Everything about John Gregory Bourke totally explained
John Gregory Bourke (
June 23,
1843 –
June 8,
1896) was a
captain in the
United States Army and a prolific
postbellum diarist and author focusing on the
Old West. He received the
Medal of Honor for his actions while a cavalryman in the
Union Army during the
American Civil War.
Biography
John G. Bourke was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Irish immigrant parents, Edward Joseph and Anna (Morton) Bourke. His early education was extensive and included Latin, Greek, and Gaelic. When the Civil War began, John Bourke was fourteen. At sixteen he ran away and lied about his age. Swearing that he was nineteen, he enlisted in the
Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, in which he served until July 1865. He received a
Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action" at the
Battle of Stones River,
Tennessee, in December 1862. He later saw action at the
Battle of Chickamauga.
His commander,
Major General George H. Thomas, nominated Bourke for West Point. He was appointed cadet in the
United States Military Academy on
October 17,
1865. He graduated on
June 15,
1869, and was assigned as a
second lieutenant in the
Third U.S. Cavalry. He served with his
regiment at
Fort Craig,
New Mexico Territory, from
September 29,
1869 to
February 19,
1870.
He served as an aide to
General George Crook in the
Apache Wars from 1870 to 1886. As Crook's aide, Bourke had the opportunity to witness every facet of life in the
Old West—the battles, wildlife, the internal squabbling between the military, the Indian Agency, settlers, and Native Americans. An avid diarist, he wrote in sequential journals throughout his adult life. It is from these notes that his later monographs and writings originated. No less than
Sigmund Freud wrote the preface for his work:
Scatologic Rites of Nations.
He was recognized in his own time for his ethnological writings on various indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest, particularly Apachean groups.
Bourke married Mary F. Horbach of
Omaha, Nebraska, on
July 25,
1883. The couple later had three daughters.
Bourke died in the Polyclinic Hospital in Philadelphia on
June 8,
1896, and is buried at
Arlington National Cemetery. His wife is buried with him.
Writings
- On the Border with Crook
- MacKenzie's Last Fight with the Cheyennes
- An Apache Campaign in the Sierra Madre: An Account of the Expedition in Pursuit of the Hostile Chiricahua Apaches in the Spring of 1883
- The Medicine-Men Of The Apache
- Scatalogic Rites of All Nations
- The Snake-Dance of the Moquis of Arizona Being a Narrative of a Journey from Santa Fe to the Villages of the Moqui Indians
- The Urine Dance of the Zuni Indians of New Mexico
- The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke: November 20, 1872, to July 28, 1876 —edited by Charles M. Robinson III
- The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke: July 29, 1876 to April 7, 1878 —edited by Charles M. Robinson III
- The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke: June 1, 1878 to June 22, 1880 —edited by Charles M. Robinson III
Further Information
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