<p style="text-align:center"><strong>HENRY MOORE HARRINGTON</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>No. 2429 · Class of 1872</strong></p><p style="text-align:center"><strong>Died June 25, 1876, at Little Big Horn, M. T., aged 27 years.</strong></p><p>Lieutenant Henry Moore Harrington was born on the 30th of April 1849, at Albion, Orleans County, N. Y. When he was seven years of age his parents removed to Cold Water, Michigan, where the boy's childhood and early youth were passed, and where he received his first mental training. At the age of fifteen Henry was sent for a three year's course of study to University Heights, Cleveland, Ohio, and frequent reports from the instructors of that institution gave to his friends the assurance that he was making diligent use of the opportunities for improvement there offered him.</p><p>It was during one of his vacations from Cleveland and study, and at the early age of sixteen, that Henry Harrington, by uniting himself with the Church, made public avowal of his faith in Christ. This Christian belief remained in him firm through life, and any deviation from its rules of practice his own conscientiousness made him ever ready to acknowledge.</p><p>Whilst pursuing his course of study at University Heights, the offer of an appointment at the Naval Academy was made to his father in his behalf and declined.</p><p>When within three months of graduation the young student was called home by the severe illness of his father. With that spirit of faithfulness to the duty next at hand which characterized him, and which in the day-dreaming time of youth is so rare a trait, Henry took his place at once as assistant in his father's business, and soon won many and warm personal friends by his manly rectitude of conduct and his genial disposition and manners. It was solely to the high regard which his character inspired in one who closely watched its development, that his appointment to the Military Academy was due. It came to him wholly unsought. The member of Congress in whose gift it was, the Hon. Charles Upson, remarking to Mr. Harrington when offering it:</p><blockquote><p>"You have not asked this for your son, and I have many applicants; but if you are willing that Henry should go I will send him. I have long been observing him, and feel assured that he will do honor to the appointment."</p></blockquote><p>Gladly accepting this gratifying offer, young Harrington entered, at the United States Military Academy, the Class of 1872. He was not a brilliant scholar, but that he stood well is evident from his graduating seventeenth in a class of fifty-eight. Of the regard which his fine personal qualities won for him at West Point we have pleasing testimony in a note addressed by one of the Class to Mrs. Harrington, under date of January 22nd, 1877. This note accompanied a most generous gift from those who desired with their sympathy "to offer some slight assistance to their class-mate's widow and children, in memory of the pleasant intercourse they had enjoyed with him during their cadet days." The writer adds:</p><blockquote><p>"You know how intimately class-mates are thrown together during the four years at the Academy, and how soon we can discover the good and bad qualities of each other. We all, I know, are glad to remember that we never heard Harrington mentioned except in the highest terms. He was one of the most general favorites in the Class, deservedly liked by all."</p></blockquote><p>When his graduating furlough had expired, Lieutenant Harrington was ordered to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he spent the winter of 1872 and 1873. From the very beginning of his active service he was frequently entrusted with important commissions, and by his success in their execution secured the confidence and respect of his superior officers. In the spring, Company C of the Seventh Cavalry, to which he belonged, was ordered to join the Yellowstone expedition under General Custer. Returning to Fort Rice, Dakotah, in the Fall of 1873, he spent the following winter at that post with his family, and in the spring and summer of 1874 accompanied his regiment in the Black Hills campaign. In the autumn of 1875 Lieutenant Harrington obtained a leave and was spending it at his old home in Cold Water, when news came of the intended expedition against the hostile Indians of the Northwest.</p><p>Although but two-thirds of his furlough had expired, he at once wrote to General Custer and expressed his desire to return to his post in time to join his regiment in its march. When his father remonstrated with him against this step, on the ground that the leave to which he was justly entitled was not yet up, Lieutenant Harrington's steadfast loyalty to the sense of duty evinced itself in his reply: "Father," he said,</p><blockquote><p>"my country may never again need my services as she does now; I should feel ashamed and humiliated ever to meet my comrades again if I did not now make every effort to be with them in this hour of possible danger. No, father, it is my duty to go, and I cannot shrink from it."</p></blockquote><p>From his first connection with the regiment Lieutenant Harrington had been held in high estimation by General Custer. The year previous that officer had remarked to the elder Mr. Harrington:</p><blockquote><p>"Your son is giving fine promise for the future. When I entrust him with an order I feel confident that it will be well and promptly executed. I have never heard his conduct either as an officer or a gentleman criticized by his superiors, nor in fact spoken of in other than terms of praise by all who had personal relations with him, whether in the army or in civil life."</p></blockquote><p>When General Custer received his young Lieutenant's letter he was greatly pleased, and telegraphed at once in reply: "I am hastening the preparations for the expedition. You will have time to join me." And on the evening of the day that he received this telegram, the 6th of March, Lieutenant Harrington took leave of his wife, his two little children and his parents, and hastened to join his comrades in the camp of the Seventh Cavalry near Fort Lincoln. Alas! it was his last farewell.</p><p>On the sanguinary battle of the Little Big Horn, fought on Sunday, the 25th of June 1876, we need not dwell. Lieutenant Harrington was in command of his Company at the time of the fatal movement, and from several different sources the statement has come that Company C led the attack and was the only one which entered the Indian village. But all this is uncertain. We only know that his remains were not identified among those which surrounded General Custer. When and by whom they were interred none now can tell, but over that unknown grave, invisible to human eyes, yet full plain in the sight of God, stands for his epitaph this simple record:</p><p>"FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH."</p><blockquote><p>"Though nameless, trampled, and forgot, His servant's humble ashes lie, Yet God has marked and sealed the spot, To call its inmate to the sky."</p></blockquote><p style="text-align:right">� A. B. Berard</p><p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/7823">Annual Report, June 14, 1877, pp. 15�17 · U.S. Military Academy Library</a></p>