Randolph B. Marcy

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Marcy was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1832 as a lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry.{{Cite web |title=Randolph B. Marcy • Cullum's Register • 690 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/690*.html |access-date=2023-02-11 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}} He married soon afterwards, and one of his children, Ellen Mary, would later marry future General-in-Chief George B. McClellan.

Marcy first saw combat while serving in the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Wisconsin. He was promoted Captain in the Mexican War, and fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He was then assigned to duty in Texas and Oklahoma, where he escorted emigrants, located military posts, explored the wilderness, and mapped routes. In 1852, he was in charge of the expedition that first reached the headwaters of both forks of the Red River. (It was on this expedition that he met McClellan.)

In 1857, Marcy accompanied Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston on the expedition against the Mormons in Utah. Here he distinguished himself on a forced march through the Rockies in midwinter, when he led his troops to safety after they had run out of provisions for two weeks. Meanwhile, his achievements and well-written military reports had attracted attention in Washington, and he was recalled to work for the Department of State. Here he prepared his acclaimed guidebook to the western trails, The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions, with Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific.{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/prairietravelerh00marcuoft |title=Prairie Traveler : A Hand-Book for Overland Expeditions, with Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes Between the Mississippi and the Pacific |last=Marcy |first=Randolph Barnes |year=1859 |website=Internet Archive |publisher=Harper & Brothers |oclc=608906065}}

File:Randolph B. Marcy by Brady.jpg

Published by the U.S. Government in 1859, the Prairie Traveler quickly became an indispensable guide for the thousands of Americans wanting to reach California, Oregon, Utah, and other destinations.

Based on his own extensive experience of "more than thirty years of service in the United States Army, a large portion of the time on the frontiers"Marcy, Colonel R. B. U.S.A. (Author of "The Prairie Traveler"). Thirty Years of Army Life On The Border, New York: Harper Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square (1866) p. IX and in the mountains, deserts, and prairies, the book provided authoritative advice about reconnaissance, fieldcraft, provisions and healthcare, that would save many lives on these perilous routes. It covered key topics like food and water supply and hunting and tracking, and provided specialist advice about the selection of horses, avoiding quicksand, interpreting smoke signals and sign language, and numerous other issues. It was a best-selling book for the remainder of the century. Andrew J. Birtle, author of U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and Contingency Operations Doctrine 1860-1941, has described the Prairie Traveler as "perhaps the single most important work on the conduct of frontier expeditions published under the aegis of the War Department."

After completing this work, Marcy was promoted to the rank of major and posted to the Pacific Northwest, where he was assigned as paymaster. At the start of the Civil War, he returned East and served as chief of staff to McClellan, by now his son-in-law. In 1861, he succeeded Henry Lee Scott as Inspector General of the U.S. Army.{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/747*.html |title=Henry L. Scott in Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy, Volume I |last=Cullum |first=George Washington |date=1879 |website=Bill Thayer's Web Site |publisher=Chicago, IL |access-date=July 11, 2024}} Marcy was brevetted major general of volunteers in 1868 (back-dated to 1865) and became a brigadier general of the U.S. Army in 1878. He continued his service until he retired in 1881. He died at West Orange, New Jersey in 1887

Fort Marcy Park in McLean, Virginia, was named for General Marcy.

A species of garter snake, Thamnophis marcianus, is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Marcy", p. 168).

During the twentieth century, United States Army Randolph Barnes Marcy received numerous historical markers by the Texas Historical Commission recognizing the Marcy Trail prairie routes through Indian Territory and Texas while establishing the Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail of 1849.{{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=93343 |title=Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail ~ Texas Historic Marker: 2017 |year=1974 |trans-title=Borger in Hutchinson County, Texas - The American South (West South Central) |website=HMDB.org |publisher= The Historical Marker Database}}{{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=91758 |title=Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail ~ Texas Historic Marker: 2016 |year=1992 |trans-title=Near Vega in Oldham County, Texas - The American South (West South Central) |website=HMDB.org |publisher= The Historical Marker Database}}

{{multiple image

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| width = 250

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| header = Texas Historical Markers for Marcy Trail

| image1 = Randolph Marcy 1852.jpg

| alt1 = Red River Expedition of 1852 - Pampa - Gray County ~ Marker Number: 4217

| caption1 = Texas historical marker for Red River Expedition of 1852{{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=150788 |title=Red River Expedition of 1852 ~ Texas Historic Marker: 4217 |year=1984 |trans-title=Pampa in Gray County, Texas - The American South (West South Central) |website=HMDB.org |publisher= The Historical Marker Database}}

| image2 = Texas Historical Marker Marcy Trail.jpg

| alt2 = Route of Marcy Trail - Canadian - Hemphill County ~ Marker Number: 4369

| caption2 = Texas historical marker for 1849 Route of Marcy Trail{{cite web |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=55770 |title=Route of Marcy Trail ~ Texas Historic Marker: 4369 |year=1969 |trans-title=Near Canadian in Hemphill County, Texas - The American South (West South Central) |website=HMDB.org |publisher= The Historical Marker Database}}

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{{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fma43 Handbook of Texas Online, MARCY, RANDOLPH BARNES]
• {{Gutenberg author | id=25971}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Randolph Barnes Marcy}}
• {{Librivox author |id=6129}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20030224145008/http://www.kancoll.org/books/marcy/ Text of Marcy's Prairie Traveler]
• [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-6105 Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan.] hosted by the [http://texashistory.unt.edu/ Portal to Texas History]
• {{Find a Grave|12937}}

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{{succession box|title=Inspector General of the U. S. Army|before=vacant |after=Delos B. Sacket|years=September 25, 1861-January 2, 1881}}

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Category:1812 births

Category:1887 deaths

Category:Union army generals

Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War

Category:People of Texas in the American Civil War

Category:United States Military Academy alumni

Category:Inspectors general of the United States Army

Category:American botanists

Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War

Category:American people of the Black Hawk War

Category:People from Greenwich, Massachusetts

Category:People of the Utah War

Category:Red River of the South