It was bitterly cold.  The warriors’ blankets covered them completely, exposing only their eyes.  My first sergeant and I, with a few men, started the search of the line.
—Captain Charles A. Varnum

Dora S. Coffey, the young twenty-four-year-old first sergeant of Captain Charles Varnum’s B Troop, was assisting his commander with the search of the warriors at the Indian council circle the morning of December 29, 1890, when the first shots rang out at the camp along the Wounded Knee Creek. Coffey was killed by a gunshot wound to the head according to newspaper accounts, likely occurring during the opening volley.

Born in 1866 at Ellettsville, Indiana, Dora Sherman Coffey was the eldest child of James Whisenand and Amanda Coffey. James was a farmer from Richland born in July 1846, the eldest son of James Davidson and Mary Ann (nee Whisenand) Coffey. James and Amanda were married on March 16, 1865, when he was just eighteen and she twenty-four. They lived variously at Ellettsville, Jefferson, and Richland, in Monroe and Greene Counties, Indiana, with James working as a blacksmith’s apprentice or farm laborer. James and Amanda had a second son, George Whisenand born April 9, 1868. Amanda died on January 12, 1909, and James on November 28, 1937. Their son, George, lived to the age of ninety-seven, dying on June 19, 1965.[3]

At the age of twenty, Dora Coffey traveled to Chicago, Illinois, and enlisted for five years on December 22, 1886. According to his enlistment record, he indicated that he was a year older than his actual age, likely to avoid providing a statement from his father allowing him to enlist under the age of twenty-one. He stated he was a farmer and stood just under five feet ten inches, had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.  Coffey was assigned to B Troop, 7th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Riley, Kansas.[4]

Coffey was apparently tried and sentenced under a general court martial at the beginning of 1890 forfeiting $20–more than a month’s pay for a soldier in the frontier army. Despite this setback, he was serving as a First Sergeant by the end of the October that same year.[5]

Following his death at Wounded Knee, Coffey was buried along with twenty-nine of his fellow troopers on New Years Eve, 1890, at the Episcopal cemetery at the Pine Ridge Agency. Coffey was placed in grave no. 8, and the War Department sent the next of kin official notification.

Three days after First Sergeant Coffey was killed at Wounded Knee and the day after he was buried at Pine Ridge, Dora Coffey’s brother and sister-in-law, George and Della Coffey, had their first son, whom they named in honor of the infant boy’s recently deceased uncle. Likely the family learned of Coffey’s death in the newspapers, which began publishing lists of the killed the day after the battle. Official word from the War Department came several days later. A week after his death the Monroe County Citizen ran a short article of the official notification.

Coffey was one of four soldiers whose family had the body of their loved one removed from Pine Ridge and buried in a local cemetery. He was disinterred from the Pine Ridge Cemetery on January 17 by his family, and his second funeral was held on January 21, 1891.[8] The local Bloomington Telephone ran the following article.

Ellettsville– The remains of Dora S. Coffey arrived from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Tuesday, the 20th, and although he had been killed 22 days before that date, his features were perfectly natural. He had received a wound directly over the left eye and one through the center of the body. He was taken to the house of his brother, George, until the next day when the funeral was conducted by Rev. Wood. The burial ceremonies were performed by the Grand Army of the Republic at the Methodist Cemetery west of town and, notwithstanding the wind and dampness of the day, a large gathering was out to pay the last respects to the dead soldier.
Dora S. Coffey, son of James and Amanda Coffey, was born July 28th 1865, on the farm where his father now resides about 1 1/2
miles southwest of Ellettsville. He was killed by the Indians at the
Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, December 29, 1890. He was 24 years, 5 months, and 1 day old. Dora was the older of the two children and leaves one brother, George, to finish the journey alone.
Dora’s boyhood was spent in this vicinity. He attended school at
the Reeves School House which is in sight of this place. In his studies he was above the average. On the playground he was always congenial and unexcelled and was never disobedient to his teachers. Consequently, they will hold him in kind remembrance, and he will never be forgotten by his schoolmates.
Dora enlisted in the regular army December 24, 1886, for five years. Of that time he served four years and five months. He was on his last year. On account of his good behavior and soldiery ability, he was promoted step by step until he reached the highest rank that he could attain without having attended the Military Academy at West Point. We do not know that he ever professed religion, but for honesty and morality he leaves an example worthy of imitation. He is no longer a soldier of earth, but has joined the great army of the eternal shore.[10]

Following the deaths of Fist Sergeant Coffey’s mother, Amanda, in 1909, and his father, James in 1937, the family placed a memorial marker in the Ellettsville Methodist Cemetery for mother, father and son adjacent to the First Sergeant’s military headstone.

Endnotes

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[1] H. H. Booker, photo., “First Sergeant Chevrons,” U.S. Militaria Forum, http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/16004-first-sergeant-chevrons/ accessed 10 November 2013.

[2] Photograph courtesy Mary Summers, posted to https://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/c5c08ab8-fa2b-4d6c-8d7d-2b1c76510081.jpg?client=trees-mediaservice&imageQuality=hq&maxWidth=2732&maxHeight=1834, uploaded 19 Feb 2016.

[3] Ancestry.com, United States Federal Census [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009, Year: 1860, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: M653_282, Page: 527, Image: 89, Family History Library Film: 803282; Year: 1870, Census Place: Jefferson, Greene, Indiana, Roll: M593_318, Page: 377B, Image: 274, Family History Library Film: 545817; Year: 1880, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: 299; Family History Film: 1254299, Page: 35B, Enumeration District: 280, Image: 0228; Year: 1900, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: 392, Page: 10A, Enumeration District: 0102, FHL microfilm: 1240392; Year: 1910, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: T624_371, Page: 12B, Enumeration District: 0140, FHL microfilm: 1374384; Year: 1920, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: T625_457, Page: 2B, Enumeration District: 169, Image: 785; Year: 1930, Census Place: Richland, Monroe, Indiana, Roll: 619, Page: 2B, Enumeration District: 22, Image: 401.0, FHL microfilm: 2340354; Ancestry.com, Indiana, Marriage Collection, 1800-1941 [database on-line], Book: 4, Page: 338, Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005; Ancestry.com. Web: Monroe County, Indiana, Obituary Index, 1899-2011[database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, Original data: Monroe County Obituary Index, Monroe County Public Library.

[4] Ancestry.com, U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007, Original data: Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914, (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls), Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

[5] Adjutant General’s Office, Final Statements, 1862-1899, “Coffey, Dora S.,” at Fold3, http://www.fold3.com/image/271303403/ accessed 10 Nov 2013.

[6] Photograph courtesy Mary Summers, posted to https://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/e0277dcc-0160-47e4-8c7e-1674a8e42ebb.jpg?client=trees-mediaservice&imageQuality=hq&maxWidth=2732&maxHeight=1834, uploaded 6 Mar 2015.

[7] “A Monroe County Boy Slain at Wounded Knee,” The Enterprise (Williamsburg, Kan.: 10 Jan 1891), 5.

[8] Ancestry.com, Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007, Original data: Card Records of Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, ca. 1879-ca. 1903, (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1845, 22 rolls), Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

[9] John Maxwell, photo., “Dora Sherman Coffey,” FindAGrave, http://image2.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2011/220/44184315_131292432929.jpg, accessed 19 Jan 2019.

[10] Bloomington Telephone, Bloomington, Indiana, January 27, 1891.

[11] Uncle Bob, “Dora Sherman Coffey,” FindAGrave, http://image2.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2011/220/44184315_131292432929.jpg, accessed 19 Jan 2019.

Citation for this article: Samuel L. Russell, “First Sergeant Dora Sherman Coffey, B Troop, 7th Cavalry – Killed in Action,” Army at Wounded Knee (Sumter, SC: Russell Martial Research, 2013-2015, http://wp.me/P3NoJy-4L) last updated 30 May 2022, accessed date __________.