James W. Forsyth

James Forsyth commanded the Seventh Cavalry at Wounded Knee and was cleared by an inquiry within weeks. He was an Ohioan, West Point 1856, who served through the Civil War largely as a staff officer and was a colonel commanding Custer's old regiment by 1886 - a regiment that had never recovered its reputation after the Little Bighorn ten years earlier. On 28 December 1890 he took over from Major Whitside the intercepted band of Spotted Elk, about 350 Lakota of whom some 230 were women and children, and camped them at Wounded Knee Creek. He posted four Hotchkiss guns on the rise overlooking the camp and began disarming the men next morning, searching the lodges when the collected weapons proved few. A rifle went off during a struggle with a deaf man named Black Coyote who had not understood the order. What followed lasted less than an hour and killed some 250 to 300 Lakota, more than half of them women and children, some pursued up to three kilometres into a ravine. Twenty-five soldiers died, a number of them in their own crossfire from the guns above. General Miles relieved him and convened a court of inquiry, which found he had disposed his men so that they fired into each other but did not find him culpable for the deaths. He was restored to command and retired a major general. Twenty Medals of Honor were awarded for the action, and a review board in 2024 revoked seven of them.

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