author
Anson Mills
1834–1924
A soldier, surveyor, inventor, and entrepreneur, he helped lay out the city of El Paso and later made his fortune from a practical improvement to the cartridge belt. His life stretched from the Civil War through the American frontier era, with work that touched both military history and western development.
1 Audiobook
My Story
by Anson Mills
About the author
Born in Indiana in 1834, Anson Mills became a U.S. Army officer whose career ranged far beyond military service. After time at West Point and service during the Civil War, he went on to play a notable role in the American West as a surveyor and civil engineer.
He is especially remembered in Texas for helping name and lay out El Paso. Mills also became known as an inventor and businessman after creating an improved woven cartridge belt, an innovation that later brought him considerable financial success.
Over a long life that ended in 1924, he built a reputation as a capable officer, boundary commissioner, and energetic builder of large projects. His story combines frontier expansion, military service, and invention in a way that makes him a memorable figure of 19th- and early 20th-century America.