George H. Eldridge was born in Sackets Harbor, New York on May 12, 1844. He later moved to Michigan where, at the start of the American Civil War, he joined the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry which along with the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry regiments, would form the "Iron Brigade" of the Army of the Potomac. Eldridge returned to military service years later when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in Detroit and was assigned to the 6th U.S. Cavalry. He took part in campaigns against the Plains Indians during the Texas-Indian Wars, most notably, against the Kiowa in the late-1860s. On July 6, 1870, he was among the cavalrymen under Captain Curwen B. McClelland who left Fort Richardson (near Jacksboro, Texas) to pursue renegade Indians who had seized mail from nearby Rock Statio