Born in the Choctaw Agency, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) on November 22, 1835, Francis “Frank” Crawford Armstrong was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U. S. Dragoons in June 1855. Promoted to captain in the spring of 1861, Armstrong led his company of dragoons at the Battle of First Bull Run on July 21, 1861. He resigned for the U. S. Army the following month and joined General Benjamin McCulloch’s Confederate forces in Arkansas.

Armstrong saw a great deal of combat during the remainder of the war. He served as an aide to Colonel James McIntosh in the Indian Territory in late 1861 and early 1862, and served with General McCulloch during the Pea Ridge campaign. After McCulloch’s death at Pea Ridge, he accompanied General Earl Van Dorn to the other side of Mississippi and was named colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry. In July 1862, Armstrong was appointed acting brigadier general by Sterling Price and given command of all cavalry units in the Army of the West. He led a cavalry brigade at the Battle of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee in March 1863, and after being promoted to brigadier general the following month, took command of a brigade in General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry division. He led a division at the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, a brigade during the Atlanta Campaign, and helped cover the retreat of John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee after the Battle of Nashville. His last action was at Selma, Alabama in April 1865; he surrendered the following month.

Following the war Armstrong served as United States Indian Inspector and Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Armstrong died in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1909.

Carte-de-Visite by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31599