Culver C. Sniffen

Culver Channing Sniffen was born in Manhattan, New York on 1 January 1844, a son of John Sniffen and Margaret Melissa (Thompson) Sniffen. He was raised in Brooklyn, and attended Brooklyn's College Grammar School. In his court appearance, Sniffen testified to his 1873 receipt of a report by Lindsay Murdoc, an internal revenue collector in Missouri, which alleged criminal activity against John McDonald and John A. Joyce, two other individuals implicated in the ring. In March 1876, it was Sniffen who replied to the United States House of Representatives when an investigating committee wanted to know the details of William W. Belknap's resignation as United States Secretary of War; he resigned in March 1876, shortly before an impeachment vote over corruption allegations. Belknap was impeached by the House but narrowly avoided conviction in the United States Senate because his resignation was accepted shortly before the House vote, and several senators believed they did not have the authority to convict Belknap once he had resigned. In January 1877, new reports indicated that Grant intended to nominate Sniffen as Surveyor General of Arizona Territory, one of several appointments the outgoing president conferred on members of his staff. Sniffen requested that the appointment be withdrawn, which he also did with Grant's subsequent appointment of Sniffen as Secretary of Montana Territory. Marriages Sniffen was married three times. In 1866, he married Ada H. Jacobi, who died in 1872. In 1873, he wed Rebecca Susan Ruan; she died in 1907. ==Continued career==

On 3 March 1877, the last full day of Grant's presidency, he commissioned Sniffen as a major and appointed him to the United States Army's Pay Department. While assigned to the War Department, Sniffen actually continued serving at the White House to aid the transition from Grant to the incoming administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. After his initial duty in Washington, D.C, in November 1877 Sniffen was posted to the Military Division of the Pacific, then assigned to the division's Department of California headquarters in San Francisco. After reporting to San Francisco, Sniffen was assigned to duty in Arizona, where he remained for the next two years. His duties in Arizona included travel between military posts to pay soldiers during Victorio's War, and in May 1880, Sniffen and his escort narrowly missed being ambushed by members of Victorio's band. In June 1881, Sniffen was transferred to paymaster duties with the Department of the Platte, which was headquartered in Omaha. After serving at the department's Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, in May 1885, he was reassigned to paymaster duties with the Department of the East and stationed in New York City. In February 1890, he was assigned to act as the army's paymaster-general, pending selection of a replacement for William B. Rochester. In March, President Benjamin Harrison appointed William Smith, and Sniffen returned to duty in New York City. In November 1891, Sniffen was performing paymaster duties at Fort Clark, Texas when a portion of the cash for which he was responsible was stolen; according to news accounts, the money was locked in a cell of the post guardhouse, after which someone removed one of the sacks of money without being observed. Two soldiers who had recently been discharged were suspected, and were later arrested soon after the theft. Only about $340 of the stolen $3,300 ($117,000 in 2025) was recovered, and in June 1892 the United States Court of Claims absolved Sniffen of responsibility for the loss. The United States Department of the Treasury was ordered to credit his accounts with $2,958 and balance his account with the government. ==Later career==

After several years in Texas, in April 1895, Sniffen was assigned to paymaster duties with the Department of the East. In December 1896, he was posted to Denver as chief paymaster of the Department of the Colorado. During the Spanish–American War in 1898, Sniffen served as chief paymaster of the Fifth Army Corps, first in Cuba, and later at Camp Wikoff, New York. From 1901 to 1906, he was the army's assistant paymaster-general and chief paymaster of the army's Department of the East with the rank of colonel. To enable Sniffen to receive promotion to brigadier general before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64 in 1908, Towar volunteered to waive seniority. His hobbies included photography, photograph collecting, and autograph collecting; many of the photos he took won local prizes, and his autograph collection was considered to be the most valuable in Washington. Sniffen was also a driving enthusiast and continued to make trips by car almost until his death. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. ==Dates of rank==

Sniffen's dates of rank were: • Major, 3 March 1877 • Lieutenant Colonel, 31 March 1899 • Colonel, 3 May 1901 • Brigadier General, 11 September 1906 • Brigadier General (retired), 1 January 1908 ==Notes==