Adjutant General of the United States Army
May 28, 1825 – October 15, 1909

 

Richard Coulter Drum was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1880 to 1889. He was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Jefferson College before entering the printing business. At the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, he enlisted as a private in the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers, but was quickly commissioned a second lieutenant in the regular infantry. He took part in many of the battles of the war, including Chapultepec and Mexico City.

 

Following the war, he was transferred to the Fourth Artillery and was promoted to first lieutenant. He served as an aide-de-camp for General William S. Harney during his expedition against the Sioux, and participated in the Battle of Ash Hollow. In 1861 he was appointed as an assistant adjutant general and promoted to captain. He was quickly promoted to major and lieutenant colonel, and by the end of the American Civil War he had been brevetted a brigadier general.

 

Drum was promoted to colonel in 1869, and in 1880 he became Adjutant General of the United States Army.