Colonel Edward M. Offley comments on the book titled "In the Valley of the Little Big Horn"

Colonel Edward M. Offley, cavalry, United States Army, retired 1879-1970, was the son of Holmes Edward Offley and Mary Cleland Nelson Offley. After his birth in Georgetown, D. C., he attended Clay Hill Academy in Clarke County, Virginia and St. John's Prepatory School, in Annapolis, Maryland. He enlisted in the United States Army at Chicago, Illinois on January 9, 1899 and was first stationed at Fort Meade, South Dakota with Troop G of the 1st U. S. Calvary. Serving through the ranks with that command, he was appointed 1st sergeant on June 4, 1900.

Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Cavalry on February 2, 1901, he commanded Troop F of the 12th U. S. Cavalry at Fort Clark, Texas. Serving at various posts in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Texas, he also served on relief duty at San Francisco and Oakland, California after the earthquake which destroyed those cities in 1906.

After duty with the 1st U. S. Cavalry at Fort Stotsenberg, Luzon Province, Philippine Islands and at Panama, he served at various Machine-Gun Battalion, 155th Brigade, 78th "Lightning" Division , AEF, after the outbreak of World War I. He later served as Division Machine Gun Officer, General Staff, 78th Division. He saw duty with the British Second Army in the Hazebrouck Sector of the Western Front and with the AEF in operations during the Saint-Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne and Grand Pre campaigns. During the attack of his Division at the Bois de Loges near the Airne River at the northern edge of the Argonne Forest, he was a casualty of gas shelling for which injury he was later awarded the Purple Heart Medal in addition to a Certificate of Commendation.

After the war, his last command was with the 2nd U. S. Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas, after which he was a graduae of the General Staff School and the Naval War College. Serving with the War Plans Division of the War Department General Staff, Colonel Edward M. Offly, USA retired at Fort Myer, Virginia on October 1, 1938 after thirty-nine years of active duty. He established his residence at "High Offley", in Fairfax, Virginia and died at the Williamsburg home of his son, Lieutenant-Colonel Willoughby Newton Offley United States Air Force on November 18, 1970 with internment at Arlington Nnational Cemetery. He was married to Sally Bland Claybrook, daughter of Edwin Coke Claybrook and Judith White Newton Claybrook at Tyler, Texas on January 27, 1902.