Captain Joseph Henry Hurst and Lieutenant Harry Clay Hale, 12th Infantry - Courage, Fortitude,...

"The statement of the services immediately performed by Capt. Hurst and Lieut. Hale carries with it so evident a suggestion of every meritorious conduct on their part that special remark thereof would seem superfluous."
--Brigadier General Thomas H. Ruger

Second Lieutenant Harry Clay Hale of the 12th Infantry was twenty-nine years old and seven years out of the United States Military Academy when his duty called him into action during the Sioux campaign. Captain Joseph Henry Hurst was fifty-four and an emigrant from England who served with the 141st Pennsylvania Volunteers during the Civil War receiving brevet promotions for gallantry at Chancellorsville and Spotsylvania. Hurst had been a captain with the 12th Infantry since 1886. If there were only two men in the United States Army that winter of 1890-1891 capable of convincing hundreds of “hostile” Indians to surrender their weapons and submit peacefully to the will of the government, it was Lieutenant Hale and Captain Hurst. Their accomplishment is singularly extraordinary and came on the heels of Sitting Bull’s death where Captain Fechét had ridden to the rescue of the Standing Rock Agency Indian police on 15 December. Over two hundred of Sitting Bull’s followers that day fled their camp at Standing Rock, ostensibly to join Big Foot’s band of Miniconjou, wage war on the country side, and seek vengeance for their fallen chief. In truth, they were terrified, starving, freezing, and understandably distrustful of soldiers, making them potentially dangerous to anyone in uniform. 125 years ago today, Lieutenant Hale rode up by himself to confront this band of fugitive Indians, and see if he could convince them to surrender. His actions resulted in being nominated for the Medal of Honor. Read his official report and the Medal of Honor recommendation at the following websire.