James B. Doshier

JAMES B. DOZIER (DOSHER) (1820 ~ 1901). Medal of Honor recipient James B. Dosher was born on May 2, 1820, to John and Rachel Speers Dosher of Warren County, Tennessee. The family moved to Kentucky, then Illinois, and finally Missouri as westward expansion opened each area. While growing up near Crab Apple Lake in Williamson County, Illinois, James Dosher and his younger brothers befriended a Delaware Indian who taught the boys how to hunt, fish, and track game.

In 1847, Dosher moved to Texas to volunteer to fight in the Mexican War. He arrived in San Antonio after the volunteer army left to invade Mexico, and enlisted in Captain J.J. Cureton's Company of Texas Rangers on October 22, 1847, serving in the area between Corpus Christi and the San Saba River.

After his 1849 discharge from the Rangers, Dosher moved back to Missouri and married Viola M. Eddings. They had one son, John, in Missouri before moving to Salt Hill, Jack County, Texas. They had three daughters, Perneta, California, and Fredonia, between 1855 and 1860 while in Jack County. Increased hostilities with Native Americans prompted Dosher to serve the Texas Rangers again, this time with Captain M.D. Tackett's Company. During the Civil War, Dosher served in the Jack City Rangers, which provided the settlement protection from hostile Indians. The unit also assisted in removing Union forces from Camp Cooper and Fort Chadbourne before being mustered into the Confederate Army as the 46th Texas Cavalry.

After the war, Dosher returned to Jack County and became a civilian guide at Fort Richardson. His time as a Ranger gave him an intimate knowledge of the North Texas plains and he became a trusted advisor to each of the officers he guided. On October 5, 1870, Dosher and another scout tracked a band of the Keechi tribe to Bluff Creek, on the Wichita River. While attempting to signal Captain William Rafferty to position the troops with his hat, Dosher accidentally caught the attention of the Keechi. Having been spotted, the soldiers decided to attack. From his position on a hill, Dosher fired down on the Keechi, wounding Chief Keesh-Kosh. Dosher then noticed a group of Keechi on a hillside with a direct line of fire on the exposed U.S. soldiers below. Dosher mounted his horse and attacked the Keechi alone, but his horse was shot out from under him, violently throwing him to the ground and inflicting serious and incapacitating injuries. Captain Rafferty credited Dosher's bravery and energy with much of the campaign's successes. On November 19, 1870, Dosher received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Bluff Creek. Dosher continued to scout for the Army out of Fort Richardson and also worked as a guide and surveyor for the Mattix Surveying Company for much of 1873. He rejoined the Texas Rangers in 1874, serving with John B. Jones' Company of the Frontier Battalion. On July 12, 1874, Dosher participated in the second Battle of Lost Valley in Jack County.

Dosher mustered out of the Rangers to become a farmer and rancher in Jacksboro, Texas. He married Martha J. Roebuck on July 29, 1880, and later married Catherine McNealy on October 13, 1881. Dosher died in 1901 and is buried in the Bottoms Family Cemetery in Jack County. In 1917, an Army review board revoked all Medals of Honor presented to civilian scouts employed by the Army.

This ruling upset many descendants of scouts who had earned the Medal of Honor, but it was not until 1989 that the Army Board for Correction of Military Records ruled to reinstate the scouts as Medal of Honor recipients. In a formal ceremony at the University of North Texas, Dosher's great-granddaughter, Velma Reed, was presented with a new Medal of Honor on December 4, 1991. James B. Dosher's Medal of Honor was donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and was put on permanent display at Fort Richardson State Historical Park in Jacksboro.

Bibliography: "Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor in Texas." Capitol Visitors Center, State Preservation Board of Texas; Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, University of Texas, http://www.tsha.edu/handbook/online/articles; Neal, Charles M., Jr. Valor Across the Lone Star: The Congressional Medal of Honor in Texas. Texas A&M University Press: 2002.