Amos Chapman

He survived a shattered knee in the Buffalo Wallow gunfight.

Amos Chapman was a civilian scout and interpreter whose conduct at the Buffalo Wallow Fight earned the Medal of Honor. Born in Michigan, he worked with United States Army forces on the Southern Plains from the late 1860s. He guided troops and travellers and interpreted at Camp Supply in Indian Territory. His wife, Mary Longneck, was a daughter of the Cheyenne chief Stone Calf.

During the Red River War, Chapman volunteered to carry dispatches for Colonel Nelson A. Miles. On 12 September 1874, he, fellow civilian scout Billy Dixon and four soldiers were travelling from the expedition's camp toward Camp Supply when a much larger force of Kiowa and Comanche warriors attacked near the Washita River in Texas. The six men resisted from a shallow buffalo wallow, protecting their wounded through the fighting.

Chapman suffered a shattered left knee while attempting to help a wounded soldier. Dixon brought him into the depression where the party held its position. Chapman survived, but his injury required amputation of the leg. Army officers later supported a special pension for him, describing both his conduct during the engagement and the disability it caused.

He received the Medal of Honor for the 1874 action. His award was rescinded after the Army's 1916–1917 review because he had been a civilian scout rather than an enlisted soldier or officer. In 1989, the Army restored his place on the Medal of Honor Roll.

Chapman continued working as an interpreter after the war and helped negotiate arrangements intended to prevent violence between cattlemen and Cheyenne communities. He and his wife later settled on a ranch near Seiling, Oklahoma. He died on 18 July 1925 and is buried in the Brumfield section of Seiling Cemetery. His restored award recognizes a civilian scout's gallantry alongside the soldiers with whom he served.

Full Medal of Honor citation:

“Gallantry in action.”