George Crook

George Crook 1828-90, U.S. general, b. near Dayton, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1852. During the Civil War, Crook commanded a regiment of Ohio volunteers as colonel. After the war he operated so successfully against the Paiute and Snake in Idaho and the Apache in Arizona that he was promoted (1873) to brigadier general in the regular army. Made commander of the Dept. of the Platte in 1875, he was engaged in the hard-fought Sioux War of 1876. In Arizona in 1883, Crook led an expedition into the mountains against a Chiricahua band of the Apache and finally succeeded in persuading Geronimo to return to the reservation (1884). Later, Geronimo broke his pact and escaped, which led to censure of Crook's policies and his voluntary resignation. From 1888 until his death Crook was major general and commander of the Division of the Missouri. Although his fame rested upon his Native American campaigns, Crook also had a reputation for enlightened patience and integrity in dealing with Native American affairs, preferring negotiation to warfare.

Bibliography: See his autobiography (ed. by M. F. Schmitt, 2d ed. 1960) and contemporary accounts by J. F. Finerty (1961) and C. King (rev. ed. 1964).

Crook, George (1828–90) Union army officer, born near Taylorsville, Ohio. A prominent Union officer during the Civil War, Crook fought at Antietam (1862), Chickamauga (1863), and in the Shenandoah Valley campaign (1864); he rose to the rank of brigadier general and commanded the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac from February 1865 until the end of the war. Crook's finest military accomplishment was in 1883, when he led Apache scouts and U.S. troops into Mexico to search for the Chiricahuas, the tribe of Geronimo, who were raiding from their sanctuaries in the Sierra Madre. After one skirmish, Crook negotiated the Chiricahuas' peaceful return to the Arizona reservations. A fearsome Indian fighter, he also struggled repeatedly with the U.S. government to uphold its promises to the conquered tribes and urged civil rights and the franchise for Native Americans.

Gen. William T. Sherman called Crook the greatest American Indian fighter, and the Oglala chief Red Cloud said of Crook: “His words gave the people hope. He died. Their hope died again. Despair came again.”