Clinton Greaves was born into slavery on August 12, 1855 in Madison
County, Virginia. His father was born John Greaves, a blacksmith;
we do not know his mother's name.
Clinton was a laborer and a resident of Prince George County when he
enlisted in the Army for the first time on November 21, 1872. He
was 23 years old.
His enlistment papers described him as black eyes, black hair, black
complexion, and five feet six and a half inches tall. Clinton Greaves
could not write so he made his mark. His second enlistment was at
Santa Fe, New Mexico December 21, 1877 age 28. He did sign his name.
Corporal Greaves spent over 20 years in the Army most of it in the 9th
Cavalry as a Buffalo Soldier.
The year 1879 opened on a decidedly different note. It was the
beginning of more than a year of concerned effort by the Buffalo Soldiers
to run the Apaches to ground. It was as grueling a campaign as the
United States Cavalry ever was called upon to undertake, Outlaw Chiricahuas
stepped up their raids and the more restless young men among the Warm Springs
and Mescalero tribes slipped away from the reservations to depredate.
Late in January, word reached Fort Bayard that a party of forty to fifty
Chiricahuas had fought a detachment of the Sixth Cavalry in Arizona and
had probably moved eastward into New Mexico. Lt. henry H. Wright
with six men of Company C and three Navaho Indian scouts left the post
at once for these Indians.
The trail was struck and followed into the Florida Mountains where
the Indian camp was located on the morning of January 24. Outnumbered
badly, Wright did not attack but sought instead to persuade the Chirichuas
to surrender. Half an hour of talk proved fruitless, and Wright observed
that he was completely surrounded. Breaking off the council, Wright
ordered his men to push through the encircling Indians, but as they did
so a deadly fight at close quarters broke out. Weapons were fire
and then used as clubs. In the center of the melee Corporal Clinton
Greaves fought like a cornered lion and managed to shoot and bash a gap
through the swarming Apaches, permitting his companions to break free.
But with five of their number dead and more wounded, the Indians fled leaving
the field to Wright and his gallant nine. The troopers, suffering
only minor wounds, gathered up six Indian ponies and returned to Fort Bayard.
For his role in this affair, Corporal Greaves was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor.
written by Raymond J. Albert