According to accounts given years later by Andrew J. Barney, a resident of the area and family friend, Henry attended public school in Florence Township, Ohio, from 1850 to 1854.

Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip Sheridan wrote recommendations supporting Lawton's efforts to rejoin the Army.

Sheridan strongly urged Lawton to accept a 2nd lieutenant's commission, which he did, joining the 41st Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie on July 28, 1866.

Lawton served with Mackenzie in most of the major Indian campaigns in the southwest, including the Fourth Cavalry's victory at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

In 1883, Lawton and Major William F. Tucker claimed 800 acres overlapping a traditional farming village near the Zuni Indian Reservation.

[4] Lawton and Tucker were opposed by anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, Chicago Inter-Ocean editor William Eleroy Curtis, and Boston Herald reporter Sylvester Baxter.

[4] In May 1883, US President Chester A. Arthur responded to the controversy with an executive order, expanding the reservation to include the contested village.

[4] In 1886, he was in command of B Troop, 4th Cavalry, at Fort Huachuca and was selected by Nelson Miles to lead the expedition that captured Geronimo.

For Lawton's part, he was given orders to lead actions south of the U.S.-Mexico boundary where it was thought Geronimo and a small band of his followers would take refuge from U.S. authorities.

Lawton's official report dated September 9, 1886, sums up the actions of his unit and gives credit to a number of his troopers for their efforts.

His duties provided him with many opportunities to develop improvements in organization and equipment for the Army and he worked in this capacity for most of the time up until the Spanish–American War.

General Joseph Wheeler took it upon himself to jump ahead of plan and found himself in a fierce fire fight with the Spanish at the Battle of Las Guasimas.

Generals Chaffee, Kent, and Wheeler all did independent recon prior to the El Caney and San Juan hill engagements but they provided an overly optimistic assessment of the difficulties ahead.

In the following Battle of El Caney, Lawton's division suffered heavy casualties but eventually took the city and linked up with the rest of the U.S. forces on San Juan Hill for the Siege of Santiago.

Lawton had a penchant for hands-on involvement alongside his troops and was personally engaged in the day-to-day post war activity.

There are news reports of Lawton personally removing insurgent flags from public buildings and working alongside his troops to maintain order.

Lawton immediately tackled the problem of law enforcement, ridding the police of its Spanish officers and replacing them with Cubans.

Disgruntled Cuban generals who early had taken their troops into the interior and posed a threat to the U.S. presence were invited by Lawton to participate in local government and in fact, became quite instrumental in establishing and protecting the peace.

According to National Archive records, the army surgeon who diagnosed his condition at that time recommended a six-month leave in a different climate from the one in which he was stationed.

One source for the information was a 'phantom' (unnamed) correspondent for the New York Evening Sun and the second was Leonard Wood, a "moralistically intolerant" person who was later believed by many in the Army to have stabbed his friend Lawton in the back.

Considering the number of correspondents in Santiago on the prowl for news, or possibly a scoop, any misbehavior on the part of a senior American general would have been detected and reported.

Private letters to close personal friends in the U.S. from Lawton revealed that he was concerned with the number of his troops suffering from disease, and that he was experiencing a fever, perhaps malaria, and did not like being assigned to a desk job.

He also testified before the commission investigating the Santiago campaign and was given temporary command of the Fourth Army Corps in Huntsville on December 22.

On December 29, Secretary Alger announced to the press that Lawton was being placed in command of the Army field forces in the Philippines and would be reporting to General Elwell Stephen Otis, the military governor, within a short time.

With the fighting against the Spanish over, Lawton was transferred to the Philippines to command the 1st Division of Eighth Army Corps during the Philippine–American War.

Manila: Convey to General Law[ton] and the gallant men of his command congratulations on the successful operations during the past month, resulting in the capture this morning of San Isidro."

Corbin in turn wrote McKinley's personal secretary who had inquired about the rumors and labeled the whole affair as "mischievous gossip."

[8][9] Nine years after his death in the Philippines a statue was commissioned by Indianapolis city leaders and erected on the grounds of the Marion County Courthouse.

The Hoosier Poet, James Whitcomb Riley, composed a poem to commemorate the event, which was one of few appearances he made in the last years of his life as he suffered lingering complications from a stroke.

Today, the name Lawton is used to refer to the area in between the post office building (including Liwasang Bonifacio and the Manila Metropolitan Theater) all the way up to the Park n' Ride in Padre Burgos.