Maj. Thomas M. McDougall

[herosrest]

^Ducemus

Story compiled by William A. Greene 2015

Info from notes of Wendell R. Vars

Wellsville Daily Reporter

Find A Grave

Thelma Rogers Historical Society

AlleganyCounty Historical Society.

link This all started from a letter I received from Wendell R. Vars, a good friend that had once ran a Drug Store in Andover, N.Y... He had taken care of our families medical supplies for many years. Upon retiring and selling his business, he and his wife Katherine packed up and moved to Loveland, Colorado.

In July of 1999 I received a letter from Wendell, telling me that he had been studying General George Armstrong Custer for many years. He had done a lot of research of Custer’s activities during and after the Civil War and had recently bought a book, “With Custer on the Little Bighorn” which was written from the text of a diary which had been recently discovered and was written by a trooper, William O. Taylor. It was well written and well documented the entire campaign of Custer on the Little Bighorn with daily entries. In the back of the book was a list of the men who survived the action in the various troops making up the 7th Cavalry.

One of the survivors was a Captain Thomas M. McDougall of B Troop. He was born in Wisconsin and an officer in the Civil War and was assigned to the 7th Cav. as a 1st Lt. December 31, 1870. He was Capt. of B Troop – Dec. 15th, 1875 – Acting as Guard for the Pack train of the Battle of Little Bighorn. He retired July 22, 1890 and..........

Major McDougall was a retired officer of the United States Army and was sixty-four years of age on the 21st of May this year. Beside his wife, who was Miss Alice Sheldon, he is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Josephine, Mr. D. Buel and Mrs. Frances, Mr. D. Babbitt, both of Washington. For many years he has made his home in Wellsville with the Cummings family and his loss will be keenly felt not only by family, but the hosts of friends in town. The Major was a genial companion and a member of the Eagles fraternity of this city and the Elks lodge of Hornell.

He married Alice M. Sheldon on 21 May 1872 in Spartanburg, SC. link Further link

Josephine Maria McDougall

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The career of George P. Buell, Jr., who married Rochie Brien of Nashville, Tennessee, is the primary concern of these papers.

About 125 letters make up the correspondence of Mrs. George P. Buell (Rochie Brien) and her son, Don Carlos. In addition to these letters, there is a little diary kept by Mrs. Buell from March, 1876, to October, 1877. The diary begins with a trip from Fort Griffin, Texas, to Ringgold, Texas, which required two months. The country is described as being very beautiful for most of the trip. Several days were spent at San Antonio.

After Custer's forces were massacred in Dakota by the Sioux Indians, General Buell was ordered to construct a fort farther west than Fort Abraham Lincoln from which Custer had set out on his fateful advance against the Indians. Mrs. Buell went home to Nashville in August, 1876 to be with her mother, Mrs. Brien. She joined her husband in November, 1876, at the Cheyenne Agency. The diary ends with a description of the battlefield where Custer made his last stand.


Box 2 - Military
1. Charges of Arms Stolen at Fort Griffin Texas, 1876.
2. Charges Against George P. Buell by G. K. Sanderson, 1877-78.

Box 28 - Diaries