Military officer: born in
Carrollton,
Green co., Ill., Feb. 22, 1827; graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1847.
After serving as assistant instructor of artillery at
West Point, he was assigned to the 3d Artillery, then in
Mexico, where he remained till the close of the war. After doing frontier duty at various posts, he was again instructor at
West Point in 1853-54, and adjutant there in 1854-59.
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On March 16, 1861, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general, and later in the same year became chief of staff to
Gen. Irwin McDowell.
In 1861-62 he was on the staff of
Gen. Don Carlos Buell.
He was appointed provost-marshal-general of the
United States, March 17, 1863, and was given the rank of brigadier-general, April 21, 1864.
General Fry registered 1,120,621 recruits, arrested 76,562 deserters, collected $26,366,316, and made an exact enrolment of the
National forces.
He was brevetted major-general in the regular army, March 13, 1865, for “faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services.”
After the war he served as adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, of the divisions of the
Pacific, the
South, the
Missouri, and the
Atlantic, till 1881, when he was retired from active service at his own request.
He was the author of
Final report of the operations of the Bureau of the Provost-Marshal-General in 1863-66;
Sketch of the adjutant-general's Department of the United States army from 1775 to 1875;
History and legal effects of brevets in the armies of Great Britain and the United States, from their origin in 1692 to the present time;
Army sacrifices;
McDowell and Tyler in the campaign of Bull Run;
Operations of the army under Buell; and
New York and conscription.
He died in
Newport, R. I., July 11, 1894.
