Clarence VB Fister, 8th US Infantry, Indian Wars

ENLISTED in the Army on September 1, 1885 at Cleveland, OH. at age 29 (occupation, at the time:) Laborer; born Mt. Vernon, OH; disch. Aug 31 1890 Ft. Robinson source ~• U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 1885-1890 A-D
8th Infantry
Clarence reenlisted Sep 4 1890 in Chicago 5th Artillery, Co. B. 'Enlisted years: 1885-1892 ~> record of pension names wife :" Mary E. Van Buren {~• note surname change; Clarence evidently either hated his father or wished to have an alias} Clarence took his mother's maiden name before marrying Mary, a woman who had had two prior husbands "

1. Co C. 8th Infantry, up until the summer before Wounded Knee
2. Battery B. 5th U.S. Artillery in California and perhaps Washington State.
3. Clarence married his only known wife, a widow Mary E. Miller (née Follmer) who had, prior to her Miller marriage, had abandoned her 1st husband. They had no children together.
   

~• for an account of the 8th Infantry > see the attached project

• Company C, 8th US Infantry Roster was stationed at Fort Grant Arizona Territory where Clarence was a private on July 30 1886
• in later life Clarence changed his surname to Van Buren (his mother's maiden name): witness the 1900 United States Federal Census for Clarence Van Buren for California> San Francisco> San Francisco
  
• this 1900 census also confirms his wife's name
• "As the spring of 1890 approached, it became evident that another movement lay in store for the Fifth Artillery, and soon it could be found on "our western most frontier" garrisoning the posts in San Francisco Harbor, and Fort Canby, Wash., with headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco" http://www.history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-5Art.htm

further research

1. Wikipedia states: ' the unit fought in the War of 1812; and in the Miami, Creek, Seminole, Little Big Horn and Pine Ridge Indian campaigns.' but while in Co. C. 8th Infantry, Clarence does not seem to have taken part in fighting in any of these campaigns.
2. "Pine Ridge" is an alternate name for the Wounded Knee Massacre
3. 8th Infantry history during the Indian Wars see sources

reading

1. Chasing Geronimo: The Journal of Leonard Wood, May-September 1886 by Leonard Wood; U of Nebraska Press, 2009 - History - 152 pages ; "It is the only journal kept by anyone on that expedition. Under the command of Capt. Henry Lawton
2. Soldiers pose with three of the four Hotchkiss-designed M1875 mountain guns used at Wounded Knee. The caption on the photograph reads: "Famous Battery 'E' of the 1st Artillery. These brave men and the Hotchkiss guns that Big Foot's Indians thought were toys, Together with the fighting 7th what's left of Gen. Custer's boys, Sent 200 Indians to that Heaven which the ghost dancer enjoys. This checked the Indian noise, and Gen. Miles with staff Returned to Illinois."
   

John C. H. Grabill - John C. H. Grabill Collection, Library of Congress, Reproduction number: LC-USZ62-11974 This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsc.02562. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. (Public Domain)