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Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853–1934: Reluctant Warrior by Armand S. La Potin
Brad D. Lookingbill
Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853–1934: Reluctant Warrior. By Armand S. La Potin. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021. 259 pp. Maps, photos, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 paper.
Armand S. La Potin, an emeritus professor of history at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, has written a biography of Major General Hugh Lenox Scott. While not a definitive study, La Potin’s work chronicles the career soldier from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. He examines a published memoir, family letters, military correspondence, and government records. Accordingly, the US Army officer was a “reluctant warrior.”
Born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1853, Scott graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1876. His father, an educator and minister, died of consumption when the boy was only eight years old. His mother urged him to pursue a profession such as law, medicine, or teaching. A taste for adventure drew him into armed service, yet familial connections infused his mind with the assumptions of Presbyterian theology.
Scott rose from a West Point cadet to a commissioned second lieutenant in the Ninth Cavalry. Arriving in the Great Plains after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he posted with the Seventh Cavalry. He endured cold winters as well as tiresome drills at frontier forts. He participated in campaigns to subdue Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. He saw action in the Nez Perce War and eventually commanded Troop L of the Seventh Cavalry, which was comprised of Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache recruits. In 1880 he married Mary Merrill, the daughter of General Lewis Merrill. However, La Potin offers minimal information about their fifty-four-year relationship. Instead, the author focuses on the particular challenges of the military profession around the turn of the century.
La Potin details Scott’s role in military events between 1877 and 1918. Though not as renowned as other figures, Scott worked with Red Cloud, Nelson Miles, Quanah Parker, Leonard Wood, John Pershing, and Pancho Villa. He was the military governor of the Sulu Archipelago during the US occupation of the Philippines. From 1906 to 1910 he served as the superintendent of West Point. A supporter of conscription, he became both acting secretary of war and US Army chief of staff. He retired in 1919, remaining a distinguished member of the Board of Indian Commissioners. He died on April 30, 1934.
No matter the situation, La Potin finds that Scott demonstrated the ability to relate to others while recognizing different interests. Significantly, the career soldier developed expertise in sign languages and Indigenous folkways that promoted an understanding of tribal cultures. He concludes that Scott’s achievements among subjugated communities reveal the negotiating skills that are necessary to avoid conflict. [End Page 355]
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In 1981, noted historian Frederick C. Luebke edited the first issue of Great Plains Quarterly. In his editorial introduction, he wrote The Center for Great Plains Studies has several purposes in publishing the Great Plains Quarterly. Its general purpose is to use this means to promote appreciation of the history and culture of the people of the Great Plains and to explore their contemporary social, economic, and political problems. The Center seeks further to stimulate research in the Great Plains region by providing a publishing outlet for scholars interested in the past, present, and future of the region."
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