Mohave Polychrome Recurve Bow Collected by Thaddeus Stanton (1835-1900) 

bow painted on both sides in red and blue diamond and hourglass pattern; notched tips, overall length 36 in.
fourth quarter 19th century

Thaddeus Stanton was a tough-willed military man who rose from being a foot soldier under John Brown in Kansas to earn the rank of Paymaster General of the U.S. Army in 1895. Born in Union County, Indiana, in 1835, Stanton moved to Iowa in 1851, where he briefly flirted with being a journalist in the antislavery cause. After taking up arms in Bleeding Kansas, it is no surprise that he became an early volunteer when the formal hostilities of the Civil War interrupted the guerrilla war, serving in a three-month regiment, and after a brief tenure in public office in Iowa, he raised and led a company of the 19th Iowa Infantry. As early as 1862, he assumed duties as paymaster, winning recognition (and friends) for the efficiency of his service.

Travel and the military apparently appealed to Stanton, and when the war ended, he used his contacts to enter the regular army and for many years flitted about the far west, taking part in the Indian campaigns and performing duty from Arizona to Montana. As chief of scouts for General Crook in 1876, he personally led an attack on Crazy Horse along the Powder River in March 1876 and took part in the Little Bighorn Campaign. He was promoted to colonel in 1893, and to general two years later, remaining in the service through the end of the Spanish American War. Stanton died at home in Omaha in 1900. 

Provenance:Collected by Thaddeus Stanton (1835-1900), 'The Fighting Paymaster'

Expected wear; light scattered paint loss; minor nicks in wood.

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