Thomas Moonlight

Thomas Moonlight was born of Scottish farmer parentage, in Forfarshire, Scotland, November 10, 1833. He came to America when he was thirteen years old. After Moonlight turned twenty, he enlisted in the Fourth Artillery C. D., May 17, 1853. The fall of that year he was ordered to Texas and served there until the fall of 1856. Moonlight rose to the rank of orderly sergeant and then settled in Leavenworth County, Kansas in 1860. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Moonlight raised a light battery and was mustered in as a captain of artillery. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Eleventh Kansas Infantry, September 20,1862, Moonlight then made the rank of colonel, April 25, 1864.

Ordered to Fort Laramie in the spring of 1865, the regiment was distributed to various posts and stations throughout the northern subdistricts of the plains. Colonel Thomas Moonlight was placed in command at that time. Jim Bridger, the famed mountain scout, acted as guide to Thomas Moonlight on his expedition from Fort Laramie to Wind River, while he was in command of Fort Laramie.

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