Al Sieber was a German-American soldier and army scout.
Background
Al Sieber was born on Feburary 29, 1844 in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, son of John and Margaret (Fischer) Sieber, and the youngest in a family of four boys and four girls. He was brought to America by his widowed mother about 1849 and the family settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A sister married there and later moved to Minneapolis, Minnisota, to which place some of the other children, including Al, followed her after the death of their mother in 1856. In Minnesota young Sieber worked on farms and in sawmills.
Education
On March 4, 1862, enrolled under the name "Albert Sebers, " he was mustered into the service of the Union army as a private in Company B, 16t Minnesota Volunteers.
Career
At Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, he was severely wounded and was in a hospital until December. He then returned to duty, served until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged at Elmira, New York.
In 1866 Sieber went to seek his fortune in the silver and gold mines of Nevada and California, but found neither silver nor gold. Still restless for adventure, in 1868 he joined a company of men who were driving a herd of horses to Arizona. In Williamson Valley, Arizona, he obtained work on a farm and subsequently became foreman of the ranch of C. C. Bean.
Settlers were few and scattered, and the Indians frequently engaged in predatory raids. Since the soldiers could give them little protection, the citizens formed an organization with Sieber as their leader, killed many of the Indians, drove off the rest, and recovered their stock.
Widely known for his prowess by 1871, Sieber was engaged as an army scout and was soon recognized as the outstanding scout and Indian fighter of the Southwest. It was the basic policy of Gen. George Crook to enlist Apache scouts for service against renegades of their own tribe. Sieber commanded these native troops in the field and was sometimes the only white man with them on an expedition.
He gained deep insight into Apache character and psychology, learned their language, and won the full respect and confidence of his scouts. Apaches he fought as enemies one week, he would enroll in his troop the next, and rarely did one betray him.
Though he dominated them inflexibly, he dealt with them honestly and fairly; so absolute were his powers, his courage so invincible, that they felt safe under his leadership. When necessity required, he shot malefactors with his own hand without compunction.
He is known to have killed, personally, fifty Indians in active combat, and to have been wounded in action, by bullet or arrow, twenty-nine times. As a result of his wounds he was seriously crippled. He served consecutively under Generals Stoneman, Crook, Krautz, Willcox, Grierson, and Miles. After the close of the Apache wars, he was still employed by the army as civilian commander of Apache scouts on the San Carlos Reservation.
On December 1, 1890, he was discharged by the agent, Capt. John L. Bullis, whom he had denounced because he believed his treatment of the Apaches was unfair. Thereafter, he made his residence in Globe, Arizona; did some assessment work on a mine he had formerly located; and took whatever employment he could get.
For a number of years he was in charge of a gang of Apache workmen at Roosevelt Dam.
On Feburary 19, 1907, while some of them were engaged in building a road and were trying to remove an immense boulder, Sieber noticed it begin to move, and in his effort to rescue them from imminent danger was himself crushed to death. He was buried in Globe with military honors.
When news of his death reached Phoenix, the territorial legislature, by a standing vote, adjourned in respect to his memory. Two monuments commemorate him: one, in the cemetery at Globe, erected by the Territory of Arizona; the other, built as a labor of love by his fellow employees at the spot where he lost his life.
Achievements
Personality
At forty, Sieber was six feet in height, weighed one hundred and ninety pounds, and was all bone and muscle. His hair and eyes were dark but his complexion florid. He could march sixty miles a day with his scouts and was an incomparable rifle-shot.
He was rarely profane; drank and gambled when off duty; had a crude, primitive sense of humor; but in general he was reserved.
He was never given a nickname nor would he accept any title, but, to white men and Indians alike, he was merely "Sieber. " He had a high sense of honor and was utterly fearless.
Connections
He never married and knew nothing of domestic life, but he was a valued comrade and had many friends.