[1] Doane was a participant in the Marias Massacre of approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet people (mostly women, children, and old men).

A month after his enlistment, Doane was made a sergeant and began seeing combat in actions around Washington, D.C. against forces of Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby, also known as the Gray Ghost.

[3] After a brief post-war stint in Illinois, Doane and some of his wartime associates returned to Yazoo City, Mississippi to establish a merchandising business.

In 1867, Doane tried his hand at politics in Mississippi, becoming Justice of the Peace and Mayor of Yazoo City for a short period of time.

In the summer of 1868, through the good offices of a California senator, John Conness, Doane earned a commission in the U.S. Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment as a second lieutenant.

In January 1870, Doane's company, along with others under the overall command of Major Eugene M. Baker, led an attack on a non-hostile Blackfoot Indian encampment on the Marias River in response to the alleged murder of a white fur trader.

By 1877 the frontier life at Fort Ellis and Doane's constant absence had severely strained their relationship.

[6] In early August 1870, Henry D. Washburn in preparing for his Yellowstone exploration formally requested General Winfield Scott Hancock, Commander, Department of Dakota, provide a military escort from Fort Ellis.

The following excerpt is typical of Doane's detailed descriptions contained in his report: Along both banks of the Firehole River are the greatest of the geysers.

Near the bank of the river, and a half a mile below camp, rose on the farther margin of a marshy lake the Castle Crater, the largest formation in the valley.

The outer rim, at its summit, is formed in embrasures between large nodules of rock, of the tint of ashes of roses, and in the center is a crater three feet in diameter, bordered and lined with a frost-work of saffron.

Although suffering intense physical torture during the greater portion of the trip, it did not extinguish in him the truly poetic ardor with which those strange phenomena seem to have inspired him.

In September 1874, Doane the explorer, inspired by the reports of David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley's adventures in Africa, proposed a Nile Survey to the Smithsonian.

This resentment clouded Doane's judgment for years and was a direct contributor to the failed 1876 Snake River Expedition.

[13] In the fall of 1876, after a tedious summer dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Doane returned to Fort Ellis, restless for more exploration.

Doane planned to take his troop of soldiers over the Yellowstone plateau in early winter to begin the trip down the Snake River.

The boat proved difficult on Yellowstone Lake because of high winds and was partially wrecked and supplies were lost.

The weather and cold were brutal and Doane's party did not make the next 20 miles down the Snake to Jackson Lake until December 7, 1876.

However, the Army and Navy decided, in June 1880, to withdraw support of the Howgate Arctic Expedition as the expeditionary vessel, the steamship Gulnare, was unseaworthy.

We did not change the names of all the localities visited, as is customary, nor give them new latitudes to the bewilderment of the general reader.

We did not hunt up nameless islands and promontories to tag them with the surnames ... We did not even erect cenotaphs ... We received no flags, converted no natives, killed no one ...

Immediately after the ill-fated Battle of the Little Bighorn, Doane and his troop were instrumental in moving survivors of Major Marcus Reno's forces to safety and medical care.

In June 1877, a year after the battle, Doane along with his troop of Crow Indian scouts and Lt Colonel Michael Sheridan visited the battleground to recover remains.

Shortly after Chief Joseph's escape from the Battle of the Big Hole, the Nez Perce moved into Yellowstone.

He described his invention as "a new and Improved Army-Tent," [18] While Doane attempted to receive endorsements from several branches of the Army, (including the infantry, cavalry and artillery) his efforts proved to be ultimately unsuccessful, as his tent design was never widely adopted within the United States Army.

In a letter dated February 5, 1891, a First Lieutenant from the 3rd Artillery writes to Doane saying that the majority of his officers do not "entertain a preference " in regards to the use of one tent over another.

Throughout 1890 and 1891, Doane, while assigned to the Presidio in San Francisco and at Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory, made extensive personal and written appeals to U.S. Army and Montana authorities for him to be given the Superintendency of Yellowstone National Park.

In February 1892, Doane returned to Bozeman, Montana, on six months medical leave awaiting his official retirement from the U.S. Army.

He fell ill during an influenza epidemic in April and eventually died in his sleep from heart failure on May 5, 1892, in his Bozeman home.