at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was designated in 1872 but the Interior Department was unable to effectively manage the park. Administration was transferred to the War Department in August 1886 and General Philip Sheridan sent a company of cavalry to Mammoth Hot Springs to build a cavalry post. The army originally called the post Camp Sheridan in honor of General Sheridan but the name was changed to Fort Yellowstone in 1891 when construction of the permanent fort commenced. The army administered the park until 1918 when it was transferred to the newly created National Park Service. The facilities of Fort Yellowstone now comprise the Yellowstone National Park headquarters, the Horace Albright Visitor Center and staff accommodations.
Samuel Davis Sturgis was a senior officer of the United States Army. A veteran of the Mexican War, Civil War, and Indian Wars, he attained the rank of brevet major general.
Matthew Arlington Batson was a United States Army Officer who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Philippine–American War. 1st Lieutenant Batson was awarded the medal for swimming the San Juan River under enemy fire. He was awarded his medal alongside Captain Hugh J. McGrath who performed the same feat. Batson is most noted, however, for creating the Philippine Scouts.
Fort Ellis was a United States Army fort established August 27, 1867, east of present-day Bozeman, Montana. Troops from the fort participated in many major campaigns of the Indian Wars. The fort was closed on August 2, 1886.
Augustus Osborn Bourn was an American politician and the 36th Governor of Rhode Island.
Boutell or Boutelle is a surname. It may refer to:
The following articles relate to the history, geography, geology, flora, fauna, structures and recreation in Yellowstone National Park.
Gustavus Cheyney Doane was a U.S. Army Cavalry Captain, explorer, inventor and Civil War soldier who played a prominent role in the exploration of Yellowstone as a member of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition. Doane was a participant in the Marias Massacre.
Albert Leopold Mills was a United States Army major general who was a recipient of the Medal of Honor for valor in action on July 1, 1898, near Santiago, Cuba. An 1879 graduate of West Point, he served in the Army until his death in 1916. Following his service in Cuba, he was appointed superintendent of West Point, jumping in rank from first lieutenant to colonel. His final posting was as the chief of the Division of Militia Affairs, a precursor to the National Guard Bureau.
Drum Beat is a 1954 American CinemaScope Western film in WarnerColor written and directed by Delmer Daves and co-produced by Daves and Alan Ladd in his first film for his Jaguar Productions company. Ladd stars along with Audrey Dalton, Charles Bronson as Captain Jack, and Hayden Rorke as President Ulysses S. Grant.
William Russell Parnell was an Irish-born adventurer and soldier during the mid-to late 19th century. A member of the 17th Lancers during the Crimean War, he participated in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava.
Fort Colville was a U.S. Army post in the Washington Territory located three miles (5 km) north of current Colville, Washington. During its existence from 1859 to 1882, it was called "Harney's Depot" and "Colville Depot" during the first two years, and finally "Fort Colville". Brigadier General William S. Harney, commander of the Department of Oregon, opened up the district north of the Snake River to settlers in 1858 and ordered Brevet Major Pinkney Lugenbeel, 9th Infantry Regiment to establish a military post to restrain the Indians lately hostile to the U. S. Army's Northwest Division and to protect miners who flooded into the area after first reports of gold in the area appeared in Western Washington newspapers in July 1855.
Moses Harris was an officer in the United States Army who fought for the Union during the American Civil War and was awarded the Medal of Honor.