The customary volleys were not fired over his grave because the sound of a single shot would have greatly disturbed the friendly Indians and might easily have caused trouble.
![Frederic Remington's "The Opening of the Fight at Wounded."[1]](https://armyatwoundedknee.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/remington-opening-of-the-fight.jpg)
Frederic Remington’s “The Opening of the Fight at Wounded.”[1]
![U.S. Military Burial Registry for Pine Ridge Agency Cemetery, South Dakota.[3]](https://armyatwoundedknee.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/pine-ridge-agency-cemetery-reord-book-of-intements-page-1.jpg)
U.S. Military Burial Registry for Pine Ridge Agency Cemetery, South Dakota.[3]
The military funeral here has been divested of all its distinctive features by the disturbed condition of affairs. Private Stone of troop B, Seventh cavalry, died the other evening from the effects of a shoulder wound received in the Wounded Knee fight. Ordinarily the dead trooper’s horse, fully equipped, and with his late rider’s boots in the stirrups, would have been a feature in the cavalcade, but it was not so on this occasion. It was not the time to mourn, it was the time to fight. The body was encoffined and placed in a wagon, and behind this rode a battalion of the Seventh–troops A, B, I and K. A Sioux clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Cook of the Protestant Episcopal Church, read the burial service, and then the body was laid away in a little cemetery without further ceremony. The customary volleys were not fired over his grave because the sound of a single shot would have greatly disturbed the friendly Indians and might easily have caused trouble.[4]
Born on 20 November 1871 at Monterey, Michigan, Harry B. Stone was the youngest of four boys. His father, Gilbert Marcus Stone, was an early settler in the Allegan county area having moved there as a young man from his native Avon, Ohio. During the Civil War, the elder Stone served in Captain Pritchard’s Company L, 4th Michigan Cavalry, participating in battles around Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Atlanta. He served from August 1862 to July 1865 and languished for a time in a confederate prison in Alabama where he was captured while recuperating in a Luverne hospital. Following the war, he returned to his family in Allegan county. Gilbert Stone was twice married, first to Adeline Lucas in 1850 by whom he had one daughter, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Hoffmaster. Adeline died in 1852 just three months after their daughter was born. Four years later Gilbert married Mabelia Miller with whom he had five children, four boys and two girls: the eldest son, Horton, was born in 1857 and died at the age of twenty-seven; a daughter, Mrs. Carrie Alyda McBride, was born in 1859 and died in 1933; the second son, Earl Dwight, was born in 1862 and died in 1946; the third son was Walter Heartland, born 1869 and died in 1964; Harry, the subject of this post, was born in 1871 and died in 1891; the youngest child was Mrs. Ruby Violet Leggett, born in 1876 and died at the age of ninety. Gilbert Stone died in 1912 at the age of eighty-two and his wife, Mabelia, died five years later.[5]
Perhaps inspired by his father’s cavalry service during the Civil War, Harry Stone traveled to Lansing in April 1890 where he enlisted for five years. Stone was eighteen at the time, but indicated that he was twenty-one so as to avoid the requirement for a parent’s permission to join the army. His recruiting officer, Captain Nowlan of the 7th Cavalry, annotated that Stone was five feet six and three quarters inches in height, had blue eyes, light brown hair, and a florid complexion. Whether influenced by his father’s service or his recruiting officer, Stone entered the cavalry and was assigned to B Troop of the 7th Regiment. He joined the organization just months before deploying to South Dakota for the fateful campaign on which he lost his life.[6]
Two years after his death, Stone’s older brother, Walter, named his first born son after the child’s fallen uncle. Private Harry B. Stone’s remains were removed from the Pine Ridge Agency, along with twenty-nine other cavalry soldiers, in October 1906 and transported to Fort Riley where they were re-interred in the post cemetery.[7]
Private Harry B. Stone is buried in the Fort Riley Post Cemetery.[8]
Sam Russell
Army at Wounded Knee 
Col. Russell, Please pardon me dropping this in the first post I came to, but… I’ve encountered a headstone, here in the Shenandoah Valley, which credits this person, J. Ridgely Dix/Dicks, with being at Wounded Knee, but also cites his service with Co. E, 18th USV. I’ve very much a novice on Wounded Knee, but as I understand it, the 18th wasn’t there, were they?
LikeLike
Thank you for commenting. No, the 18th U.S. Vol were not at Wounded Knee. The U.S. forces at the battle were the 7th Cavalry Regiment with A, B, C, D, E, G, I and K troops, E Battery, 1st Artillery, and a troop of U.S. Indian Scouts. As with any battle with historic acclaim, there are always individuals that make a claim that they were present at the battle. Today we call it “stolen valor.”
LikeLike
That is true, regarding “stolen valor”, however, there may be another explanation. I did additional work on the service of J. Ridgely Dix, and while he was discharged from the 18th, in May 1889, do you think it possible that he may have been serving in some other capacity? I suspect only the pension record will reveal more, but in the meantime, I’ve posted about it. http://cenantua.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/confederate-sons-postwar-and-manifest-destiny/
LikeLike
Looks like you have most of this data: James R. Dix enlisted in the Army for five years on 3 Feb 1888 at a Post near Donner, Colorado. He was listed as a 21-year-old farmer born in Winchester, Virginia, with grey eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy complexion, and stood 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall. He was assigned to E company, 18th U.S. Infantry regiment (regular, not volunteer) and was discharged 14 May 1889 at Fort Logan, Colorado, a private, Character Good. According to the pension file, his mother, Sarah J. Dix, filed on 2 Nov 1891 and his father, John M. Dix, filed on 31 May 1904. The only unit of service listed is E, 18 U.S. Inf.
If he was at Wounded Knee, it was not in the capacity of a regular army soldier, as any other unit of service would be listed on the pension application, to include service under an alias. There may be an outside chance that he was a member of the Nebraska National Guard, which were called up during the campaign, but were not at Wounded Knee. Or one of the several cowboy militias that were called up during the Pine Ridge Campaign November 1890 – January 1891.
LikeLike
Pingback: Confederate sons, Postwar, and Manifest Destiny | Cenantua's Blog
I’ve written and spoke at the Hopkins Township dedication of the memorial of Harry B Stone. Please contact me at mrashs1969@hotmail.com or 7632690172.
Thank you. Mark Anway.
LikeLike