Cornelius C . Smith Colonel Cornelius Cole Smith ( April 7 , 1869 – January 10 , 1936 ) was an American officer in the U . S . Army who served with the 6th U . S . Cavalry during the Sioux Wars . On January 1 , 1891 , he and four other cavalry troopers successfully defended a U . S . Army supply train from a force of 300 Sioux warriors at the White River in South Dakota , for which he received the Medal of Honor . He was the last man to receive the award in battle against the Sioux , and in a major Indian war . In his later career , Smith served as an officer during the Spanish - American War and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection under Generals Leonard Wood and John J . Pershing . In 1910 , he was appointed by Pershing as commander of the Philippine Constabulary and served at Fort Huachuca as commanding officer of Troop G , 5th U . S . Cavalry from 1912 to 1914 . It was in this capacity that he accepted the surrender of Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky , commander of Mexican federal forces at Sonora , on March 13 , 1913 . In 1918 , he was appointed commander of Huachuca and the 10th U . S . Cavalry . Prior to his retirement , he also oversaw the construction of Camp Owen Beirne , adjacent to Fort Bliss , which served as the model for similar camps built following the end of World War I . Smith ' s son , Cornelius Cole Smith , Jr . , who also served as a colonel in the Philippines during World War II , was a successful author , historian and illustrator who wrote several books on the Southwestern United States including his biography entitled " Don ' t Settle for Second : Life and Times of Cornelius C . Smith " ( 1977 ) . Biography . Early life . Cornelius Cole Smith was born on April 7 , 1869 , in the frontier town of Tucson in the Arizona Territory . A member of a distinguished military family dating back to the Revolutionary War , his father , Gilbert Cole Smith , had served an officer in the Union Army ' s famed California Column during the American Civil War and later became quartermaster at Fort Lowell in Tucson . He was also related to brothers William and Granville H . Oury . His family lived at several outposts in the Arizona and New Mexico Territories , wherever his father happened to be stationed , until December 1882 when they finally settled at Vancouver Barracks in the Washington Territory . Smith was then sent back east to Louisiana , Missouri , and later to Baltimore , Maryland in 1884 . Four years later , Smith moved to Helena , Montana where he joined the Montana National Guard on May 22 , 1889 . At age 21 , Smith followed in his father ' s footsteps by enlisting in the United States Army in Helena , Montana on April 9 , 1890 , and was immediately sent out with 6th U . S . Cavalry Regiment for frontier duty in the Dakota Territory . Battle at White River . Within a year , Smith reached the rank of corporal and saw his first action during the Pine Ridge Campaign . On January 1 , 1891 , two days after the Battle at Wounded Knee Creek , he accompanied a fifty - three man escort of a U . S . Army supply train to the regiment ' s camp at the battle site . While preparing to cross the White River , partially ice - covered during the winter , the supply train was suddenly attacked by a group of approximately 300 Sioux braves . In an attempt to save the wagon train , he and Sergeant Frederick Myers chose advanced positions from a knoll 300 yards from the river and held back the initial Sioux assault with four other troopers successfully defended their position against repeated enemy attacks . After they had withdrawn , Smith and the others chased after the war party for a considerable distance before breaking off their pursuit . Smith ' s actions at White River prevented the Sioux from capturing the supply wagons and he was cited for distinguished bravery in the face of a numerically superior enemy force . For his actions he received the Medal of Honor on February 4 , 1891 . Service in Cuba and the Philippines . The following year , on November 19 , 1892 , Smith was made a commissioned officer as a second lieutenant with the 2nd U . S . Cavalry . He later fought in Cuba during the Spanish - American War and in the Philippines during the Filipino and Moro Rebellion s under Generals Leonard Wood and John J . Pershing respectively . An captain with the 14th U . S . Cavalry , he served in Mindanao under General Wood from 1903 to 1906 , during which time he helped publish " A Grammar of the Maguindanao Tongue According to the Manner of Speaking It in the Interior and on the South Coast of the Island of Mindanao " ( 1906 ) with Spanish Jesuit Rev . Father Jacinto Juanmart , before accepting a two - year position as superintendent of California ' s Sequoia and Grant National Parks in 1908 . He returned to the Philippine Islands in 1910 where he was appointed commander of the Philippine Constabulary by General Pershing . Fort Huachuca and World War I . After a nine - year tour of duty in the Philippines , Smith was brought back to the U . S . in 1912 and transferred to the 4th U . S . Cavalry Regiment at Fort Huachuca , in his home state of Arizona , that fall . He remained at Huachuca when the 4th U . S . Cavalry was sent for rotation to Hawaii and was reassigned to the 5th U . S . Cavalry serving as commanding officer of the 5th U . S . Cavalry ' s Troop G from December 1912 to December 1914 . It was while with the 5th Cavalry that , on March 13 , 1913 , he formally accepted the surrender of Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky , commander of Mexican federal forces of Sonora , and his 209 followers in Nogales , Arizona following his defeat by General Álvaro Obregón days earlier . The surrender was conducted in a formal ceremony , with Kosterlitzky presenting Smith his sword , and the two officers later became lifelong friends . A military attaché in Bogota and Caracas for a time during 1915 , he rose through the ranks from major to colonel of cavalry within the next two years . Smith trained several regiments during World War I but was denied further promotion and a field command in the Europe due to the feud between General Pershing , then commander - in - chief of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front , and Army Chief - of - Staff Peyton March . In 1918 , he returned to Fort Huachuca where he assumed command of the post and the 10th U . S . Cavalry Regiment . His last assignment was at Fort Bliss where he had Camp Owen Beirne built , the model for similar bases constructed for servicemen following World War I , before his retirement in 1920 at the rank of colonel . Retirement and later years . Smith taught military science and tactics at the University of Arizona after leaving the U . S . Army and was later hired as a technical advisor for war film s in Hollywood . In 1928 , he became a member of the American Electoral Committee which oversaw the presidential elections in Nicaragua . That same year , he was also a contributing editor for Alice Baldwin ' s biography on her late husband Major General Frank Baldwin , " Memoirs of the late Frank D . Baldwin , Major General , U . S . A . " , in which Smith related his experiences with Baldwin during the Spanish - American War . He went on to become a prolific author of articles relating to the American frontier in the Southwestern United States . Smith died in Riverside , California on January 10 , 1936 , at the age of 66 . He is buried at Evergreen Memorial Park and Mausoleum , along with 1 , 000 other veterans . Grave site restoration . In November 2003 , a special ceremony was held at Smith ' s grave site to display a new 18 - foot - tall flagpole and stone bench nearby . Smith ' s son , Cornelius Cole Smith , Jr . , was in attendance . Initially started by 16 - year - old Michael Emett for an Eagle Scout project , this was the first of a planned restoration campaign for the graves of Riverside ' s military veterans and town founders . The story was covered by " The Press - Enterprise " and encouraged community leaders to raise money for an endowment to provide for the upkeep of older rundown areas of the cemetery that are not watered or maintained . A few years before , the California Department of Consumer Affairs ordered that sprinklers in the historic section be shut off because it lacked an endowment to pay for the water . Medal of Honor citation . Rank and organization : Corporal , Company K , 6th U . S . Cavalry . Place and date : Near White River , S . Dak . , 1 January 1891 . Entered service at : Helena , Mont . Birth : Tucson , Ariz . Date of issue : 4 February 1891 . Citation : With 4 men of his troop drove off a superior force of the enemy and held his position against their repeated efforts to recapture it , and subsequently pursued them a great distance .