US Army William Herbert Renick was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Colonel Robert M. and Anna Rebecca Renick in 1843. He attended St. Louis’s Academy for the Christian Brothers with George Bent. Later he attended and received a medical degree from Washington College in St. Louis. During the Civil War he left the university and enlisted with Company I of the 6th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. He served alongside Ben Clark, who later became Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s chief scout. He mustered out August of 1865 and finished his schooling. Renick served as an Acting Assistant Surgeon, a contract surgeon and not commissioned army officer, for the 7th US Cavalry from October 1866 to May 1870. He would be at the Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty negotiation in October 1867, where he frequently visited his old school chum George Bent at his tipi. Dr. Henry Lippincott and Renick accompany 7th US Cavalry to Camp Supply. The doctors would be at the Battle of the Washita on November 27, 1868, where they were busy helping the wounded soldiers and Indians. Both Dr. Lippincott and Renick were affected by snow blindness which made their job harder to do. In March 1869, Dr. Renick would travel with Custer's command to the Staked Plains of Texas in search of the Cheyennes. At Sweetwater Creek, Texas, he accompanied Colonel Custer, and Lieutenant Tom Custer, Lieutenant Samuel Robbins, Scouts Romero and California Joe, another Indian guide named Neva, and young Daniel Brewster to Cheyenne camp where he witnessed the Cheyennes releasing the captives of Anna Morgan and Sarah White. Dr. Renick served with the 7th US Cavalry at Fort Lyon, Colorado till May 1870. After his contract with the seventh ended he would move back to St. Louis and start up his private practice. He married Theodate ‘Datie’ Morrill in 1872 with whom he had three children. Dr. Renick died quietly in his sleep on April 26, 1889 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bibliography: Greene, Jerome A., Washita, the US Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, OK 2004. (Pgs. 113 and 122) Halaas, David Fridtjof, and Andrew E. Masich. Halfbreed, the Remarkable True Story of George Bent, Da Capo Press: Cambridge, MA, 2004. (Pg. 236) Hardorff, Richard G. Washita Memories, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, OK 2006. (Pgs. 99, 103, 153, 231n45, 360 and 383) Hoig, Stan. The Battle of the Washita, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, NE 1979. (Pg. 196) Hyde, George E. Life of George Bent, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, OK 1968. (Pg. 322) Millbrook, Minnie Dubbs. Rebecca Visits Kansas and the Custers, Kansas Historical Society, Winter 1976 (Vol. 42, No. 2), pages 366 to 402. St. Louis Public Library Online Obituary Search, April 19, 2011. The New York Times, New York City, NY March 27, 1869. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44564798/william-herbert-rennick |
Last updated: December 20, 2021