Thomas Moonlight Thomas Moonlight ( September 30 , 1833February 7 , 1899 ) was a United States politician and general . Moonlight served as Governor of Wyoming Territory from 1887 to 1889 . Birth . Moonlight was born in Forfarshire , Scotland . He was baptised on 30 September 1833 in St Vigeans , Angus , Scotland with birth record number 319 / 0040 0169 . His family can be traced in Scotland back to the 1600s , and to Archibald Moonlight and his wife Margaret Elspet Andersone . Moonlight was one of 10 children . Moonlight ' s birth date is frequently quoted as 10 November 1833 ( including on his grave marker ) , but this cannot be the case as his baptism records exist for 30 September 1833 , and he cannot have been baptised before he was born . Early Scottish and English record keeping relied on the church where more commonly the baptism date and not birth date was recorded . It was not until government record keeping began that formal birth dates were recorded . Early life . When he was seven , records show he lived in Galladen , Angus , Arbroath on a farm with about ninety acres . Moonlight lived with his family and a maid . By 1851 , Moonlight no longer lived with his family , which supports evidence he left Scotland at an early age . Some think that he left Scotland alone , but family stories say he possibly left with his two cousins , George and Thomas . Moonlight is thought to have worked farms in the East until he enlisted in the army at the age of twenty . Just as Thomas achieved fame in the US , his cousin George eventually left America and achieved fame as a Pioneer and Prospector in New Zealand where the township of Moonlight is named after him . George was said to have retained his American accent all his life and took the name Captain George Fairweather Moonlight . As he had no right to the title Captain , speculation is he adopted Thomas ' s military achievements in the US . Several places in New Zealand were named by George ( Shenandoah River , Rappahannock , Minnehaha ) taking America to New Zealand . Both of his cousins are buried in Nelson , New Zealand . " Life in the United States . Civil War . In 1853 , at the age of twenty , Moonlight enlisted in the Fourth Artillery C . D . He served in Texas from 1853 to 1856 , and was promoted to the rank of orderly sergeant . Moonlight settled in Leavenworth County , Kansas in 1860 . When the American Civil War began in 1861 , Moonlight raised a company of artillery for the 4th Kansas Infantry , but the regiment never completed organization . The recruits to the company ( and another regiment ) were reassigned to the 1st Kansas Battery ; Moonlight briefly served as its captain . Moonlight later joined the 11th Kansas Infantry as its lieutenant colonel . The regiment became the 11th Kansas Cavalry and Moonlight its colonel . Moonlight briefly commanded the 14th Kansas Cavalry as lieutenant colonel but was later ordered to return to the 11th Kansas Cavalry . His service during the war was primarily in Kansas against bushwhacker s and border guerrillas . He also pursued William C . Quantrill ' s raiders following the Lawrence Massacre . In 1864 , he commanded the 3rd Sub - district in the District of South Kansas . During Sterling Price ' s Missouri Raid in 1864 , Colonel Moonlight commanded the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division in the Army of the Border and was conspicuous at the Battle of Westport . Indian wars . Toward the end of the war , Moonlight was in command of the District of Colorado and campaigned against Indians on the plains . He was given a brevet promotion to brigadier general in 1865 . In April 1865 , Moonlight became the commander of the north sub - district of the Great Plains headquartered at Fort Laramie , Wyoming . On May 26 , Moonlight hanged two Oglala Lakota Sioux chiefs , Two Face and Black Foot . A white woman , Lucinda Ewbanks , and her small child were discovered living in pitiful condition among the Oglala bands . They had been kidnapped by Cheyenne almost a year earlier and sold to the Oglala band of Two Face and Black Foot . Moonlight ordered the two Oglala hanged , apparently over the opposition of Mrs . Ewbanks and although warned by civilians at the fort of repercussions . George Bent and others tell the story differently . He said the two Oglala ransomed the woman from the Cheyenne and brought her into the fort as a peace gesture . Moonlight , however , arrested and hanged them , an action which Mrs . Ewbanks protested . Their bodies , and also that of a Cheyenne , were left hanging from the gallows for months in public view . On June 3 , the army fearing that the 1 , 500 Lakota , mostly Brulé , and Arapaho living near Fort Laramie , might become hostile , decided to move them about 300 miles east to Fort Kearny in Nebraska . The Indian protested that Fort Kearny was in Pawnee territory and the Pawnee were their traditional enemies . Moreover , they feared , with reason , there would be no food for them at Fort Kearny . The army insisted and the Indians , with an escort of 138 cavalrymen under Captain William D . Fouts , departed Fort Laramie on June 11 . However , on June 13 , near present day Morrill , Nebraska , some of the Indians decided to flee northward across the North Platte River . Attempting to stop them , Fouts and four soldiers were killed . Hearing of the disaster , Moonlight departed Fort Laramie with 234 cavalry to pursue the Indians . He traveled so fast that many of his men had to turn back because their horses were spent . On June 17 , near present day Harrison , Nebraska , the Lakota raided his horse herd and relieved him of most of his remaining horses . Moonlight and many of his men had to walk 60 miles back to Fort Laramie . Moonlight was severely criticized by his soldiers for being drunk and not guarding the horse herd . On July 7 , Moonlight was relieved of his command and mustered out of the army . Political career . Moonlight returned to his farm and became involved in politics in the state of Kansas . He served as the Kansas Secretary of State , and also as State Senator . From January 8 , 1883 to January 22 , 1885 he served as the Adjutant General of Kansas . Moonlight was appointed Governor of the Wyoming Territory by President Grover Cleveland on January 5 , 1887 . Moonlight served as Governor until April 9 , 1989 . After his term as Governor , he served as United States Minister to Bolivia from 1893 to 1897 . He was unsuccessful in his run for Governor of Kansas in 1886 . Family life . Moonlight married Ellen Elizabeth Murray ( born in Ireland ) and they had seven children . Death . Moonlight died on February 7 , 1899 , and is buried in Mount Muncie Cemetery in Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . Moonlight ' s wife is buried in the same cemetery .