Image of John Gregory Bourke

Timeline

Lifetime: 1846 - 1896 Passed: ≈ 128 years ago

Title

Captain in the United States Army

Country/Nationality

United States
Wikipedia

John Gregory Bourke

John Gregory Bourke was a captain in the United States Army and a prolific diarist and postbellum author; he wrote several books about the American Old West, including ethnologies of its indigenous peoples. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions while a cavalryman in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Based on his service during the war, his commander nominated him to West Point, where he graduated in 1869, leading to service as an Army officer until his death.

John G. Bourke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Irish immigrant parents, Edward Joseph and Anna (Morton) Bourke. His early education was extensive and included Latin, Greek, and Gaelic. When the Civil War began, John Bourke was fourteen. At sixteen he ran away and lied about his age; claiming to be nineteen, he enlisted in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, in which he served until July 1865. He received a Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action" at the Battle of Stones River, Tennessee, in December 1862. He later saw action at the Battle of Chickamauga.

His commander, Major General George H. Thomas, nominated Bourke for West Point. He was appointed cadet in the United States Military Academy on October 17, 1865. He graduated on June 15, 1869, and was assigned as a second lieutenant in the Third U.S. Cavalry. He served with his regiment at Fort Craig, New Mexico Territory, from September 29, 1869 to February 19, 1870.

He served as an aide to General George Crook in the Apache Wars from 1872 to 1883. As Crook's aide, Bourke had the opportunity to witness every facet of life in the Old West—the battles, wildlife, the internal squabbling among the military, the Indian Agency, settlers, and Native Americans.

Bourke married Mary F. Horbach of Omaha, Nebraska, on July 25, 1883. They had three daughters together.

Bourke died in the Polyclinic Hospital in Philadelphia on June 8, 1896, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife was buried with him after her death in 1927

Books by John Gregory Bourke

An Apache Campaign In The Sierra Madre Cover image

An Apache Campaign In The Sierra Madre

War
19th century Military Social Science Culture Life America Anthropology Modern United States

An account of the expedition [of the U.S. Army] in pursuit of the hostile Chiricahua Apaches in the spring of 1883. Bourke was a Medal of Honor awardee in the American Civil War whose subsequent Army career included several campaigns in the Indian wa...

The Medicine-Men Of The Apache Cover image

The Medicine-Men Of The Apache

Science
Military Social Social Science Culture America Civil War Anthropology Medical United States

“Herewith I have the honor to submit a paper upon the paraphernalia of the medicine-men of the Apache and other tribes. Analogues have been pointed out, wherever possible, especially in the case of the hoddentin and the izze-kloth, which have never t...