Beschreibung:

(1828-1890), 4.25 x 6.5", with imprint of Brand, Chicago, signed in Crook's hand on verso, Your Sincere Friend/George Crook/Maj. Genl. U.S.A./Chicago Ill./July 12, 1888 taken as Commander of the Department of the West headquartered in Chicago. In 1888 T. H. Stanton was serving under his old friend as Chief Paymaster of the Department. The enigmatic Crook graduated West Point in 1852 and compiled a sterling Civil War record seeing action in both theaters and advancing from captain to brevet major general. Crook will forever be remembered as the archetypical Indian fighter who ruthlessly vanquished his enemies while fundamentally sympathizing with their cause. Crook's military career in the west was far reaching, intersecting with that of Custer during the 1876 Sioux campaign and rising to a crescendo against the Chiricahua Apaches during the daring Sierra Madre campaign of 1883. A character of popular media as well, Crook's uncanny success was largely derived from foreknowledge of his adversaries' strengths and weaknesses coupled with the battlefield employment of Indian auxiliaries and scouts in a divide and conquer approach, "my enemies' enemy." After Crook's sudden death in 1890, Oglala war chief Red Cloud uttered a lamentable epitaph: "Then General Crook came; he, at least, had never lied to us. His word gave the people hope. He died. Their hope died again." Provenance: Collected by Thaddeus Stanton, 'The Fighting Paymaster' Condition: Cabinet card about EXC.