Terry, Alfred Howe

Life Span
to
Full name
Alfred Howe Terry
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Free State
No. of Siblings
8
No. of Spouses
0
No. of Children
0
Family
Alfred Howe Terry, Sr. (father), Clarissa Howe (mother)
Education
Yale
Occupation
Military
Attorney or Judge
Relation to Slavery
White non-slaveholder
Government
Local government
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Union Army
US military (Post-Civil War)

Alfred Howe Terry (American National Biography)

Scholarship
With the Civil War over, [Alfred] Terry received high praise from his superior officers and was rewarded with a position in the regular army. The brigadier general gained the highest postwar rank of any non-West Point graduate. A tall, imposing figure, he conducted himself as a gentleman at all times. During 1865-1866 he commanded the Department of Virginia, doing reconstruction work as the military took over many former civilian duties in law enforcement and governmental matters. He returned to the South in 1869 and served for three more years as commander of the Department of the South, carrying out similar duties.

Terry's main work was in the northern Plains as commanding general of the Department of Dakota, which included Minnesota, Dakota Territory, and Montana Territory. During the late 1860s and for the next two decades, his presence was a major force in the region. In his first years there he developed the frontier fort system at strategic locations in his department and tried to ensure the safety of the transportation routes into Montana, where gold had been discovered in 1863. Also during this time he negotiated with the Sioux Indians. He dealt with the American Indians in a just, humanitarian manner and always fought to uphold the law. ….These efforts combined into the Treaty of 1868-1869, when the Plains Indians agreed to further restrict their living areas to western Dakota in the North and Indian Territory in the South.
John W. Bailey, "Terry, Alfred Howe," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00773.html.
How to Cite This Page: "Terry, Alfred Howe," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/12906.