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Early Life
Capt. John Page was originally from Maine. He enlisted in the United States
Army in Massachusetts around 1818. During the period of Indian Removal Capt.
Page was stationed mainly at Fort Mitchell, Alabama. His earliest role in
Indian Removal was helping to lead a group of Choctaws. In 1834 Capt. Page was
named as an emigrating agent with the Creek Indians of Alabama. His first
group consisted of almost 630 Creeks.
Creek Removal
During removal of this first group, Capt. Page was clearly moved by the
plight of the Indians under his charge. Page kept note of this in a journal he
was required to keep during the removal. While near Columbus Mississippi on
his way to Little Rock, Page wrote:
“I have to stop the wagons to take the children out and warm them and put
them back again 6 or 7 times a day. I send ahead and have fires built for this
purpose. I wrap them in tents and anything I can get hold of to keep them from
freezing…there was continued crying from morning to night with the children…I
used to encourage them by saying that the weather would moderate in a few days
and it would be warm, but it never happened during the whole trip.”
(From Grant Foreman’s Indian Removal )
Later Career
In 1839, Capt Page was assigned to Fort Gibson as a Captain with the 4th
Infantry there. While at Fort Gibson, Capt. Page asked some of the Seminole
Indians there to go with him to Florida to influence members of their tribe to
remove voluntarily. This was apparently the last recorded act of his related
to Indian Removal.
Mexican War
Like many officers in the Army at the time, Capt. Page served during the
Mexican War. During the first day of the Battle of Palo Alto, Capt. Page was
injured. This injury seems to have an impression on a young Ulysses S. Grant
at that time as it was noted in his Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant:
“One cannon-ball passed through our ranks, not far from me. It took off the
head of an enlisted man, and the under jaw of Captain Page of my regiment…”
Captain Page died July 12 from his injuries. The July 23rd 1846 Pike County
Free Press (Illinois) mentions the death of Capt Page: “Death of Capt. John
Page-This gallant officer, who distinguished himself in the battle of the Polo
[sic] Alto and in which he received a dreadful wound, breathed his last on
Sunday morning, at half past 3 o’clock on board of the steamer Missouri, when
a short distance from Caire [sic].” Page County Iowa is named in honor of
Capt. Page.
Sources:
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant,
C.L. Webster and Co., New York, 1885-86. Foreman, Grant, Indian Removal,
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London (place) 11th printing 1989.
Pike County Free Press, July 23, 1846.http://www.pikecoilgenweb.org/newspaper/1846/jul.html
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