Dixon Stansbury Miles (4 May 1804-16 September 1862) was a US Army colonel who served in the Second Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, and the American Civil War. Having struggled with drunkenness at both the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and the Battle of Harpers Ferry in 1862, he was killed at the latter battle.
Biography[]
Dixon Stansbury Miles was born in Maryland in 1804, and he graduated from West Point in 1824 and served in the US Army in Florida during the Second Seminole War and distinguished himself at Fort Brown, the Battle of Monterrey, and the Siege of Veracruz during the Mexican-American War. After the war, he fought the Navajo and other hostile Indian tribes in New Mexico. At the start of the American Civil War, Miles commanded a Union division at the First Battle of Bull Run, and he was accused of drunkenness during the battle and was demoted to command the garrison of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. When the Confederates besieged the town in 1862, Miles received orders from General George B. McClellan to hold the town at all costs, and Miles followed these orders to the letter, neglecting to defend the heights surrounding Harpers Ferry. This enabled the Confederates to set up cannon emplacements on the cliffsides and bombard the garrison, and Miles decided to surrender on 15 September 1862. Before a white flag could be raised by the garrison, Miles was mortally wounded when an exploding shell struck his left leg, and his soldiers - who were infuriated with him for again being drunk on duty - initially hesitated to carry him to the hospital. He died a day later.