Claron A. Windus

Claron Augustus Windus was an American soldier, frontier cavalryman, lawman, customs officer, and Medal of Honor recipient whose life stretched across several major chapters of nineteenth-century American history. He was born on January 10, 1850, in Janesville, Wisconsin, to George and Mary Windus. He received his early education in the public schools of Janesville, but while still very young he was drawn into military service during the final years of the American Civil War. In 1864, while still only a teenager, Windus left home and joined the 5th Wisconsin Infantry as a drummer. His service placed him within the Union Army during the closing stages of the Civil War. The regiment participated in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, one of the most important campaigns leading to the collapse of Confederate resistance. Windus therefore experienced military life at a remarkably young age and was exposed to the realities of wartime service before reaching adulthood. He was mustered out of Civil War service in July 1865, but his military career was far from over. In October 1866, Windus entered the regular United States Army and joined Company L of the 6th U.S. Cavalry. Because he was still underage, he misrepresented his age in order to enlist. His service with the 6th Cavalry took him to Texas, where the regiment was heavily involved in frontier operations during the period commonly known as the American Indian Wars. Life in the frontier cavalry was difficult and dangerous. Soldiers spent long periods on patrol, protecting transportation routes, escorting military movements, scouting large areas of open country, and responding to raids and armed resistance. The distances were immense, supplies could be limited, and mounted soldiers often operated far from major military installations. Windus eventually served as a Bugler in Company L, a role that was far more important than the title might suggest. A cavalry bugler was responsible for transmitting commands through standardized bugle calls. In the confusion of mounted operations and combat, buglers helped communicate orders for movement, assembly, attack, retreat, and other battlefield actions. This often placed them close to commanders and exposed them to considerable danger. Windus’s service as a Bugler would ultimately lead to the action for which he became nationally recognized. On July 12, 1870, Company L of the 6th U.S. Cavalry became engaged in combat near the Wichita River in Texas during operations involving Kiowa warriors. Windus distinguished himself during the engagement through conspicuous bravery while under dangerous combat conditions. His official Medal of Honor citation was brief, describing his conduct simply as “Gallantry in action,” but that short wording represented official recognition that his behavior during the fight went beyond the normal expectations of duty. For his bravery at the Wichita River, Claron A. Windus was awarded the Medal of Honor. The award was issued on August 25, 1870, while he was serving as a Bugler in Company L, 6th U.S. Cavalry. The Medal of Honor became the defining decoration of his military career and permanently associated his name with the history of the U.S. Army during the Indian Campaigns. The version of the decoration appropriate to Windus’s award is the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army pattern. The Army Medal of Honor had been established during the Civil War after Congress authorized a military decoration for soldiers who distinguished themselves through exceptional conduct in action. During the nineteenth century, the Medal of Honor was the principal national military decoration available to American soldiers for extraordinary battlefield service. The early Army Medal of Honor featured the distinctive five-pointed star design associated with the original Civil War-era decoration. At the center was an allegorical scene featuring Minerva, representing the Union and victory. Because Windus received his Medal of Honor in 1870, his award falls within this early Army period rather than the later redesigned versions introduced near the end of the nineteenth century and afterward. Windus’s Medal of Honor is especially significant because it was awarded during the frontier era, when the U.S. Army was engaged in numerous campaigns across the American West. Recipients from this period included cavalrymen, infantrymen, scouts, and other soldiers who performed acts of recognized bravery in remote and often extremely dangerous engagements. Windus became one of the 6th U.S. Cavalry soldiers whose actions were officially recognized with the nation’s highest military decoration. His military record was not without difficulties. During his earlier regular Army service, Windus experienced disciplinary problems and was court-martialed in 1868 for desertion and theft, receiving a sentence that included hard labor. Nevertheless, he remained in military service afterward and, only two years later, performed the gallant action for which he received the Medal of Honor. His life therefore presents a complicated historical picture, combining youthful mistakes, harsh frontier military service, and later officially recognized battlefield bravery. Windus remained with the Army until October 12, 1871, when he was discharged from regular military service. After leaving the cavalry, he stayed in Texas and began building a civilian career closely connected with transportation, law enforcement, and federal government service. He initially worked as a teamster and mail agent, occupations that were particularly important in frontier communities where movement of supplies and communications depended heavily on overland transportation. By 1875, Windus had become a deputy sheriff in Brackettville, Texas. This marked the beginning of a long law-enforcement career. The frontier communities of Texas during this period could be dangerous places, and deputy sheriffs often dealt with fugitives, violent crime, disputes, and armed confrontations under conditions very different from modern policing. One of the most unusual and controversial episodes of Windus’s life occurred in 1877. While attempting to arrest a group of wanted men, Windus shot and killed Adam Paine, also known in some records as Adam Payne, a Black Seminole scout and fellow Medal of Honor recipient. The confrontation became historically notable because it is regarded as the only known instance in which one Medal of Honor recipient killed another Medal of Honor recipient. The incident became a remarkable and tragic intersection between two men whose earlier military service had each been recognized with the nation’s highest decoration. Windus was acting in his capacity as a lawman while attempting to make an arrest. The episode remains one of the most unusual events associated with Medal of Honor history and became an enduring part of Windus’s biography. Windus resigned from his Brackettville law-enforcement duties in 1877. He later entered federal service as a mounted customs inspector, beginning around 1879. In that position he worked along the Texas border during a period when customs enforcement required officers to travel long distances and confront smuggling and other illegal activity in difficult terrain. From customs service, Windus continued into federal law enforcement as a deputy United States marshal. He remained involved in that work for many years, serving until the 1890s. His responsibilities again placed him in the sometimes violent environment of the Texas frontier and border region. His experience as a cavalryman and local lawman would have provided valuable skills for such work. During his years as a deputy U.S. marshal, Windus also became involved in events associated with the Garza War, a series of disturbances along the Texas-Mexico border during the early 1890s. The conflict involved supporters of Catarino Garza and attempts to organize revolutionary activity against the Mexican government from the border region. Federal officers and military forces became involved in efforts to suppress cross-border activity and maintain order. Windus’s military story entered another chapter in 1898 when the Spanish-American War began. Although decades had passed since his service as a young cavalry bugler, he returned to military duty. This time he entered service not as an enlisted cavalryman but as a commissioned officer. Windus was appointed Captain and commanded a company in the 9th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, one of the volunteer organizations raised during the Spanish-American War. The regiment included African American enlisted soldiers and was among the units sometimes referred to as “Immune” regiments, raised partly under the belief that recruits from southern regions might possess greater resistance to tropical diseases. As Captain, Windus represented a dramatic progression from the teenage drummer and frontier bugler of his earlier military career. He had now reached commissioned command responsibility. His company became part of the force connected with American operations in Cuba following the defeat of Spanish forces. Windus went to Cuba in late 1898 with the 9th U.S. Volunteer Infantry. Although large-scale combat had largely ended by this stage, occupation and garrison service remained difficult. Disease was an enormous threat to American troops in the Caribbean, often causing more serious losses than combat itself. While serving in Cuba, Windus contracted malaria. His illness became serious enough that he was returned to the United States. His Spanish-American War service consequently ended because of health rather than battlefield injury. He was discharged from military service in May 1899, bringing his formal Army career to a close. By this point Windus had served the United States military across three separate periods: first as a young drummer during the Civil War, later as a cavalryman and Bugler during the Indian Campaigns, and finally as a Captain during the Spanish-American War. This unusually long span connected him personally with three distinct eras of American military history. After recovering and returning to civilian life, Windus resumed federal customs work in Texas. Beginning around 1900, he again served as a customs agent and remained associated with the service for approximately two decades. His long postwar career reflected the pattern of much of his life: military service followed by government and law-enforcement responsibilities. Windus also established a family life in Texas. On February 3, 1877, he married Agnes Ballantyne in Brackettville. They had children, including daughters who survived him. Brackettville became closely associated with both his professional career and his later life. The Medal of Honor remained the central military decoration connected with Windus throughout his lifetime. For the hero profile, the historically appropriate decoration is the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army. No additional campaign medal should be automatically attached merely because he served during the Civil War, Indian Campaigns, or Spanish-American War unless specific individual entitlement is independently documented. His Medal of Honor, however, is unquestionably confirmed and directly connected with his gallantry at the Wichita River in 1870. Windus’s Medal of Honor also illustrates how recognition worked during the nineteenth century. Modern military award citations frequently contain detailed narratives describing exactly what a servicemember did, but many early Medal of Honor citations were remarkably short. Windus’s citation consists essentially of recognition for gallantry in action. The brevity does not diminish the award; instead, it reflects the documentation practices of the era. In later life, Windus remained connected to Texas after decades of military, customs, and law-enforcement service. His life had taken him from Wisconsin and the final campaigns of the Civil War to the Texas frontier, federal law enforcement, the Mexican border, and military service in Cuba. In September 1927, Windus became seriously ill and entered the hospital at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He died there on October 18, 1927, at the age of seventy-seven. His death closed a life that had encompassed more than six decades of American military and frontier history. Claron Augustus Windus was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Brackettville, Texas, the community with which much of his adult life had been associated. His grave preserves the memory of a man whose career included service as a drummer, cavalry bugler, Medal of Honor recipient, deputy sheriff, mounted customs inspector, deputy United States marshal, and Army captain. His legacy is unusual not simply because he received the Medal of Honor, but because of the extraordinary range of experiences contained within his lifetime. He entered military service as a boy during the Civil War, received the Medal of Honor as a young cavalry bugler on the Texas frontier, spent decades in law enforcement and customs work, returned to uniform as a commissioned captain during the Spanish-American War, and continued federal service well into the twentieth century. The defining moment of his military career nevertheless remained July 12, 1870, at the Wichita River in Texas. There, while serving as Bugler of Company L, 6th U.S. Cavalry, Windus demonstrated the gallantry that earned him the Medal of Honor. The decoration permanently placed him among the recognized heroes of the United States Army and remains the strongest symbol of his long and complex life of military and public service.