We know little of Stieffel the man. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1826, and became a printer by trade, indicating a fair amount of education. He emigrated to this country at an unknown date and in December 1857 at New York City enlisted in the Army as a private of infantry. He was 31 years old at the time, and was described as being five feet five and one-half inches tall with blue eyes, sandy hair, and a fair complexion.[6] He remained a private for the entire time of his military service. After recruit training at a general depot, he was assigned to Company K, 5th Infantry, joining that unit late in August 1858 at Camp Floyd (later Fort Crittenden), Utah Territory, where the regiment was an element of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston's "Army of Utah" sent westward to police the recalcitrant Mormons.[7] Stieffel's record shows nothing of note until December 1859 when he was court-martialed and fined.[8] This court-martial seemed to set the pace for him. Although the precise charge on which he was tried is not stated, in view of his later record it can be surmised that it was for drunkenness--a very common offense in the frontier army--for in October 1861 Stieffel owed a sutler $27.95, a heavy debt for a day when a private's net pay was less than $11.00 a month.[9] The debt remained unpaid through 1862 and even increasing an additional $15.00. During this period Stieffel also was in confinement on a number of occasions for crimes or misdemeanors unspecified.[10] In 1860 the 5th Infantry was transferred from Utah southward to the Department of New Mexico. It was here in 1862 that Stieffel saw his first combat in Col. E. R. S. Canby's[11] Union force, which frustrated the wild Confederate attempt under Brig. Gen. H. H. Sibley to invade the present states of New Mexico and Arizona and conquer California.[12] Captain Brotherton, Private Stieffel, and the remainder of Company K fought in the sharp action at Valverde, New Mexico, on February 21, 1862, and evidently with some distinction as Brotherton was breveted major for gallantry as a result of his unit's performance.[13] Unfortunately for posterity, Stieffel did not record his impressions of this little-known sideshow of the Civil War. [Illustration: Figure 3.--Satanta addressing the peace commissioners at Council Grove, Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas. (_USNM 384183; Smithsonian photo 38298._)]