John Stuart Forbes (aka. John S. Hiley)

Clan Forbes Society, Inc.

On June 25, 1876, General George Custer made his “last stand” at the Battle of Little Bighorn. A few feet away from his body was Private J.S. Hiley. However, that was the pseudonym for John Stuart Stuart-Forbes, scion of the wealthy Forbes of Pitsligo and Monymusk -- and brother of a Scottish baronet.

John Stuart Forbes (later Stuart-Forbes) was born on May 28, 1849 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England as the third son of Charles Hay Forbes of Canaan Park and Jemima Rebecca MacDonell. His father was the son of Sir William Forbes, 7th Baronet of Pitsligo and Monymusk and Williamina Belches Stuart. When his father died in 1859, he and his mother moved to Yorkshire, England, to live with his sister Henrietta and her husband, Reverend Walter Hiley.

When he reached the age of 21, he gambled away his trust funds totalling £2,000 from his late father. Due to scandal, he moved to New York City in 1871 under the pseudonym John S. Hiley, the surname of his brother-in-law. He signed up for a 5-year enlistment in the U.S. Army and was assigned to Company E of the 7th United States Cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory. In the summer of 1876, the U.S. military conducted a campaign to force the Lakota and the Cheyenne Native America tribes back to their reservations. Custer planned a surprise attack against an encampment for the morning of June 25, 1876. However, the Lakota and the Cheyenne warriors were alerted and they secured a decisive victory in what they called the Battle of the Greasy Grass and the U.S. government termed as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Stuart-Forbes died with over 200 soldiers and civilians of the regiment, only feet away from the body of General Custer. After the battle, Army officers found a letter from his mother in Stuart-Forbes’s trunk. Even though the letter revealed his actual identity, he is listed on the 7th Cavalry Monument at the Little Bighorn Battlefield as “J.S. Hiley.” His family memorialized him with a brass plaque at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a Scottish Episcopal church at the west end of Princes Street in Edinburgh.

Learn more here: https://www.clan-forbes.org/post/little-bighorn

John Stuart Forbes (later Stuart-Forbes) was born on May 28, 1849 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England as the third son of Charles Hay Forbes of Canaan Park and Jemima Rebecca MacDonell. His father was the son of Sir William Forbes, 7th Baronet of Pitsligo and Monymusk and Williamina Belches Stuart. When his father died in 1859, he and his mother moved to Yorkshire, England, to live with his sister Henrietta and her husband, Reverend Walter Hiley.

When he reached the age of 21, he gambled away his trust funds totalling £2,000 from his late father. Due to scandal, he moved to New York City in 1871 under the pseudonym John S. Hiley, the surname of his brother-in-law. He signed up for a 5-year enlistment in the U.S. Army and was assigned to Company E of the 7th United States Cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory. In the summer of 1876, the U.S. military conducted a campaign to force the Lakota and the Cheyenne Native America tribes back to their reservations. Custer planned a surprise attack against an encampment for the morning of June 25, 1876. However, the Lakota and the Cheyenne warriors were alerted and they secured a decisive victory in what they called the Battle of the Greasy Grass and the U.S. government termed as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Stuart-Forbes died with over 200 soldiers and civilians of the regiment, only feet away from the body of General Custer. After the battle, Army officers found a letter from his mother in Stuart-Forbes's trunk. Even though the letter revealed his actual identity, he is listed on the 7th Cavalry Monument at the Little Bighorn Battlefield as "J.S. Hiley." His family memorialized him with a brass plaque at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a Scottish Episcopal church at the west end of Princes Street in Edinburgh.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 22 2021, 3:09:27 UTC