Henry Inman (U.S. Army officer and author)

Inman was born in New York City on July 30, 1837.{{cite book|author=Dan L. Thrapp|title=Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: G-O|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hc35mM0PqSQC&pg=PA704|date=August 1, 1991|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-9419-0|page=704}}{{efn|His date of birth is also stated as July 3, 1837.}} His parents were Henry Inman, an artist and president of the National Academy of Design, and Janet Riker (née O'Brien) Inman.{{cite book|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7m9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA248|year=1907|publisher=J.T. White|page=248}} His brother, John O'Brien Inman, was also an artist.{{cite book|author=Frank Moore Colby|title=The International Year Book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.180027|year=1900|publisher=Dodd, Mead|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.180027/page/n505 443]}} Henry Inman was educated in public schools in Brooklyn, New York.{{cite book|author1=Benson John Lossing|author2=Woodrow Wilson|title=Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCdGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT42|year=1915|publisher=Harper Bros.|page=42}} His father died when he was a child and he was raised by his mother in Hempstead on Long Island for about five years before going away to the Athenian Academy in Rathway, New Jersey. He also received college preparation from tutors.

File:Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill.JPG, and Buffalo Jones. Inman had Old Santa Fe Trail published and The Great Salt Lake Trail co-authored with Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Jones was the subject and co-author of the book Buffalo Jones.]]

As a young man, Inman traveled west and met Buffalo Bill Cody. He scouted with Cody, fought with him on the frontier, and often rode with him during the parades of Cody's Wild West shows. He also knew many Native American chiefs. He found the skeleton of a Cheyenne person in Ness County, Kansas, that he donated to a museum in Kansas.{{cite book|author=Kansas|title=Combined Kansas Reports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=teF24wzEOxMC&pg=RA7-PA283|year=1881|publisher=Kansas State Printing Plant.|page=283}}

Inman joined the army in 1857 and served during the Indian campaign in the 9th Infantry Regiment in Oregon and California. He served in the 17th Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War beginning in 1861 and was commissioned a second lieutenant by October 1861. He was an aide-de-camp to General George Sykes of the Fifth Corps. In Richmond, he fought in the Seven Days Battles and suffered severe wounds. He was brevetted for gallantry in action. At the end of his service, he was a captain and brevett major.

File:Cavalry Charge on the Southern Plains.jpg, Cavalry Charge on the Southern Plains, 1907, Metropolitan Museum of Art]]

He was made lieutenant-colonel for his service during the 1868-1869 Indian winter campaign in Kansas under General Philip Sheridan, although the commission never appeared in his official record. During the Indian wars, he also served under Generals George Armstrong Custer, Alfred Sully, and Alfred Gibbs. Stationed at Fort Harker as a paymaster, he was tried for embezzlement and other financial issues 1870 to 1872 and was dismissed as a result of what may have been largely carelessness. He was called Major Henry Inman and Colonel Henry Inman.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/383553485/?terms=%2522Henry%252BInman%2522 |title=Col. Henry Inman's Death|date=November 16, 1899 |page=3 |newspaper=Ellsworth Messenger |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=June 15, 2018}}

File:Mexican ranch by Colonel Henry Inman 1897.jpg

In 1878, he began working as a journalist for the Larned Enterprise, also called the Larned Chronoscope, and was the editor of six newspapers.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/383154449/?terms=%2522Henry%252BInman%2522 |title=Major Henry Inman Dead|date=November 17, 1899|page= 2 |newspaper=Larned Chronoscope |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=June 15, 2018}}

He wrote of his adventures on the plains. His short stories were printed in magazines and newspapers. He wrote about his experiences on the plains and the western frontier, including Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail.{{Cite book |author=Inman, Col. Henry |author-link=Henry Inman (U.S. Army officer and author) |title=Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail |date=1881 |publisher=Ramsey, Millett & Hudson |location=Kansas City, Missouri |url=https://archive.org/stream/storiesofoldsant00inmarich#page/n9/mode/2up |pages=287 pages |no-pp=yes}} One of his books was written with Buffalo Bill, The Great Salt Lake Trail.{{cite journal|title=Review of The Great Salt Lake Trail by Henry Inman and William F. Cody|journal=The Athenaeum |issue=3740|date=July 1, 1899|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5q05AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA33}} Buffalo Bill was named as co-author because Inman used a number of quotes from Cody's autobiographical book, Story of the Wild West. Inman's book, The Old Santa Fe Trail is also said to contain content from Buffalo Bill's autobiography.{{cite book|author=Don Russell|title=The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qvU4Lq8NAcC&pg=PA146|year=1979|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-1537-5|page=146}} He also wrote A Pioneer from Kentucky, The Delahoydes, Tales of the Trail, The Ranch on the Ox-hide, and Buffalo Jones. At the time of his death, three books were being published, The Cruise of the Prairie Schooner, Muriel, the Colonel's Daughter, and Pick Smith, the Scout.

He married Eunice Churchill Dyer (1842–1922), the daughter of a shipbuilder, in Portland, Maine on October 22, 1862. They had a son and two daughters. He was the father of Brigadier General Robert Todd Inman. While in the hospital he met a homeless boy who was blind, he took him in and the two were constant companions. He lived a great deal of his life in Kansas, first in military posts, then settling in Larned and then the Auburndale neighborhood of Topeka. Inman died on November 13, 1899, in Topeka, Kansas and was buried at Ellsworth Cemetery.

He was said to have looked like his friend Buffalo Bill when they were together.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/323091660/?terms=%2522Henry%252BInman%2522 |title=Our Literary Triumvirate |date=July 26, 1899 |page=3 |newspaper= The Topeka State Journal |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2018-06-15}} Lake Inman and the nearby town of Inman, Kansas, were named for him.{{cite book|author=Richard G. Hardorff|title=Washita Memories: Eyewitness Views of Custer's Attack on Black Kettle's Village|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkxaJWf0dpwC&pg=PA101|year=2006|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3759-9|page=101}}{{cite book|author=Kansas|title=Combined Kansas Reports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=teF24wzEOxMC&pg=RA7-PA7|year=1881|publisher=Kansas State Printing Plant.|page=7}} He was on the board of directors of the Kansas Historical Society.{{cite book|author=Kansas State Historical Society|title=Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KAUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA109|year=1890|publisher=Kansas State Historical Society.|page=5}}

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{{commons category|Henry Inman (soldier and author)}}

• {{Find a Grave|14471749}}
• {{Gutenberg author |id=1850| name=Henry Inman}}
• {{Librivox author |id=14115}}

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Category:1837 births

Category:1899 deaths

Category:Mountain men

Category:19th-century American journalists

Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:American military personnel of the Indian Wars

Category:Union army soldiers

Category:Military personnel from Brooklyn

Category:Writers from Brooklyn

Category:People from Topeka, Kansas

Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War

Category:United States Army generals