James B. Dosher

His medal has a spelling problem and a history. He appears as Dozier or Dosher, a civilian scout working out of Fort Richardson, who in October 1870 charged alone at a band of Kichai (K'itaish) warriors and received the Medal of Honor. In 1917 an Army review board rescinded his award along with 910 others, since he was a civilian; Buffalo Bill Cody lost his in the same sweep. In 1989 the Army restored six civilians' medals, his among them, and a new medal reached his descendants in 1991. It is displayed at Fort Richardson.

What the plaque says

James B. Dosher James B. Dosher moved to Texas in 1847 and served in Cureton's Company of the Texas Rangers. Discharged in 1848, he married Velma Eddings in 1851. They settled in Jack County in early 1855 and worked their farm south of Jacksboro. Dosher also served with Captain Tackett's Company of Texas Rangers. During the Civil War he was active in the Texas State Troops and the Confederate Army. In 1870 as a civilian guide for the U.S. Army, he received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during an engagement at Bluff Creek, Texas. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 1.2 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 26 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Fort Richardson — 0.4 mi
• Mobilization Site of Lost Battalion — 0.4 mi
• Fort Richardson — 0.6 mi
• Butterfield Stage Line — 0.6 mi