Albert Coats is one of those folks who remains largely a mystery other than his wartime service. Born in Ohio, he enlisted in the 1st U.S. Cavalry on December 8, 1856. He served in Company C as a private, corporal and sergeant.

Although appointed as a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Cavalry on October 26, 1861, Coats wasn’t notified until November 7th. He joined his new regiment at camp East of the Capitol, Washington on November 20th, and was assigned to Company E. His commander was Captain David McM. Gregg, and his first lieutenant was Benjamin T. Hutchins. Lieutenant Coats served with his company through the winter and the movement to the Peninsula. He was with his company at Ship Point, Virginia in March 1862 when promotions suddenly greatly affected the leadership of the regiment.

Lieutenant Colonel William H. Emory, the de facto regimental commander since the unit’s creation, was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on March 27th. Assigned command of a new formation, First Brigade, Cavalry Reserve, Emory needed to form a staff. He began his appointments the following day. Among the first of them was to make Lieutenant Joseph Audenried, the regimental adjutant, his assistant adjutant general. Major Williams assumed command of the regiment, and Second Lieutenant Coats was selected to replace Audenried for more information on Joseph Audenried, check the entry at Behind Antietam on the Web here).

After two months as the adjutant, Coats had a brief reprieve in June 1862. He returned to command Company E for a month while Lieutenant Hutchins was absent sick. Captain Gregg had moved on to command of the 8th Pennsylvania cavalry in the interim. He was reassigned as the regimental adjutant on July 21, 1862, a position he held until the following summer. As the adjutant, Coats was the recruitment officer sent to Knoxville, Maryland in October and November 1862 to recruit additional troops from volunteer units. Judging from the numbers, he was apparently very successful. He was promoted to first lieutenant in the 6th Cavalry on December 23, 1862.

On May 17, 1863, First Lieutenant Coats was transferred to Company D. He served on detached service with his company and Company K at Cavalry Corps headquarters during the majority of the Gettysburg campaign. After a brief stint commanding the regiment after the disasters at Fairfield and Funkstown, First Lieutenant Coats commanded Company D for most of the remainder of the war.

Coats was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 6th U.S. Colored Cavalry on January 15, 1865. The regiment’s colonel, James F. Wade, was a fellow 6th U.S. Cavalry lieutenant. Coats finished the war this, his third unit of the war.

Lieutenant Coats was brevetted captain, major and lieutenant colonel on March 13, 1865 for gallant and meritorious service during the war. He resigned from volunteer service on January 15, 1866, and from regular service ten days later. At that point he fades off into obscurity, and I’ve been unable to find any additional information.

Sources:

Carter, W. W., From Yorktown to Santiago with the 6th U.S. Cavalry (Baltimore, the Lord Baltimore Press, 1900).

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903), page 292.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Army and Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume II (New York: D. Van Nostrand Publishing, 1873), pg 254.

Muster Rolls, 6th U.S. Cavalry, NARA, M744

Joseph Hancock Taylor was born on January 26, 1836, in Kentucky. His father was Joseph P. Taylor, Commisary General of Subsistence for the U.S. Army during the Civil War. His uncle was President Zachary Taylor, his father’s brother. With such illustrious forebearers it was doubtless no surprise when he was appointed to West Point from Maryland in 1852. He graduated 31st in the class on 1856.

Upon graduation, Taylor was assigned as a brevet second lieutenant to the 1st U.S. Cavalry on July 1, 1856, but didn’t immediately join his regiment. He served at the Cavalry School for Practice, Carlisle, Pennsylvania from 1856 to 1857. He was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry while at Carlisle on January 16, 1857. He joined his regiment later in what would be a very busy year for both he and the regiment. After quelling Kansas disturbances and escorting the commissioner for running the southern boundary of Kansas, he spent the remainder of the year conducting other scouting from Fort Leavenworth. By the end of the year, the regiment was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.

The remaining years before the outbreak of the Civil War were spent crisscrossing the frontier. Taylor participated in the Utah expedition in 1858, returning to first Fort Leavenworth, then Fort Riley later in the year. 1859 brought a march to the Arkansas River. Taylor’s 1860 began with a march conducting recruits to Texas, then expeditions against Kiowa and Comanche Indians. He was engaged near Bent’s Fort, Colorado on July 11, 1860 with his company. They remained in the vicinity after the skirmish, one of the four companies who constructed and dwelt in Fort Wise, Colorado under Major John Sedgwick that winter.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Taylor’s company was one of those immediately ordered east. They marched first to Leavenworth, then to Washington. Taylor was promoted to First Lieutenant in his regiment on April 22, 1861.

Three weeks later he was promoted again, this time to Captain in the newly-forming 3rd U.S. Cavalry on May 14, 1861. The regiment was redesignated the 6th U.S. Cavalry on August 3rd, and he took command of Company F on August 22, 1861. He remained with the company through their training and marches to first Bladensburg, Maryland and then Camp East of the Capitol, Washington.

One of the privates in his company, Sidney Morris Davis, left his impression of his first commanding officer in his memoirs. He described Captain Taylor as “a small-waisted, slightly built, cross-looking man, with a voice that astonished us — so fierce, and sounding so like the yelp of a bull-dog when he gave us orders on drill. Although our first impression of Captain Taylor was not assuring, yet time showed he was one of the kindest officers in the service.”

Taylor remained with the regiment until late November, 1861. He left his company on November 27, 1861 to serve as an acting assistant Adjutant General for General Edwin V. Sumner’s Division. This assignment isn’t too surprising when one considers that Sumner had been his regimental commander in the 1st Cavalry. He remained on General Sumner’s staff until March 14, 1862, when he was assigned as the acting assistant Adjutant General of the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. He served with the Second Corps in this role throughout the Peninsula battles, earning a brevet to Major of volunteers on June 1, 1862 for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Fair Oaks.

After a month’s sick leave of absence from June 24th to July 24th, he returned to his position with the Second Corps. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Staff, of Volunteers on August 20, 1862, and earned a brevet to Lieutenant Colonel, U.S.A., on September 17, 1862 for gallant and meritorious service in battle of Antietam. He remained with Second Corps until November 1862, when he was assigned as the assistant Adjutant General for the Right Grand Division. After the battle of Fredericksburg, he returned to the cavalry, albeit still as a staff officer.
He served as the Assistant Inspector General of Cavalry during Stoneman’s Raid, from April 29 to May 8, 1863. Following the raid, he was reassigned as an assistant Adjutant General for the Department of Washington on June 1, 1863, where he served the remainder of the war.

Joseph Taylor married Mary Montgomery Meigs, the daughter of Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs, in Washington on March 30, 1864. He received a brevet to Colonel of Volunteers on March 3, 1865 for faithful and meritorious service during the war March 3, 1865. Interestingly, he was wasn’t one of the many who received brevet promotions on March 13, 1865. Taylor was promoted to Major, Staff, Assistant Adjutant General, Regular Army on March 30, 1866. He was breveted Colonel, U.S. Army August 13, 1866 for faithful and meritorious service during the war.

On May 24, 1869, Major Taylor left Washington at last, serving as the Assistant Adjutant General (AAG), Department of the South, until December 6, 1873. He then served as the AAG, Department of Texas (January 30, 1874 to February 4, 1878), the AAG, Department of the East (February 11, 1878 to March 31, 1879), the AAG, Department of the South (April 1, 1879 to September 1, 1882), and the AAG, Department of the Platte.

Taylor was still serving with this last department when died due to an unnamed disease that he contracted in the line of duty in Omaha, Nebraska on March 13, 1885. He is buried with his wife at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources:
Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, pgs 660-661.
Davis, Sidney Morris. Common Soldier, Uncommon War, pgs 25-26
Heitman, pg 947
Powell, Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Army

Samuel Whitside was another 6th Cavalry alumnus who progressed from private to general over the course of his career. In the interest of brevity, I have focused this account primarily on his Civil War service. For those interested in learning more about Whitside, I would strongly recommend Samuel Russell’s thesis in the reference section.

Samuel Marmaduke Whitside was born on January 9, 1839 in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in that area. The family later moved to New York, where he attended Careyville Academy and worked briefly as a bookkeeper.

He enlisted into the General Mounted Service on November 10, 1858 at age 19. In the army at this time, there were enlisted positions available in the mounted service outside of the regiments, primarily at the cavalry training school at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He served for three years at Carlisle Barracks, attaining the rank of corporal. His duties there included caring for cavalry mounts and instructing recruits in basic riding and weapons skills before they were assigned to mounted regiments.

Corporal Whitside was assigned to the newly-forming 3rd U.S. Cavalry on July 27, 1861 to fill a vacant noncommissioned officer position. He apparently excelled in his new assignment, as he was promoted to sergeant major of the regiment on August 1 at the tender age of 22. Three months later he was offered a commission, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 6th Cavalry on November 4, 1861. He was initially assigned to Company K, where his commander was captain (later brigadier general) Charles Russell Lowell. Among his soldiers in Company K was one Adna R. Chaffee, a future Chief of Staff of the Army.

Lieutenant Whitside helped train his company, and served with it throughout the Peninsula campaign. He was commended for his conduct during a skirmish at Slatersville on May 9th, his second engagement. He fought with his company in all of the regiment’s engagements on the Peninsula, including Malvern Hill, which was to be the last time that he led troops into battle during the war. Following Malvern Hill, he served briefly on the staff of General McClellan as an aide de camp before becoming ill. While the nature of his illness isn’t known, he was on sick leave for more than a month before reporting to General Banks in Washington, D.C.

In September 1862 he was assigned to the staff of Brigadier General Nathaniel P. Banks as an aide de camp, the junior of seven assigned to that position. Shortly thereafter Banks was assigned to the command of the Department of the Gulf, and moved with his staff to Louisiana. Whitside served in the operations before Port Hudson and during the Red River Campaign in Louisiana in 1863. He again became ill and was reassigned to the Military District of Washington on July 2, 1863.

Due to his illness, Whitside was assigned to light duty as an aide de camp to General Martindale, commander of the Military District of Washington. His condition worsened, and he was declared unfit for duty on October 5, 1863. Whitside refused to accept a medical discharge, however, and eventually fully returned to duty. A month later, on November 10th, he was diagnosed with smallpox, and placed on sick leave from November 14, 1863 to January 26, 1864. While he was able to return to duty in January, the fact that he was once again assigned as an aide and did not return to his regiment likely indicates that he was not yet fully recovered.

Whitside was promoted to first lieutenant in the 6th Cavalry on January 25, 1864. He was assigned as an aide de camp to Major General Alfred Pleasonton the following day, four days after he was relieved of command of the Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. Pleasonton was reinstated on February 12th, and Whitside continued to serve as his aide until March 11th, when he was again assigned to Washington D.C for medical treatment. He was subsequently reassigned in April 1864 as a mustering and disbursing officer in Providence, Rhode Island, where he served until February 1865.

He was brevetted captain and major, regular army, for faithful and meritorious service during the war on March 13, 1865. Following the surrender at Appomattox, he served as the Chief Commissary of Musters, Army of the Shenandoah, overseeing the mustering out of over 30,000 men.

Whitside returned to service with the 6th Cavalry in Maryland in September 1865, where he was assigned to Company A. He was promoted to captain and command of Company B on October 20, 1866. Samuel Whitside married Carrie McGavock on November 24, 1868, in Bejar County, Texas.

Whitside served for the next twenty years with the regiment on the frontier, including stints in Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and the Arizona and Dakota Territories. He founded the post of Fort Huachuca, Arizona Territory in March of 1877, and served as the post commander until 1881. Today Fort Huachuca is the home of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Center and School.

After almost twenty four years with the 6th Cavalry, Whitside was promoted to major in the 7th Cavalry on March 20, 1885. He served with the regiment in the Dakota Territory until 1887, when the regiment moved to Fort Riley, Kansas. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 3rd Cavalry on July 17, 1895, and transferred to the 5th Cavalry on October 15th of the same year. He was promoted to the colonelcy of the 10th Cavalry Regiment on October 16, 1898.

Colonel Whitside was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on January 3, 1901, during the Spanish-American war. He was honorably discharged from volunteer service six months later, on June 20th.

He was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army on May 29, 1902, and retired at his own request eleven days later on June 9, 1902.

Samuel Whitside died in Washington D.C. on December 14, 1904, on his way home following a congressional inspection of the proposed route for the Panama Canal. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources:

Carter, W. W., From Yorktown to Santiago with the 6th U.S. Cavalry (Baltimore, the Lord Baltimore Press, 1900).

Coffman, Edward M. The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 (New York: Oxford University press, 1986).

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903), page 1031.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Army and Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume II (New York: D. Van Nostrand Publsihing, 1873), pg 219.

Russell, Major Samuel L., “Selfless Service: The Cavalry Career of Brigadier General Samuel M. Whitside from 1858 to 1902.” MMAS Thesis, Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Command and General Staff College, 2002.

6th US Cavalry Muster Rolls, NARA