Roger Sherman Dix

Colonel, Paymaster

United States Army

Roger Sherman Dix, the oldest son of Timothy and Lucy Hartwell Dix, was born on 10 June 1810 in Boscawen, New Hampshire.  Just shy of his 17th birthday, Roger became a cadet at the Military Academy at West Point on 1 July 1827.  He graduated from the Military Academy on 1 July 1832 and promoted to Brevet Second Lieutenant.  He then immediately volunteered to be assigned to the 7th Infantry and join General Scott on the Black Hawk Expedition at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  Other assignments included Little Rock, Arkansas; a second tour at Fort Gibson; Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; and Fort Jesup, Louisiana.   On 30 September 1845, President James Polk appointed him Paymaster and promoted him to Major.

Married Mary B. Johnston on 1 September 1835 in Pulaski County, Arkansas.

On 25 April 1846, the United States – Mexican War began.  While in Buena Vista, Mexico on the afternoon of 23 February 1847, Roger and a Captain of Topographical Engineers found themselves on the army’s right flank as men streamed to the rear around them.  They were from the 2nd Indiana and they had given up the fight.  Up ahead, Colonel Jefferson Davis’ Mississippi Rifles stood firm, but were heavily outnumbered with more Mexican troops coming up.  Roger seized the 2nd Indiana’s regimental colors and began waving them.  All but 15 of the soldiers rallied to him.  Roger marched the 2nd Indiana forward to join Colonel Davis’ troops.  The right flank held.  For his gallant and meritorious conduct during the Battle of Buena Vista, Roger was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel.

In January 1849, Roger was on his way from Mexico to Washington, D.C. to settle his accounts as army paymaster.  Coming up the Ohio River, Roger didn’t feel well after leaving Wheeling, West Virginia.  When he reached Washington, Pennsylvania on 6 January, he was unable to eat his supper with the other passengers, but continued on when the stage left.  The coach reached Hillsborough about 8 o'clock in the evening and when the horses had been changed Roger told one of the passengers that he had cholera and could not go on.  Four different doctors examined Roger and agreed that he had cholera.  He died at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, the first victim of the cholera epidemic that swept Western Pennsylvania in 1849.  

Colonel Roger Sherman Dix, United States Army, was buried in a small graveyard in Hillsborough, Pennsylvania on 7 January 1849.

Source of information:

1.  American Biographical Library - (9). Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1996.

2.  Ancestry.com. American Biographical Notes [database online]. Orem, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1997. Original data: Hough, Franklin Benjamin. American Biographical Notes: Being Short Notices of Deceased Persons, Chiefly Those Not Included in Allen's or Drake's Biographical Dictionary. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell, 1875.

3.  Cullum, George W.  Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at  West Point,  N.Y., from its Establishment, in 1802, to 1890 with the Early History of the United States Military Academy.  Third edition, revised and extended.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891.

4.  Dodd, Jordan R, et. al. Early American Marriages: Arkansas to 1850. Bountiful, UT: Precision Indexing Publishers, 19xx.

5.  Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), 16 January 1849, page 2.