Millard, Andrew Jackson

MILLARD, REEVES

Posted By: Linda Linn (email)
Date: 9/24/2010 at 19:28:39

Sketch of Captain Millard

Andrew Jackson Millard was born in Saratoga county, New York, May 23, 1834. He was an only child and was educated in the county of his birth, where he remained till he was 23 years old, when he came to Sioux City, in 1856. Before he came west he spent several years as a sailor on the Atlantic and rose to the position of second mate. He afterward learned the trade of carpenter and joiner and after he became a journeyman he came west.

From the time he came to Sioux City he has resided here continuously, his only extended absences being during the four years of his service in the armies of the United States. He first enlisted in the state service, in the fall of 1861, and served a year on the frontier. Then Judge Hubbard, under the authority of a special act of Congress, ordered Captain Millard to raise a company for three years service. In less than a month he had enlisted a company of cavalry numbering 103 men, and was unanimously chosen its captain. He retained the position until the close of the war. The company was never engaged in the service against the confederacy, but on the frontier. He was for nine months in command of his department, and was relieved at the end of that time by General John K. Cook, who was superceded by General Alfred Sully. Captain Millard had command of the troops at the fight at [White] Stone Hill, D. T., and led the soldiers who acted as special body guard for General Sully, the command including two companies and a battery of five guns. During this campaign Captain Millard took 136 Indian prisoners, among them Big Head, the famous Sioux chief who committed the outrage on the miners’ flat boat and was known as one of the most bloodthirsty of all the Sioux.

Captain Millard drove the first stakes that marked the location of Fort Sully. In the fall of 1863 he returned to Sioux City, and again, the following fall, another expedition was fitted out against the Sioux. General Sully was in command of the movement. He named Vermillion as his headquarters and placed Captain Millard in command of the northwestern district. When General Sully returned Captain Millard’s command was mustered out, although the captain himself, through some oversight, was not formally discharged. He received his discharge papers only a few weeks ago, having therefore been nominally in the service of his country from the time he entered in 1864.

The captain returned to Sioux City and established himself in the undertaking business, in which he had been engaged ever since.

Captain Millard came of an old colonial family. His father, Daniel Millard, served in the revolution, and was in the command of Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Bemis’ Heights, or Saratoga, when Arnold by a terrific charge broke the line of the British. A brother of Captain Millard’s father, Basille Millard, was captured with Ethan Allen at Fort Ticonderoga, and taken to England as a prisoner of war, whence he returned with his old commander, covered with honors.

Captain Millard was married on October 22 to Miss Elizabeth Reeves of Fort Edward, N. Y. There was but one child born to them, Anna C. Millard, now aged 19 years. The captain was always prominent in fraternal organizations, was a Mason of the thirty-second degree, an Odd Fellow and a member of the K. P. organization.