Henry Beebee Carrington (1824–1912) was born in Wallingford, Connecticut. An ardent abolitionist in his youth, he was graduated from Yale University in 1845. He was professor of natural science and Greek at the Irving Institute in Tarrytown, New York from 1846 to 1847. Under the influence of the school's founder, Washington Irving, he subsequently wrote Battles of the American Revolution, which appeared in 1876.

In 1847 he studied at Yale Law School, and the following year moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he practiced his profession in partnership with William Dennison (who was to become Governor of Ohio in 1860). Carrington was an active anti-slavery Whig, and helped organize the Republican party in 1854. He became a close friend and supporter of Governor Salmon P. Chase and was appointed judge-advocate-general by Governor Chase in 1857, charged with reorganizing the state militia. He subsequently became adjutant general for Ohio, mustering ten regiments of militia at the outbreak of the American Civil War and organizing the first twenty-six Ohio regiments. He was commissioned a colonel of the 18th U S Infantry in May, 1861 and established Camp Thomas near Columbus.

In 1862, Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton requested Carrington's assistance to organize the state's levies for service. When he arrived in Indiana, a state of political warfare existed between Morton’s administration and its opponents. Morton had established an intelligence network to deal with rebel sympathizers, Knights of the Golden Circle (Copperheads), Democrats, and anyone opposed to his rule, and Carrington was put at its head. In March 1863, Carrington was promoted to brigadier-general and made commander of the District of Indiana of the Department of the Ohio, later renamed the Northern Department. While Carrington succeeded in breaking up Morton’s enemies, his operatives carried out arbitrary arrests, suppressed freedom of speech and freedom of association, and generally maintained a repressive regime. His intelligence sources were recruited from disgruntled officials and unsolicited informers who gathered hearsay and unreliable information generally more valuable for political than military uses.

Carrington subsequently rejoined his old regiment in the Army of the Cumberland, completed war duty and saw Indian campaigns in the West. He built Fort Phil Kearny but lost the respect of his officers due to his lack of aggressiveness in several Indian skirmishes. In December 1866, a force of fifteen hundred to three thousand Indians massacred a force of eighty officers and men under Captain William J. Fetterman who had disobeyed Carrington's order not to pursue the Indians too far from the fort; Fetterman’s force was drawn into an ambush and annihilated. Fetterman’s popularity, coupled with existing distrust of the colonel's leadership, led to rumors that his men had been ordered into the tragedy. General Ulysses S Grant moved to court-martial Carrington but, at the suggestion of General William T. Sherman, submitted the matter to a court of inquiry which subsequently exonerated Carrington. Nevertheless, Carrington was relieved of command with his military career effectively ruined.

In 1870, Carrington retired from active service and was appointed professor of military science at Wabash College in Indiana from 1870 to 1878, after which he moved to Hyde Park in Boston, Massachusetts. He received the degree of LL. D. from Wabash College in 1873.

Publications

• The Scourge of the Alps (1847)
• Russia Among the Nations and American Classics (1849)
• Battles of the American Revolution, 1775-81 (1876)
• Crisis Thoughts (1878)
• Battle Maps and Charts of the American Revolution (1881)
• The Indian Question (1884)
• Battles of the Bible
• Boston and New York, 1775 and 1776 (1885)
• The Exodus of the Flat Head Indians (1902).

• AB-SA-RA-KA, Land of Massacre: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the Plains (1868) was written by Carrington's wife, Margaret

External Sources

• [1] Biography
• [2] Bios, Photos and Really Annoying Music
• [3] Biography
• [4] Testimony of Col. Henry B. Carrington Relating to Investigations of the Fetterman Massacre