Sturgis, Samuel D.

(1822 – 1889) was an American military officer who served in the Mexican-American War, as a Union general in the American Civil War, and later in the Indian Wars.He came from a military family that included officers who had served in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. He graduated from West Point in 1846 and was promoted to the rank of Major General during the Civil War. He commanded the famed Seventh U. S. Cavalry from 1869, until his retirement in 1886. One of his sons was killed in the historic Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.
Another son, Samuel D. Sturgis II, was a general in World War I and a grandson, Samuel D. Sturgis III, became a general during World War II. Colonel Sturgis was one of the earliest post commanders at nearby Fort Meade when it was established in 1878 with his Seventh Cavalry as the principal garrison. He was a member of the Townsite Company that founded the town named for him