Clinton Greaves

NPS Image / T. Engberg

Quick Facts

Significance:

Buffalo Soldier and Medal of Honor Recipient

Place of Birth:

Madison County, Virginia

Date of Birth:

August 12, 1855

Place of Death:

Columbus, Ohio

Date of Death:

August 18, 1906

Place of Burial:

Columbus, Ohio

Cemetery Name:

Green Lawn Cemetery, Section 27, Lot 88

Clinton Greaves was born enslaved on August 12, 1855, in Madison County, Virginia. Greaves moved to Prince Georges County outside Washington, D.C., before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1872 in C Troop, Ninth U.S. Cavalry. He was eventually stationed at Fort Bayard, New Mexico.

In late January 1877, the garrison at Fort Bayard learned of an armed engagement between members of the Sixth U.S. Cavalry and a group of Chiricahua Apaches in Arizona. The Chiricahua Apaches were headed east into New Mexico after the engagement. Lieutenant Henry H. Wright along with Corporal Greaves and five other men from C Troop, Ninth Cavalry, along with three Navajo scouts, left immediately to search for the Apaches. On January 24, , they tracked the Apaches to their camp in the Florida Mountains south of Fort Bayard.

The Buffalo Soldiers, outnumbered two to one, tried negotiating with the Apaches. A half-hour of discussions did not yield the results Lieutenant Wright sought. The Apache men encircled Wright and the Buffalo Soldiers and began to close in on all sides. Wright ordered the Buffalo Soldiers to engage the Apaches and push through their circle. The fighting included close-range gunfire and wielding the guns as clubs.  Greaves, at the center of the fighting, made an opening in the Apaches’ line, using his carbine as a club, allowing his comrades to escape the ever-tightening Apache circle. 

As the Buffalo Soldiers retreated out of the mountains, the Apaches took up defensive positions. Wright and the men of C Troop withdrew to Fort Cummings, taking 11 captured horses with them.

Lieutenant Wright and the detachment of Buffalo Soldiers that fought that day received immediate recognition for their bravery. Fort Bayard Post Order stated, “The conduct of Lieut. Wright and men under him is deserving of the highest praise and furnishes an example of gallantry and soldierly conduct worthy of emulation by all.” Wright submitted his recommendation for Greaves to receive the Medal of Honor. Wright’s chain of command agreed. 

Greaves was awarded the Medal of Honor on June 26, 1879. Greaves’ Medal of Honor citation reads, “While part of a small detachment to persuade a band of renegade Apache Indians to surrender, his group was surrounded. Cpl. Greaves in the center of the savage hand-to-hand fighting, managed to shoot and bash a gap through the swarming Apaches, permitting his companions to break free.”

In 1877, Greaves reenlisted and was transferred to H Troop, Ninth U.S. Cavalry. He spent a total of 15 years with the Ninth Cavalry before he transferred to Columbus Barracks in Ohio. The barracks was one of the training centers for recruits before being assigned to their regiments. Greaves remained at Columbus Barracks for five years before retiring from the military in 1893 at the rank of sergeant. 

After retirement, Greaves stayed in Columbus and worked at the barracks as a civilian for the Quartermaster Department until his death in 1906. he is buried in Columbus, Ohio at Green Lawn Cemetery, Section 27, Lot 88.

Camp Greaves, a U.S. Army installation in South Korea near the demilitarized zone, memorialized Clinton Graves, as does a life-size bronze statue at Fort Bayard, New Mexico.