Born 21 Jun 1826 in New Castle Delaware, Died 13 Oct 1860 in New Mexico Territory.
Regiment of Mounted Rifles, US Army. Enlisted May 1846 during the Mexican-American War.
Final Campaign- Navajo Wars, New Mexico Territory.
Killed at the head of his troops while charging a band of Navajo at the head of the Canon de Chille in New Mexico Territory.
Capt. George Baldwin McLane, son of Louis and Catherine (Milligan) McLane, was born into an illustrious family of notable statesmen and military royalty. His father, Louis served as a US Representative from Delaware; United States Senator; twice as United States Minister to Great Britain, and Secretary of the Treasury and State under President Jackson. His grandfather, Col. Allen McLane was a distinguished officer in the Revolution, and career public servant and politician in Delaware. His brother Robert would serve as a US Congressman, Governor of Maryland and US Diplomat. his sister Lydia would marry (Gen.) Joseph E. Johnston, head of the Confederate Army in Virginia until his wounding in 1862.
Receiving a commission as a 2nd Lt. in the US Army in May 1846, George was assigned to the Regiment of Mounted Rifles and ordered to Mexico to join the war effort, but not before receiving high praise for recruiting men to join him in the Mounted Rifles. Lt. McLane would see action at the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. He would receive special notice in the after-battle report of Gen. John Quitman for his gallantry during the assault on Chapultepec and additional special mention from Genls. Persifer Smith and Winfield Scott. Wounded at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, he would be breveted for his conduct there, and again at the Battle of Contreras.
George McLane would return to Baltimore for a time after the war where he would marry a local girl, Serena Barrow, the daughter of James and Mary Ann (Crockett) Barrow. Serena would join him when he left for his assignment out west, living in the officer’s quarters of Fort Defiance. Together they would have three boys, George Jr., Louis, and James. James would perish at just one year on 3 Dec 1848 at Fort Defiance. Louis would grow to adulthood, but his life cut short at 27, dying in Chicago on 30 Mar 1882. George Milligan McLane would eventually settle in San Francisco, CA where he would marry, engage in business and pass away on 7 Dec 1896. Serena would later remarry after George’s death and live out her years as Mrs. Harry Fisher in Baltimore, passing away on 10 Dec 1879.
In the New Mexico Territory during the Navajo Campaign of 1858, Capt. McLane would be wounded again while at the head of a troop of army spies and guides when they were attacked by a greatly superior force of Navajo warriors in August of that year. The unit prevailed and Capt. McLane would earn notable mention for this action and more during that year’s campaign.
On 10 Oct 1860, Capt. George B. McLane would leave Fort Defiance for the last time. At the head of his company, under the command of Brevet Lt. Col. Edward Canby, Capt. McLane’s Company was ordered to flank right from the column and headed into a thick pine forest in what was known as “Canon de Chille” (Today known as Canyon de Chelly National Monument) where they met a band of Navajo at the base of a peak of what his brother officers would later name “McLane Peak” in his honor. Ordering a charge to repel the enemy, Capt. McLane was hit by three bullets and would die almost immediately, his horse continuing to charge forward carrying his lifeless body until his troops could reign him in and secure their gallant leader.
In 1860 Major Isaac Lynde of the 7th US Infantry established a small post near Apache Springs in present day Grant County, NM after then Secretary of War John Floyd. When Floyd was forced to resign in disgrace in December of that year, and subsequently went south to the Confederacy, the fort was renamed Fort McLane in honor of Capt. McLane. The fort burned and was abandoned in late 1861 but pressed back into service for Gen. Joseph R. West’s campaign against the Chiricahua Apache Chief Mangas Coloradas in late 1862 into January 1863. Coloradas was murdered there on the orders of Gen. West on 18 Jan 1863. Fort McLane would be permanently abandoned in 1864.
Capt. McLane would be returned to Baltimore along with the remains of his infant son James and be interred in the family lot at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD on 25 Jul 1861.
