AMERICAN DIOGENES: A Life of Brigadier General Mott Hooton, 1838-1920

On June 3, 1920, Brigadier General Mott Hooton was laid to rest in a quiet corner of Oaklands Cemetery, a leafy burial ground on the outskirts of the small south eastern Pennsylvania town of West Chester. A singular man with a singular name, Mott's subsequent fall into historical obscurity belies an adventurous life inextricably linked to a nation in turmoil and transformation. Educated in the 1840s and 1850s by a militaristic French schoolmaster and forged in the crucible of war as commander of a local unit of volunteer soldiers during the Civil War, Mott became a career soldier who bore witness to the westward expansion of settlers onto lands still occupied by indigenous people; revolutions in industry advanced at the expense of American labor; post-Civil War reconstruction of the American south where racial and ideological divisions remained galvanized long after the cannons fell silent; and the evolution of an insular nation into an imperialist power. All the while encountering some of the most notable men of his age: Meade, Custer, Sitting Bull, Miles, Otis, Chaffee, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Complex and enigmatic, the story of Mott Hooton reveals a man dedicated to honor and integrity as an officer of the United States Army, yet often conflicted about the role his Government played in subjugating and displacing the indigenous people of the American west. Possessed of a restless spirit and fascinated by humanity, Mott travelled the world. From the great concert halls of Europe and the shores of the Nile to the immensity of Siberia and the royal court of the King of Siam, the story of Mott Hooton reminds us that greatness can be found in the unlikeliest of places.