
Willard Grace (1826-1881) was a US Army major who commanded Fort Sedgwick, Colorado during the Colorado War. He was given command of the deserted fort in 1864, and he later interrogated the captured deserter John Dunbar, who had befriended the local Lakota Sioux tribe. Dunbar refused to help Grace track down the local Native American tribes, whom Grace had been ordered to locate and search for white captives, so Grace decided to have Dunbar sent back to Fort Hays to be hanged as a deserter. However, Dunbar was rescued by his Lakota allies, and he helped the Lakota evade Grace's command, which searched the mountains in vain.