Indian Wars Samuel Davis Sturgis (June 11, 1822 – September 28, 1889) was a senior officer of the United States Army.

He entered the United States Military Academy at the age of twenty and was graduated 32/59 in the famous class of 1846 as a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd Dragoons.

In March 1862 he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers to rank from August 10, 1861, the day of the battle, as well as breveted lieutenant colonel, Regular Army.

[2] After a tour of duty in the Washington, DC, defenses, he was ordered to the front to support General John Pope's Army of Virginia just prior to the Second Battle of Bull Run.

He went west with IX Corps in 1863 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel with the 6th U.S. Cavalry on October 27, 1863[2] and had a number of relatively unimportant commands in Tennessee and Mississippi.

In June 1864 he was routed by Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi, an encounter that effectively ended his Civil War service.

[6] His son Samuel D. Sturgis Jr. became a general in the United States Army, and was a division commander in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I.