Welcome to the American Story. Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful, heartbreaking,

funny, inspiring, and endlessly interesting. This is Chris Flannering with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one, we are all Americans.

Eli Parker was born in 1828 to Elizabeth and William Parker of the Tonawanda Seneca tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy in western New York.

Parker became a leader in his tribe at a very young age, trained as a civil engineer,

and earned himself a reputation in that field at a very young age, trained as a civil engineer, and earned

himself a reputation in that field. In 1857, when he was 29 years old, he moved to Galena, Illinois,

as a civil engineer working for the Treasury Department. And there his life took a fateful turn.

He became friends with a fellow named Ulysses S. Grant. In these years, Grant was

an ex-army officer working as a clerk in his father's store. Parker liked to tell the story of

coming to Grant's aid in a barroom fight in Galena, the two of them back to back, fighting

their way out against practically all the other patrons.

At about five feet eight inches and two hundred pounds, the robust Parker referred to himself as

a savage Jack Falstaff. When the Civil War came on, Parker tried several times to join the

Union Army as an engineer, but was turned down

because he was not a citizen. When he approached Secretary of State William Seward about a commission,

he was told that the war was an affair between white men, that he should go home, and we will

settle our own troubles among ourselves, without any Indian aid.

Eventually, with Grant's endorsement, Parker received a commission with the rank of captain

as assistant adjutant general for volunteers. By late 1863, he had been transferred to Grant's

staff as military secretary.

He soon became familiarly known as the Indian at headquarters and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and later to Brigadier General.

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