Fiddler’s Green: Lewis Thompson

03 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Fiddler's Green, Gettysburg campaign, officers

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2nd U.S. Cavalry, Civil War, Gettysburg campaign, James Brisbin, John Pope, Lewis Thompson, Little Big Horn campaign, Philip Sheridan, Rufus Saxton, Theophilus Rodenbough, William Hardee

I am greatly indebted to Sherry Harris, a relative of Lewis Thompson, for adding a great deal of detail and both pictures to the story of this brave cavalryman.

Photo courtesy of Sherry Harris.

Lewis Tappen Thompson was born in Philadelphia on July 25, 1838. He was the eldest of five children who survived childhood. His father, also named Lewis, was a publisher and member of the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. He was also part of the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.

Lewis was raised in Philadelphia, and educated for a business career. He was working as a cashier and bookkeeper for P. Waples and Co. of Philadelphia when the war broke out. Lewis and his brother James enlisted in Company A, 71st New York State Militia, a ninety day regiment, on April 21, 1861, and mustered out with the rest of the company on July 30th. He served primarily at the Washington Navy Yard, but also fought in the first battle of Bull Run.

When the regiment was mustered out, Thompson was appointed a lieutenant of volunteers and assigned as an aide on the staff of Brigadier General John C. Fremont. After Fremont was relieved of command, he worked briefly as an adjutant general for Lane’s brigade before being appointed a captain in the 3rd Kansas Cavalry. Singled out for bravery and leadership in a winter expedition into Missouri for forage, General Lane recommended him for an appointment in the regular army.

On February 19, 1862, Lewis Thompson was appointed a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and assigned to Company I. He wouldn’t see his new company for nearly a year. He remained at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for several more months working as a Mustering & Disbursing Officer. He was promoted to first lieutenant on October 28, 1862, but word of the promotion did not reach him or the regiment until the following spring.
Lieutenant Thompson joined the 2nd U.S. Cavalry at Fort Albany, Virginia in December 1862, where several recently recruited companies were en route to join the regiment. He commanded Company G during the march, then joined Company I upon arrival. He spent the winter on picket duty with his company, based from their winter quarters near Falmouth.

Lieutenant Thompson was active in the spring campaign, serving with his company under Lieutenant Thomas Dewees during Stoneman’s Raid and the battle of Brandy Station. He received a brevet promotion to captain for gallant and meritorious service two weeks later during the battle of Upperville on June 21, 1863.

Lieutenant Thompson was captured during the Gettysburg campaign on July 2, 1863 while “attempting to communicate with corps headquarters,” according to brigade commander Wesley Merritt’s report on the battle. He was held at Libby Prison in Richmond until June 1864, then he was transferred briefly to Macon, Georgia and then onward to Charleston, South Carolina.

Lewis became very sick with tuberculosis and bronchitis while in Charleston, and likely would have died there if not for some family intervention. His sister, Matilda, had married Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, a quartermaster officer. When the Union captured parts of South Carolina in 1864, Saxton was appointed military governor of the state. He established his offices in the same building as the erstwhile Confederate commander of the area, former member of the 2nd Dragoons William Hardee. Hardee had been Saxton’s commander at West Point before the war. Saxton heard of his brother in law’s illness, and by luck was holding one of Hardee’s staff officers of the same rank prisoner. After Saxton contacted Hardee, “he responded cordially, and the two officers were exchanged, and the life of one brave officer was saved.”

Thompson was exchanged at Charleston, SC on October 4, 1864, and sent to Camp Parole, near Annapolis, Maryland to recover in the military hospitals there. After recovering from his illness and his release from Camp Parole, Maryland, Captain Thompson was assigned to special duty on the staff of Governor Cummings in Golden City, Colorado. He served there from September 25, 1865 until September 1866, when he was ordered to join his company. In the interim, he had been promoted twice. He received a brevet promotion to major for meritorious service during the war on September 25, 1865. On July 28, 1866, he was promoted to captain and command of Company L, 2nd U.S. Cavalry.

Thompson continued to suffer the effects of his captivity for the remainder of his life. He took a sick leave of absence from August 16, 1868 to March 29, 1869. He rejoined his company at Fort Ellis, Montana in the summer of 1869. The photo below is from a group picture of regimental officers on a porch at the fort.

On February 26, 1869, the President directed that the brevet rank of Colonel be conferred upon Thompson. The reason was not stated. Other than the letter to Secretary of War Schofield directing the promotion on Executive Mansion stationery, there is no documentation of the promotion in his records.

Captain Thompson was sent to a retiring board in 1870, but the board recommended him for retention. He proved their judgment in the field, commanding his company during the Piegan expedition under Major E.M. Baker earlier that year. He also led his company in an engagement with Sioux at Prior’s Fork, Montana on August 14, 1872.

He returned home to Germantown, Pennsylvania on a sick leave of absence August 25, 1874 to September 12, 1875. He was suffering from chronic bronchitis and tuberculosis. One of the certificates of sickness states “the latter Cachenia having existed for the past six years, I reproduce the certificate given by Dr. Frantz, Surgeon, U.S.A. and continued in June 67 by Dr. Bailey, Surgeon, U.S.A.”

Despite his illnesses, he remained in touch with the regiment and its former officers. He even wrote a short chapter on the Piegan expedition of 1870 for Theophilus Rodenbough’s From Everglade to Canon with the Second United States Cavalry, published in 1875.

Captain Thompson commanded Company L in Major James Brisbin’s battalion of the 2nd Cavalry in Colonel John Gibbon’s column during the Little Big Horn campaign. He was so ill toward the end of the march that he was carried on a stretcher behind a mule with his company.

Lewis Thompson committed suicide in his bed near the headwaters of the Little Big Horn at 6 a.m. on July 19, 1876 “by shooting himself through the breast.” Assistant Surgeon H.O. Paulding’s letter stated, “Captain Thompson had been ailing with Neuralgia of the Stomach, together with excessive vomiting and diarrhea, for two days previously, and no doubt it was the intense suffering that produced the mental aberration which led to the fatal act.”

An article in the Freeman Journal noted, “He was a gentle, genial man, a true gentleman. He was buried at 6:30 pm. All the officers and men attended. General Gibbon made a few appropriate remarks. 1st LT. Edward McGuire read the service.”

In a letter to General Sherman upon learning of his death, Governor Potts of Montana wrote “He was a fine officer and an accomplished gentleman, & was very popular. He was a Philadelphian.”

Unfortunately, Thompson’s story didn’t end there. His brother in law, Lieutenant Colonel Rufus Saxton, requested to move his remains home from Montana to be buried with the rest of his family. His request was endorsed by Brigadier General John Pope, commander of the Department of the Missouri, and Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan, but denied by order of the Secretary of War.

A year later, Saxton and Lewis’ brother moved his remains to the family plot in Saulsbury Church Yard, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The cemetery is currently known as Thompson Memorial Cemetery.

Sources:

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Page 640.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, Volume 2. New York: George W. Carleton, 1869. Page 345.

National Archives, Record Group 94, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.

National Archives, Record Group 94, Letters Received by the Commission Branch, 1863-1870.

National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Army Non-infantry Regiments, 1821-1916: 2nd U.S. Cavalry

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 27, Part 1, page 943.

Rodenbough, Theophilus. From Everglade to Canon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. Pages 378-383 and 470.

Saxton, Rufus. “The Reminiscences of a Quartermaster in the Early Days of the Civil War,” Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Volume 6 (1921), pages 394-412.

The Death of Charles Russell Lowell

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 1864, 6th U.S. Cavalry, battle of Cedar Creek, officers, Reserve Brigade

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6th U.S. Cavalry, battle of Cedar Creek, Charles Russell Lowell, Reserve Brigade

Craig Swain’s post yesterday here on fallen leaders at Cedar Creek jogged a memory. I knew I had seen a contemporary account of the death of Charles Russell Lowell, but couldn’t remember where. Lowell had an interesting position during the battle. He was a captain in the 6th U.S. Cavalry and colonel of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, both present at the battle, and in command of both regiments as the commander of the Reserve Brigade.

Today, I remembered where I had seen it. Charles A. Humphreys was the regimental chaplain for the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry from 1863 through the end of the war. As the chaplain, he frequently encountered the regimental commander, so one must expect a bit of bias. In his postwar history of the regiment, Field, Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War, 1861-1865, Humphreys chronicles Lowell’s passing.

“I have already told how my gallant Colonel, in this month’s campaign in which he was every day under fire, seemed to bear a charmed life, having had thirteen horses shot out from under him — one of them struck in seven places — and his clothes riddled with bullets. He had not himself been touched till the third charge in the Battle of Cedar Creek, when a spent ball for a moment took away his breath and afterwards left him voiceless. General Torbert urged that he be taken from the field. But Lowell whispered: “No! It is only my poor lung. I have not lost a drop of blood yet. I want to lead in the final charge.” So a little parapet of earth was thrown up to shield him from the bullets of the enemy, and he lay there motionless for two hours, having exacted a promise that he should be told when the charge was ordered. This came about three o’clock. Then, though too weak to mount his horse without assistance, he said, “I am well, now,” and allowed his faithful men to lift him into the saddle, and he rode to the front amid the cheers of his troops. Then his strength rose with the occasion, and though the death flush was on his cheeks he rode firm and erect as ever, and though he could only whisper his commands to his aids, [sic] all saw by the pointing of his sword that he meant Forward to victory or death.

“Just as they were in the thickest of the fight, Lowell — still leading on his men — was pierced by a bullet from shoulder to shoulder and fell into the arms of his aids [sic]. Yet even thus he would not check the vigor of the assault, but allowed himself to be carried forward in the track of his rapidly advancing brigade till he reached the village of Middletown and saw that the battle was won. Then he lay down upon his death-couch as calmly as to a night’s repose, and, though partially paralyzed, he remained for a time conscious, and gave minute directions about the business of his command, dictated some private messages of affection, and twice directed his surgeon to leave him to look to the wounds of other officers and of some wounded prisoners whose cries of pain he overheard, and then quietly and contentedly went to sleep and waked no more on earth.”

Obviously Humphreys uses a bit of poetic license in his account. From the nature of his final wound and other accounts of his fall, it seem far more likely that he was in the village or on its outskirts when he was shot.

Lowell was mourned across the Cavalry Corps. His division commander’s comments were contained in the previous post, and his corps commander, A.T.A. Torbert, commented in this excerpt from official report:

“In this general advance Colonel Lowell, Second Massachusetts Cavalry, commanding reserve Brigade, First Division, while charging at the head of his brigade, received a second wound, which proved to be mortal. Thus the service lost one of its most gallant and accomplished soldiers. He was the beau ideal of a cavalry officer, and his memory will never die in the command.”

Sources:

Humphreys, Charles A. Field, Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Co., 1918. Pages 179-181.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 43, Part 1, Page 434.

Photograph of Charles Russell Lowell in 1864, USAMHI.

Fiddler’s Green – Richard Fitzgerald

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 1864, 5th U.S. Cavalry, Battle of Winchester, Casualties, cavalry depots, Fiddler's Green, officers

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5th U.S. Cavalry, battle of Winchester, Civil War, Richard Fitzgerald

Richard Fitzgerald was born in County Waterford, Ireland in 1838. After immigrating to the United States, he worked as a fireman prior to serving in the army. He was enlisted into the General Mounted Service by Lieutenant Magruder in Baltimore, Maryland on January 20, 1859. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 10” tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion.

At this period, the General Mounted Service meant assignment to the Cavalry School at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania and various recruiting assignments. Fitzgerald rose through the enlisted ranks, and was serving as a first sergeant in the permanent company at Carlisle Barracks service when he was appointed a second lieutenant in Company I, 5th U.S. Cavalry on November 7, 1863.

Cavalry depot commander Captain David Hastings of the 1st U.S. Cavalry submitted the recommendation for his appointment, which was also signed by every officer assigned to the depot. It read: “Sergeant Hastings is well instructed in all the details and duties relative to the mounted service, and will make an excellent Cavalry Officer. His character and services justly intitle [sic] him to that position: he done some good service, as first sergeant of the permanent company of this Depot, in the recent battles in Pennsylvania and Maryland.”

Lieutenant Fitzgerald joined his regiment at Mitchell’s Station, Virginia the following month. He served there through the winter and spring, including skirmishes at Barnett’s Ford, Charlottesville, Stanardsville, and Morton’s Ford. Although assigned to Company I, he spent very little time there. He was on special duty commanding Company E from January to March, then shifted to Company M in April as the spring campaign began.

He led his company ably in the Overland Campaign and Sheridan’s two raids toward Richmond. He was promoted to first lieutenant in Company I on June 12, 1864, replacing former sergeant major Joseph P. Henley when he was killed at Trevillian Station. Fitzgerald continued to command Company M as the regiment was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley.

Lieutenant Fitzgerald led his company well in the near constant skirmishing that comprised the first month of the campaign. During the battle of Opequon on September 19, 1864, “he was killed while gallantly leading his company in a charge against the enemy.” He is buried in the military cemetery at Winchester, Virginia.

Sources:
Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Page 268.
Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, 2 volumes. New York: George W. Carleton, 1869. Volume 1, page 152.

National Archives, Record Group 94, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.
National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Army Non-infantry Regiments, 1821-1916: 1st, 2nd and 5th U.S. Cavalry

National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914

Price, George F. Across The Continent With The Fifth Cavalry. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1883. Pages 507-508.

Fiddler’s Green: Samuel McKee

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 1st U.S. Cavalry, Fiddler's Green, officers

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1st U.S. Cavalry, Cold Harbor, Samuel McKee

It seems appropriate to feature this officer on the 150^th anniversary of his death. Due to the heavy fighting in June 1864, there will be several of these features this month.

Samuel McKee was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1835. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy from Utah in 1854 at the age of 19, and graduated 13^th in the class of 1858. Upon graduation, he was initially appointed as a brevet second lieutenant of mounted rifles, and served his initial assignment at the Cavalry School for Practice at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He was transferred to the 1^st Dragoons on June 22, 1859, and conducted a party of recruits to join his new regiment at Fort Tejon, California.

He was promoted to second lieutenant in the 1^st Dragoons on January9, 1860, and continued to serve with the parts of the regiment at Fort Tejon. Later that year he married Matilda Harris Finley, the daughter of Army Surgeon General Dr. Clarence A. Finley.

With the outbreak of the war, promotions accelerated rapidly. Samuel was promoted to first lieutenant in the regiment on May 7^th, and appointed regimental adjutant on August 7^th. In October tragedy struck the young family, as Matilda died in childbirth on October 31^st at the age of 25. Their daughter was named Matilda Finley McKee. Samuel had little time to mourn, as he was relieved as adjutant when he was promoted to captain on November 14^th.. The regimental headquarters departed by ship from Los Angeles for Washington, D.C. They arrived and established Camp Sprague in late January 1862, with Captain McKee in command of Company B.

The regiment spent the next two months drilling and preparing for the spring campaign as part of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Reserve. A career fellow officer in the regiment later noted in his memoirs that McKee was “perhaps the best drill officer I have ever known.” He participated with his regiment in the spring’s fighting on the Peninsula, distinguishing himself in the skirmish at Williamsburg on May 4^th.

The following month he departed on a leave of absence to serve as lieutenant colonel for the 77^th New York Volunteer Infantry, but rejoined the 1^st Cavalry in September in time for the Antietam campaign. He served with the regiment through the winter of 1863, Stoneman’s Raid and the Gettysburg campaign.

He was again detached from his regiment on special service with General Ayres at New York City following the draft riots from August 23, 1863 to January 14, 1864. After a brief sick leave in Washington, D.C., he joined the regiment at Mitchell’s Station in February. He was engaged in picket duty and reconnaissance for the remainder of the winter, serving as the regimental commander until April.

Captain Nelson Sweitzer resumed command of the regiment for the spring campaign, but Captain McKee served prominently at Todd’s Tavern and during the fighting during Sheridan’s first raid. He was mortally wounded during the cavalry fighting at Cold Harbor, Virginia on May 31^st, and died on June 3^rd. He is buried with his wife in Los Angeles, California.

He was well remembered by peers and superiors alike. Catain George Sanford wrote of him that his death “cut short a most promising career and deprived the regiment of one of the finest and best loved officers who ever followed its colors.” His brigade commander, Brigadier General Wesley Merritt, called him “a pure, unaffected, moderate man, a chivalrous, educated, accomplished soldier.” General Alfred T.A. Torbert, his division commander, wrote “a more gallant and accomplished soldier has not given his life for his bleeding country.”

Sources:

Cullum, pgs 704-705.

Hageman, E.R., ed. Fighting Rebels and Redskins. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.

Heitman, pg 438.

Jordan, F. “A Forgotten Captain.” Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 184, April 3, 1910, page 10.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Volume 36, part I, pages 806, 814 and 849.

Officers of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 2nd Dragoons/ 2nd Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, officers

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2nd U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, Civil War, officers, regular army

I have pieced together all of the officers who served in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry during the Civil War with the help of the regimental monthly returns and annual Army Registers. Readers will quickly note the large number of resignations. The 2^nd was the hardest hit of the five cavalry regiments by resignations at the beginning of the war, with 19. Of these, 10 went on to become general officers in the Confederate Army and four others reached the rank of colonel. Nineteen officers who served in the regiment were general officers of either regulars or volunteers in the Union Army by the end of the war. Twenty one of these officers were commissioned from the ranks. Of the field grade officers listed here, only Pleasonton and Whiting actually served in the field with the regiment during the war. Readers will note the scarcity of second lieutenants by the end of the war. The 1865 Army Register shows only one, Patrick Horrigan, and he was promoted to first lieutenant on January 5, 1865.

Colonels

Philip St.G. Cooke promoted to Brigadier General November 12, 1861

Thomas J. Wood

Lieutenant Colonels

Marshall S. Howe transferred Colonel 3^rd U.S. Cavalry

Enoch Steen retired September 23, 1863

Innis N. Palmer

Majors

Charles A. May resigned April 20, 1861

Lawrence P. Graham transferred Lieutenant Colonel 5^th U.S. Cavalry

William N. Grier transferred Lieutenant Colonel 1^st U.S. Cavalry

Washington I. Newton retired October 26, 1861

John W. T. Gardiner retired November 14, 1861

J. W. Davidson

Alfred Pleasonton

Charles J. Whiting dismissed November 5, 1863

Frank Wheaton

Captains

Henry H. Sibley resigned May 13, 1861

Reuben P. Campbell resigned May 11, 1861

William Steele resigned May 31, 1861

Richard H. Anderson resigned March 3, 1861

James M Hawes resigned May 9, 1861

William D. Smith resigned January 28, 1861

Samuel H. Starr transferred Major 6^th U.S. Cavalry

John Buford transferred Army Staff

Charles H. Tyler dismissed June 6, 1861

Beverly Robertson dismissed August 8, 1861

Jonas P. Holliday KIA April 5, 1862 (as Colonel 1^st Vermont Cavalry)

Charles E. Norris

Thomas Hight resigned April 27, 1863 (later Colonel, 31^st Maine Infantry)

George A. Gordon

Francis N.C. Armstrong resigned August 13, 1861

Henry Brockholst Livingston retired August 25, 1862

John Green

Lewis Merrill

John K. Mizner

Charles J. Walker

Wesley Merritt

Theophilus F. Rodenbough

Charles W. Canfield KIA June 9, 1863

Robert E. Clary dismissed February 13, 1864

David S. Gordon

Robert S. Smith resigned January 25, 1865

Charles McK. Leoser

James F. McQuesten KIA September 19, 1864

George O. Sokalski

Henry E. Noyes

First Lieutenants

George B. Anderson resigned April 25, 1861

John Pegram resigned May 10, 1861

John B. Villepigue resigned March 31, 1861

John Mullins resigned April 24, 1861

Ebenezar Gay transferred to Captain, 16^th U.S. Infantry

George Jackson resigned June 1, 1861

William P. Sanders transferred to Captain, 6^th U.S. Cavalry

Charles H. Gibson resigned May 30, 1864

Edward Ball

James W. Duke died October 28, 1862

Thomas W. Burton dismissed October 24, 1862

William Blanchard

John Mix

Thomas B. Dewees

William H. Harrison

Lewis Thompson

Frederick W. Schaurte

James G. Potter resigned April 27, 1863

Frank Burnham dismissed November 25, 1863

Robert Lennox

Michael Lawless KIA June 11, 1864

Edward J. Spaulding

Elijah R. Wells

Paul Quirk retired January 5, 1865

Charles H. Lester

James Cahill

Charles McMaster KIA October 25, 1864

James Egan

Patrick W. Horrigan

Second Lieutenants

Thomas J. Berry resigned January 28, 1861

Solomon Williams resigned May 3, 1861

James C. Snodgrass resigned June 13, 1861

Francis H. Parker transferred to 3^rd U.S. Artillery, then Ordnance Corps

Edwin M. Coates transferred to 12^th U.S. Infantry

Peter Rinner cashiered February 13, 1864

Charles Lewis dismissed June 3, 1864

Daniel Flynn retired September 30, 1863

Theodore M. Spencer dismissed December 5, 1863

George DeVere Selden died September 17, 1863

Stephen DeW. C. Beekman died July 7, 1864

Resources:

Cullum, George W. Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, Volume 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891.

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

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, 2 volumes. New York: George W. Carleton, 1869.

National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Army Non-infantry Regiments, 1821-1916: 2nd U.S. Cavalry

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

U.S. Army Registers, 1861-1865

Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.

Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.

Sergeants Major of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry

05 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 1864 raids, 2nd Dragoons/ 2nd Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, battle of Brandy Station, officers, promotions, rank

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2nd U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, Charles Polk, Civil War, Daniel Mount, Robert Lennox, sergeants major, Thomas Burton, Thomas Delacour

A careful examination of the regimental monthly returns revealed that the lists of regimental sergeants major found in Heitman and Lambert are incorrect. While only five men held the position, they did so over seven different periods of time. Their performance was inconsistent, with two ending their tenure through appointments as officers and one being reduced to the ranks – multiple times. They did share one thing in common. Without exception, they all worked as clerks prior to enlisting in the army, or at least claimed they had. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate a picture of any of them.

Thomas W. Burton was born in Albany, NY in 1829. He was enlisted into Company G, 2^nd U.S. Dragoons by Captain McLane at Baltimore, MD on March 26, 1852. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 8 ½” tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion. He served this entire enlistment in Company G, reenlisting as a private at Fort Riley, Kansas Territory on January 26, 1857. His second enlistment was much more successful, as he quickly moved through the ranks in Companies G, C, A and E. He was promoted to regimental sergeant major on March 12, 1860.

Captain Alfred Pleasonton, commanding the regiment at the time, requested Sergeant Major Burton’s appointment as a second lieutenant in the regiment on October 29, 1861. Pleasonton’s request was accompanied by a group recommendation stating that he had “shown himself in the discharge of the duties of his office to be an energetic and efficient soldier, an excellent and capable man and welll worthy of promotion to the position as an officer.” The group included Captains John Buford and George A. Gordon, Lieutenant William P. Sanders and regimental adjutant Wesley Merritt. The appointment was quickly approved, and Lieutenant Burton accepted his commission at regimental headquarters in the Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. on November 2^nd.

Daniel Mount was promoted to be the regiment’s second Civil War sergeant major on January 5, 1862. He served as a sergeant in Company H prior to his promotion. Mount was born in West Meath, Ireland in 1827, and had served in the regiment nearly twelve years at the time of his promotion. He originally enlisted into Company H on March 22, 1850 in New York City. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 8 ¾” tall, with brown hair, gray eyes and a ruddy complexion. He reenlisted the first time in February 1855 at Fort Leavenworth and the second time in February 1860 at Camp Floyd, Utah Territory. Mount’s tenure as sergeant major was brief, as he was reduced to the ranks into Company E only a month later.

First Sergeant Robert Lennox of Company D succeeded Mount as the third sergeant major. Robert Lennox was born in Sligo, Ireland in 1833. He originally enlisted into Company D on October 16, 1854 in New York City, where he had worked as a clerk. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 8” tall, with sandy hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. He reenlisted in Company D on August 15, 1859 at Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory. He served as sergeant major through the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns, until September 23, 1862, when he received notification of his appointment as a second lieutenant in the regiment on July 17^th. His recommendation for appointment had been submitted in January and again in June 1862, as a “brave, intelligent and energetic young man, and has seen some eight years of continual active service as a noncommissioned officer of this regiment.”

Sergeant Thomas Delacour, also of Company D, became the regiment’s fourth sergeant major the following day. A large number of the regiment’s first sergeants were promoted the same day as Lennox, and an equal number of sergeants promoted to fill the gaps. Delacour was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1837, and worked as a clerk. He was originally enlisted into the regiment by one of its legends, Captain Charles May, on April 22, 1857. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 8 ½” tall, with black hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. He reenlisted as the sergeant major on December 15, 1862 in camp near Falmouth, and served in that position through all the fighting of 1863.

Wesley Merritt related an incident involving Sergeant Major Delacour in Rodenbough’s From Everglade to Canyon. During the battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, Sergeant Major Delacour was riding to the assistance of Lieutenant Robert Lennox, who had been wounded and unhorsed. A Confederate cavalryman rode up and fired at Lennox, who exclaimed “Don’t shoot; I’m wounded!” With an oath the rebel horseman emptied another barrel of his revolver near Lennox’s head. Delacour then drew his pistol and shot the man out of his saddle, remarking, “And now you are wounded.”

Captain George A. Gordon, serving as regimental commander, requested a commission for Sergeant Major Delacour on July 17, 1863. In part, Gordon’s recommendation read, “He has already been recommended by the officers of the regiment for promotion and has been mentioned several times in orders for gallantry and good conduct in action. He is a man of good habits, gentlemanly in his deportment and I am confident that he would do honor to the service.” An endorsement by his brigade commander, Brigadier General Wesley Merritt noted that Delacour “elicited the admiration of all connected with him by his coolness and gallantry in action, and his zealous attention to duty at all times.” Despite approval by Major Generals Pleasonton and Meade, Delacour never received the appointment. On February 4, 1864, he was transferred to first sergeant of Company G by Special Order No. 15. It is unclear why the transfer occurred, but had it been for misconduct he would have been reduced to the ranks. Delacour served ably as the first sergeant through the hard fought campaigns of 1864.

Chief Bugler Charles Polk succeeded Delacour as the regiment’s fifth sergeant major. Polk was born in Hanover, Germany and worked as a clerk before joining the army. He originally enlisted into Company H in Philadelphia, PA on November 22, 1856. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’4” tall, with light hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. He reenlisted into Company H as a bugler on November 15, 1861 in Washington, D.C. He was promoted through the ranks in the company to sergeant prior to his appointment as the regiment’s chief bugler on May 23, 1863. Polk served as the sergeant major through Sheridan’s raids and the Shenandoah Valley campaign until the expiration of his term of service on November 15, 1864.

Thomas Delacour was again promoted to sergeant major the same day, and served in that position through the winter of 1864. On March 18, 1865, he was reduced to quartermaster sergeant in Company E.

Delacour was replaced by Daniel Mount, who had meanwhile earned promotions back through the ranks to first sergeant. The entry in the regimental returns is difficult to read, but he was first sergeant of either Company K or M. Mount served as sergeant major until June 1^st, when he was once again reduced to the ranks, this time into Company K, by Special Order No. 39.

The same order restored Delacour as sergeant major, where he served until his enlistment expired on December 16, 1865. He was succeeded again by Daniel Mount, who lasted only two weeks this final time, before being replaced by William Search on January 1, 1866.

References:

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

Lambert, Joseph I. One Hundred Years With the Second Cavalry. San Antonio: Newton Publishing Company, 1999.

NARA, RG 94, M619, Letters Received by the Adjutant General’s Office, 1861-1870

NARA, RG94, M1064, Letters Received by the Commission Branch of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1863-1870.

NARA, RG 94, Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914

NARA, RG 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Regiments, 2nd U.S. Cavalry

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Escaping General Grant

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by dccaughey in 1861, 1862, 1863, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, 5th U.S. Cavalry, battle of Brandy Station, Fort Leavenworth, officers, resignations

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2nd U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, Civil War, Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Franscis C. Armstrong, General U.S. Grant, James M. Hawes, Myles Moylan, Shiloh, Solomon Williams

One might assume from the title that this post is about a Confederate unit. It is actually the story of one cavalry company’s experience during the first half of the war, and the extraordinary measures needed to obtain its release from service as General Ulysses S. Grant’s escort to rejoin its regiment.

As Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the two westernmost companies of the 2^nd U.S. Dragoons were located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Company K was almost immediately dispatched to Washington, D.C., arriving in time for the battle of Bull Run. Company C followed the lead company by only days, but it would be over two years before it was reunited with the rest of the regiment. Elements of the regiment stationed nearly 1,000 miles farther west would reach the nation’s capital a year and a half before Company C.

The company was commanded by Captain James Morrison Hawes, with First Lieutenant Francis Crawford Armstrong and Second Lieutenant Solomon Williams assigned as his subalterns. Forty five enlisted men were present for duty, among them a young sergeant from Massachusetts named Myles Moylan.

Captain Hawes had a distinguished career prior to the Civil War. Born in Lexington and appointed to West Point from Kentucky, he graduated 29^th in the class of 1845. He received two brevet promotions for gallantry in battle during the Mexican War. He later served as an instructor at the military academy for infantry tactics, cavalry tactics and mathematics. He served for three years at the French cavalry school at Samur before his promotion to captain of Company C. He was the only officer present for duty with the company in April, and resigned on May 9, 1861.

First Lieutenant Armstrong was awarded a direct commission after graduating from Holy Cross Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1855. Frank Armstrong is one of the unusual few soldiers who had the distinction of leading both Union and Confederate troops into battle during the war. He commanded Company K, 2nd U.S. Dragoons during the first Battle of Bull Run, and was attached to Colonel Hunter’s division. Disillusioned following the battle, he resigned on August 13, 1861 and enlisted in the Confederate Army. (more information about Armstrong can be found here.) In April he was on detached service as an aide to General William S. Harney, a position he had held for nearly two years.

Second Lieutenant Solomon Williams was born in and appointed to West Point from North Carolina. He graduated 11^th in the class of 1858. He commanded the 2^nd North Carolina Cavalry as a colonel for nearly a year prior to his death at the battle of Brandy Station. General Stuart described him “as fearless as he was efficient.” He was forming his command for a charge against the advance of his old regular regiment when he was shot in the head and killed. He was absent on furlough in April, and resigned on May 3, 1861.

Lieutenant Armstrong was temporarily (later promoted and permanently) assigned to command Company K, leaving no officers present for duty with the company. The company’s first sergeant was Myles A. Moylan. Enlisted as a private in Boston in 1857, he had rapidly risen through the company’s ranks. Sergeant Moylan was promoted to first sergeant of the company on May 17, 1861. This last promotion proved very important to the company. During the next two years, it was commanded by eight officers of different regiments, including four infantry officers and two artillery officers. It would have been the steady hand of the first sergeant that kept the company functioning. (More information about Moylan can be found here. )

The company remained at Fort Leavenworth until June 11^th, when it departed with several other companies from the Leavenworth garrison for operations in Missouri. Second Lieutenant Charles Farrand of Company B, 1^st U.S. Infantry was temporarily placed in command of the company. Farrand graduated 36^th in the class of 1857 from West Point. After a year at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, he had spent the previous four years on the frontier in Texas and the Indian Territory. He arrived at Leavenworth only two weeks before, part of the column evacuated from Fort Cobb.

They spent the remainder of June and most of July on the march in Missouri, finally arriving at Camp Stanley on July 28^th. After a week’s stay there, they marched to Springfield, arriving on August 6^th. They marched forth as part of Gen. Lyons’ army and fought at the battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, on August 10^th. Following the army’s defeat, the company marched by way of Springfield and St. Louis to Paducah, Kentucky.

In Paducah, they were assigned to the command of Brigadier General Charles F. Smith. They spent the next several months engaged in scouting and escort duty. They remained under General Smith’s command when Gen. Grant’s forces began to maneuver on Forts Henry and Donelson on February 5, 1862. According to regimental returns, they “had a skirmish with the enemy in the vicinity of Fort Donelson on the 10^th inst., and had another skirmish with them in the same place on the 12^th; was engaged in the taking of Fort Donelson from the 15^th until the surrender, on the 16^th of February.” Afterward, the company moved south with the rest the army to Nashville, arriving February 28.

On March 1st, Company C marched south with Grant’s army to Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. During the battle of Shiloh, they fought with Company I, 4^th U.S. Cavalry, under the command of James H. Powell, 18^th U.S. Infantry. These companies were engaged all day April 6, 1862, in front of their camp, as skirmishers on the right of the Union army.

The company participated in the pursuit of the Confederate army after Shiloh, then were transferred from escorting one general to another.

“Savannah, Tenn., April 20^th, 1862

Brig General Geo C. Cullum,

Chief of Staff & Engrs Dept of the Miss.

Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn.

General,

I understand that Genl Halleck has taken as his Body Guard Co’s C of the 2d & I of 4^th Regular Cavalry; up to the present time under my command. There are six of these men now with me as my orderlies, shall I send them to report to their companies?

I beg to request that one of these men, Private Sullivan of Co. C, 2d Cav, may be allowed a furlough of thirty-five (35) days to accompany me to New York.

If the request is granted, may the proper papers of furlough & description roll be sent to me?

Very respectfully & truly yours,

C.F. Smith

Maj. Genl.”

The company served as Gen. Halleck’s escort during the advance on Corinth, Mississippi, once again under Captain Farrand’s command.

Unfortunately, when Halleck was ordered east to assume the position of General in Chief, the company did not accompany him. In September, the company was assigned to the consolidated cavalry command under Colonel John K. Mizner. Mizner had also been a lieutenant in the regiment at the beginning of the war.

On September 25^th, the company marched to Pocahontas Farm, Tennessee, part of a cavalry probe ordered by General Ord to the Hatchie River. They had a brisk skirmish with Confederate cavalry there, losing five men and eighteen horses taken prisoner. Captain Farrand was also briefly taken prisoner, but escaped before reaching a Confederate prison. Leaving Corinth on November 5th, the company made its way to Memphis by January 15th, serving there as General Grant’s escort.

In November, First Sergeant Moylan submitted a request for an appointment as a second lieutenant in the regular cavalry. Although the regimental returns show no officers present with the company, his request is endorsed by Second Lieutenant Charles Lewis “Comdg Co. ‘C’, 2^nd Cavly.” The request was endorsed by Generals C.F. Smith, McArthur and McPherson.

The regiment, meanwhile, was very short-handed in the Army of the Potomac. It had deactivated three companies in the summer of 1862 in order to consolidate its limited manpower, sending the officers and noncommissioned officers north to recruit fresh companies. Additional companies authorized the previous fall were still at Carlisle Barracks and had not yet reported for duty.

With another spring campaign on the horizon, Major Charles J. Whiting, the regimental commander, appealed to the Adjutant General to have Company C returned to the regiment.

“Washington D.C., Feby 23d 1863

Gen. L. Thomas

I have the honor to request that Company “C” 2d U.S. Cavalry, now serving with the Dept. of the Cumberland may be ordered to join the reg. It is useless for me to give any reasons. It is evident that, with the force we have in the field that it is for the interest of the service to have the Reg together.

Very Respectfully

Your Obt Servant

Chas. J. Whiting

Major 2d Cav

Comdg Reg”

The endorsement for the letter on February 26^th is unsigned, but presumably from General Thomas: “Gen. Grant requested to order the Co. to the A. of Potomac if he can dispense with their services.”

There was apparently such a shortage of cavalry in the Army of the Cumberland that not a single company could be spared for escort duty for its commanding general. Nearly a month and a half later, on the eve of Stoneman’s Raid, Major Whiting tried again. This time he routed his request through the chain of command.

“Headquarters 2d U.S. Cavalry, Camp near Falmouth, Va., April 4^th 1863

Brig. General L. Thomas

Adjutant General, U.S.A.

General,

I have the honor to request that Company “C” of the 2d Regiment U.S. Cavalry be ordered to join the regiment if it be not inconsistent with the interests of the service. The monthly return of the company for February shows that it is stationed at Memphis, Tenn. It has no commissioned officer of the regiment on duty with it, and only forty five enlisted men and twenty three serviceable horses.

I am very respectfully

Your obt servant

Chas. J. Whiting

Major 2d U.S. Cav

Commg Regiment”

The endorsements on this letter read like a Who’s Who of the Army of the Potomac:

“Hd Qrs Cav Reserve, April 3d 1863

Respectfully referred to Corps Hd Qrs asking that steps be taken for the return of the company.

Jno Buford, BG Vols, Cmdg”

“Headquarters Cavalry Corps, April 9/ 1863

Approved & resptly forwarded.

George Stoneman, Maj Genl, Comg”

“Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, April 11/ 1863

Respectfully forwarded with the request that this company may be ordered to join the regiment.

Joseph Hooker, Maj Gen, Commg”

And finally:

“Respectfully submitted to the General in Chief. On February 26 General Grant was directed to send this company to its regiment in the Army of the Potomac as soon as its services could be dispensed with, as measures were being taken to have all detached companies to join their regiments. March 3^rd, an order was issued by authority of the General in Chief, ordering the different detached companies to join their regiments without delay. In the enumeration this company was not mentioned in view of the letter to General Grant above referred to.

As nothing has been heard from General Grant on the subject, and as it is of great importance the company should be with its regiment, it is respectfully recommended that it be at once relieved and ordered to join its regiment in the Army of the Potomac.

E.D. Townsend

Asst Adjt General”

General Halleck’s response was very succinct.

“Approved. The horses will not be transferred. April 15^th 1863.

H.W. Halleck

Genl in Chief”

Once the decision was made, things moved rapidly for the orphaned company. By the end of the month, they were already in Washington, D.C., though without mounts. The company was commanded during the movement by Second Lieutenant Myles Moylan, whose appointment to the 5^th U.S. Cavalry was approved the previous month. Only 25 men remained present for duty in the company, the majority of the losses from expiration of their terms of service. In May, still without horses, the company was moved to the regiment’s camp of the previous winter near Falmouth, where it spent the remainder of the month. In June, during the march from Beverly Ford to Aldie, the company rejoined the regiment. It had 22 enlisted men present for duty, with 24 serviceable horses.

General Grant’s preference for a regular cavalry escort did not fade with time. Shortly after his move to the east as General in Chief, four companies of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry were assigned as his escort, and served in this capacity through the end of the war.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cullum, George W. Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, Volume 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891.

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

Lambert, Joseph I. One Hundred Years With the Second Cavalry. San Antonio: Newton Publishing Company, 1999.

NARA, RG 94, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.

NARA, RG 94, Register of Enlistments.

NARA, RG 94, U.S. Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916

NARA, RG 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Regiments, 2nd U.S. Cavalry

NARA, RG 391.3.2 Records of 1st-6th Cavalry Regiments

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

More on Enlisted Appointments

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by dccaughey in 1862, officers, promotions

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Civil War, enlisted men, Lorenzo Thomas, officer appointments

As chronicled here and elsewhere, General Orders No. 33 from the Adjutant General’s Office on June 18, 1861 allowed for up to one third of new Regular Army officers to be appointed from deserving noncommissioned officers in existing regiments. This of course was an excellent opportunity for advancement, and a great number of these former enlisted men served with great distinction during the war.

What had not previously occurred to me was the logistics behind these promotions. Every officer promotion or new appointment in the Regular Army had to be approved by the Adjutant General’s Office and Congress, since it controlled the Army’s purse strings, then officially published by the Adjutant General’s Office. The inevitable delays of this system frequently resulted in officers learning of their appointments or promotions months after their effective dates.

What was the method for prioritizing requests for new officer appointments before they reached the A.G.O.? It apparently did not exist early in the war. Consider this response I recently found written by the Adjutant General himself on a cavalry sergeant major’s appointment recommendation in the spring of 1862.

“Respectfully referred to Maj. Gen. McClellan for the reports of intermediate commanders, through whom this letter should have passed. There are on file 150 recommendations, like this, for the promotion of noncom’d officers in the regular army. Of course, it is impossible to appoint all, or even one half, or one fourth of the number. And it is both an insidious and a difficult task for the Adjt. Gen’l. to make selection among them. They should be classified, first by their regimental commanders, & again by the commanders of the brigades, divisions and of the Army in which they are serving. It is only after a careful comparison of the merits of all, conscientiously made by those [who] are best acquainted with them, that justice can be done to all.

[signed] L. Thomas, Adjt. Gen’l.”

One would have thought this a blinding flash of the obvious, but it evidently took a very frustrated Adjutant General to bring it to pass.

Here is a brief snapshot of the process. The regimental adjutant writes the request for appointment of Sergeant Major X, which is approved and signed by the regimental commander in the field. A second piece of paper is wrapped around the first and signed by each level in the chain of command, all the way up to the Army’s Adjutant General Office. The requests are carried by horseback up to army level, then most likely by train to Washington, a process of weeks at the best of times. Up to this point in the war, such endorsements normally read, “Respectfully forwarded.” By regulation at the time, such a request had to be forwarded to the Adjutant General’s Office, whether the recommendation was approval or disapproval. Such noncommital endorsements placed the A.G.O. in a quandary, as described above. I have a mental image, probably wholly inaccurate, of a clerk standing before the Adjutant General’s overflowing desk, saying, “Sir, I have 19 lieutenant vacancies in the infantry regiments, and over 100 recommendations for appointment to fill them. How would you like me to proceed?”

This was much less of a problem later in the war, though it is unclear whether this was because of fewer vacancies or fewer qualified noncommissioned officers to fill them.

Fiddler’s Green: John Mix

03 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by dccaughey in 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Fiddler's Green, officers

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2nd U.S. Cavalry, 3rd NY Cavalry, Fort Laramie, Fort Sedgwick, John Mix

I was overdue for another post in the Fiddler’s Green series, and this one is proof of how much information can find if you pull the right string and keep following it. After initially being stymied on this man, I ended up with almost 50 pages of documents on him. He is one of the two men at the head of the column in the photo I sometimes use to head this blog, which will give some readers of the blog an idea of just how long this post has been brewing. Unsung but unforgotten, I give you cavalryman John Mix.

John Mix was born in Chautauqua County, New York on December 25, 1834. He was enlisted into Company F, 2^nd U.S. Dragoons by Captain James Oakes on April 11, 1852 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His enlistment documents describe him as 21 years old, 5’ 7” tall, with gray eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion. He was promoted to corporal and sergeant in the company during his first enlistment. He was re-enlisted into the same company by Lieutenant John Might at Fort Riley, Kansas on February 21, 1857. He grew three inches during his first enlistment, as he is listed as 5’10” in the enlistment description.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Mix, now first sergeant of Company F, was the first noncommissioned officer in the 2^nd Dragoons recommended for a commission. According to the letter sent to the Adjutant General requesting a commission for him, “He is a man of steady habits, fine intelligence, and has been a faithful noncommissioned officer, and in our opinion is in every way worthy of promotion among the appointments now being made. Especially in the mounted service.” The letter was signed by Major Lawrence P. Graham, Captain Samuel H. Starr, and Captain Charles E. Norris of the 2^nd Dragoons, Lieutenant Napoleon B. McLaughlin of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry (another former NCO from Company F), and Brigadier General Joseph K.F. Mansfield. Captain Starr added in his endorsement to the letter that First Sergeant Mix “is a thorough soldier, brave, energetic and intelligent. He will make an excellent officer.”

In the endorsement, Starr also elaborated on an incident during the regiment’s march east from Utah between First Sergeant Mix and his troop. “He was offered by his late troop commander, Lt. Geo. Jackson, now with the army of the Confederacy, a commission in that army if he would join the rebels; and a furlough was offered him for that purpose. He is too loyal a man to listen willingly to traitors; but Lt. Jackson commanded his troop, and respect for his officer restrained him.”

The request was approved, and Mix was appointed a second lieutenant in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, still in Company F, on August 14, 1861. In his letter of acceptance he reported his age as 27.

Lieutenant Mix was soon separated from his regiment. Volunteer units were forming across the country, and experienced cavalrymen were in short supply. On September 17^th, Lieutenant Mix was placed on a leave of absence in accordance with War Department Special Orders #254 to accept a volunteer commission as a major in the 3^rd New York Cavalry. The fact that the regiment’s lieutenant colonel was named Simon H. Mix likely had something to do with the volunteer commission.

A month later, Major Mix was commanding four companies of the 3^rd New York Cavalry at Edward’s ferry during the fighting at Ball’s Bluff. Tangentially involved in the fighting from a position on the far Union right flank, he was summoned before Congress’ Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in February 1862.

In April 1862, the regiment was assigned to XVIII Corps in North Carolina, and participated in the fighting near New Bern. Major Mix was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 3^rd New York Cavalry on April 26, 1862, and to first lieutenant in Company M, 2^nd U.S. Cavalry effective July 17, 1862. His replacement as the second lieutenant in Company F, was the former company first sergeant, Paul Quirk.

On September 23, 1862, he requested an end to his leave of absence from the regular army to return to the 2^nd Cavalry, stating “the object of my being sent to the volunteer service having I think been gained, no objection it appears to me can be raised to granting my request.” The letter continues to clarify that he was requesting a change of assignment back to his previous rank and regiment, not a release from military service. The only caveat to his request was that he was the only field grade officer present with the 3^rd New York Cavalry, and asked that assignment orders be delayed until the return of the absent regimental commander. On December 27, 1862, Mix resigned his volunteer commission and returned to the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry. While unusual, it was not unheard of for regular officers to resign their volunteer commissions and return to their units. The same Captain Starr who had endorsed Mix’s request for a commission had resigned his volunteer commission as a colonel in charge of a brigade of New Jersey infantry regiments just the month before to return to the same regiment.

Lieutenant Mix rejoined his regiment in Virginia at the beginning of 1863. Since his company, Company M, was still being recruited, he asked to join the officers forming the company at Carlisle Barracks. Before his request reached the War Department at the end of February, however, the company had joined the regiment in the field.

In early March, Lieutenant Mix requested assignment to the staff of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks for duty. The two had become acquainted when part of the 3^rd NY Cavalry was assigned to Banks’ division along the Potomac in late 1861. Among the reasons listed In his request, Mix referred to “a desire to serve under an old and beloved commander, under whom I have already won some honor, and a desire to benefit my health which has been shattered by eleven years active service & which now nearly incapacitates me for active service in a northern latitude especially during the cold and wet seasons.”

General Banks endorsed the request, but Mix was selected by Brigadier General John Buford to serve on the staff of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Reserve Brigade before it was considered at the War Department.

Lieutenant Mix’s health apparently recovered prior to the opening of the spring campaign, as he was among several members of the staff singled out and highly praised by General Buford in his official report. Following over two weeks of grueling riding, Buford described their performance as “severely worked, and have rendered valuable service to me,” and “untiring and zealous.” He was again commended by Buford in his report on the cavalry battle of Upperville in June as “most efficient in bringing up troops and delivering messages.” This resulted in his appointment as provost marshal for the Reserve Brigade during and following the Gettysburg campaign.

In September 1863, a detachment of regular cavalry was separated from the Reserve Brigade and assigned to Point Lookout, Maryland under the command of Lieutenant Mix to assist in securing an area where negro troops were being recruited and suppress smuggling. The detachment consisted of two companies of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Frank Dickerson and two companies (Cos. B and D) of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenants Mix and Lennox. He established his headquarters at Leonardtown, subordinate to Brigadier General Gilman Marston’s Military District of Saint Mary’s.” Other than a fifteen day leave of absence to attend to personal matters granted in November, Mix served there with his detachment until the following summer. Mix and his company rejoined the regiment in time for the Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1864.

Active campaigning during the war ended for Lieutenant Mix following an engagement at Berryville, Virginia on August 10, 1864, where he, Lieutenant Robert Lennox and an enlisted man were wounded. After several months of recovery, Mix was ordered before an officer retention board in December in Annapolis, Maryland. The board consisted of Brigadier General Lawrence P. Graham, formerly of the 2^ndU.S. Cavalry, a Major J. Hendrickson, and Surgeon G.S. Palmer, formerly of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry. In the board results, Surgeon Palmer describes Mix’s condition as “suffering from the effects of a gunshot wound of the right knee. The ball entered perpendicularly just below the patella, passed backwards without exit. Much exercise produces inflammation.” The prognosis was that Mix should be retained and might be fit for field duty after several months, but in the meantime should be assigned to light duty.

He was subsequently assigned to the Mounted Recruiting Service for the last few months of the war. The assignment is unsurprising given that Graham had formerly commanded the service, and Palmer was on temporary duty away from Carlisle barracks specifically for the retention board. Lieutenant Mix served on recruiting duty in Cleveland and then Philadelphia until September 1866. On October 19, 1865, he was promoted to captain and command of Company M, 2^nd U.S. Cavalry.

Upon his relief from recruiting duty, Captain Mix requested a leave of absence to return to New York “to settle some private business” before joining his regiment on the frontier. Once he reached Springfield, Otsego County, New York, he requested a further twenty days of leave. Springfield was also the home of Mary T. Barrett, who Mix married some time before 1870, most likely during this leave. Mrs. Mix did not accompany her husband to Colorado, as she was still living on her parents’ farm in Springfield during the 1870 census.

Captain Mix joined Company M at Fort Sedgwick, Colorado Territory in October 1866 and served there for the next three years. His tenure there included “numerous successful field operations along the line of the Republican River,” according to Rodenbough’s history of the regiment.

In November 1869, Company M was reassigned to Omaha Barracks, Nebraska, where it served until early 1874. The pattern was six months in garrison each year, followed by roughly six months of field operations. In 1870 and 1871, these were to protect the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1872, the company scouted the Nebraska frontier.

In 1873, Captain Mix was selected to serve on a board of inspection of the Army’s cavalry horses, which lasted from May to September. He returned to Omaha Barracks for the rest of the year.

In February 1874, Captain Mix and Company M was reassigned to Fort Laramie. They served here until September 1877, when the majority of the regiment was transferred to newly constructed Forts Keough and Custer in Montana Territory. Fort Custer, on the Big Horn River at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, was garrisoned by the regimental headquarters and four companies, including Company M. Mrs. Mix joined her husband at this post, as the 1880 federal census shows her present at Fort Custer.

On January 25, 1881, John Mix was promoted to major and assigned to the 9^th U.S. Cavalry. He had served for 29 years in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, ten years in Company F and 19 in Company M. He joined his new regiment in New Mexico several weeks later. In declining health, he was granted a leave of absence to return to his home in New York in the fall, but never reached his destination.

Major John Mix died in Santa Fe on October 26, 1881, while en route from Porter, New Mexico to New York. Assistant Surgeon St. Clair Streett listed his cause of death as “malignant disease of the walls of the chest and axillary glands attended with complete paralysis of both lower extremities.” He is buried next to his wife in Section 21, Cedar Grove Cemetery, New London, Connecticut.

References:

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register of the United States Army, volume 1. Washington, D.C.: The National Tribune, 1890.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, volume 1. New York: George W. Carleton, 1869.

Lambert, Joseph I. One Hundred Years with the Second Cavalry. San Antonio, Newton Publishing Company, 1999.

National Archives, Record Group 94, M617, Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916 (accessed online, 2013)

National Archives, Record Group 94, M619, Letters Received by the Adjutant General

National Archives, Record Group 94, M1064, Letters Received by the Commission Branch of the Adjutant General’s Office

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

U.S. Federal Census, 1860, 1870 and 1880.

Carlisle Barracks and the Mounted Recruiting Service, part 4

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by dccaughey in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1st U.S. Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, 3rd U.S. Cavalry, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 5th U.S. Cavalry, 6th U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, officers, recruiting

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1st U.S. Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, 3rd U.S. Cavalry, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 5th U.S. Cavalry, 6th U.S. Cavalry, Carlisle Barracks, cavalry, Civil War, recruiting

In all, the Mounted Recruiting Service operated recruiting stations in nineteen cities during the war. Although it was not required, in most cases the officers recruited soldiers for their parent regiments. This meant that at various points during the war, some cities provided soldiers to multiple regular cavalry regiments.

Boston, Massachusetts. This was the first war-time station established. Lieutenant Napoleon B. McLaughlin of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry opened the station on July 5, 1861. He was promoted to captain before he was ordered to report to his regiment over a year later on October 1, 1862. He was relieved by Captain Abraham K. Arnold of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry, who was ordered to close the station at the end of the following month. The station did not reopen until June 10, 1863, when Lieutenant Copley Amory of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry assumed command. He operated the station until he resigned in December, and it was not reopened again during the war.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Lieutenant Edward M. McCook of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry opened this station on July 24, 1861. In September, he was placed on leave to take service in the state forces of Indiana. He earned five brevet promotions for gallantry in action as a volunteer officer during the war, the last to major general of volunteers. The station was vacant for two months until McCook was relieved by Lieutenant Robert S. Smith of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry on November 6, 1861. A native of Ohio, Smith as previously mentioned spent over three years in Cincinnati before he was relieved by Captain David S. Gordon, also of his regiment, on September 5, 1864. Gordon was transferred back to his regiment in December, and replaced by Lieutenant Robert S. Sweatman of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry. Lieutenant Sweatman served only two months before being transferred back to his regiment in February 1865, and Captain Isaac R. Dunkelberger, of the same regiment, finished the war in charge of the station, making it one of the few stations continuously manned throughout the war.

New York, New York. Lieutenant William W. Webb of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry opened the recruiting station in New York City on October 3, 1861. He wasn’t relieved to join his regiment until February 7, 1863. His replacement was Captain Arnold of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry, only three months after finishing his recruiting duties in Boston. Arnold finally returned to his regiment in September, and was replaced by Lieutenant John B. Johnson of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry. Lieutenant Johnson was transferred back to Carlisle Barracks on August 22, 1864, and Lieutenant Stanwood of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry commanded the station for a mere two weeks. Former prisoner of war Lieutenant Tattnall Paulding of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry relieved him on September 4, 1864, and stayed there for the remainder of the war.

Wheeling, Virginia. Captain Milton T. Carr of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry opened this station on August 22, 1862. Lieutenant Judson Haycock was sent to assist him on September 8^th, and relieved him on December 7, 1862 so he could return to his company. Lieutenant Haycock closed the station on March 4, 1863. Lieutenant William Webb of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry briefly served in the town as a mustering officer for volunteer regiments from June 6 to September 23, 1863, but the recruiting station did not reopen during the war.

Buffalo, New York. Lieutenant Charles McKnight Leoser of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry opened this station on July 13, 1862 to assist in recruiting troopers for Companies A, B and D of his regiment. He closed the station when ordered back to his regiment on April 8, 1863, and it did not reopen.

Norristown, Pennsylvania. A native Pennsylvanian and former first sergeant of John Buford’s Company B, Lieutenant Thomas Bull Dewees of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry was the sole operator of this recruiting station from July 13 to November 17, 1862.

Cleveland, Ohio. Lieutenant William Blanchard of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry opened a recruiting station in Cleveland on August 7, 1862. He was relieved by Captain Robert E. Clary of the same regiment on October 4^th, who closed the station when transferred back to his regiment on December 7, 1862. Captain Thomas Drummond of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry reopened the recruiting station on October 15, 1863 and conducted recruiting there until transferred back to his regiment on December 21, 1864. Interestingly, Drummond left command of his regiment in the field for recruiting duty, and resumed command when he returned. Lieutenant John Mix of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, another former prisoner of war, commanded the station from January 4, 1865 through the end of the war.

Indianapolis, Indiana. Lieutenant Edward T. Benton of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry opened a station in Indianapolis on August 22, 1862. Captain Charles W. Canfield of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry took charge of the station on January 15, 1863, and Lieutenant Benton was transferred back to his regiment on February 6^th. Captain Canfield was in turn ordered to close the station and return to his regiment to take command of his company just three weeks later, on February 26, 1863.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lieutenant Theophilus F. Rodenbough of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry opened this station on September 4, 1862. It was probably established in the same National Hotel that the 6^th U.S. Cavalry used during recruiting the previous year. Rodenbough closed the station when transferred back to his regiment on December 7, 1862. Captain Clarence Mauck of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry opened a new station in December 1864. He was relieved on March 1, 1865 by Lieutenant John B. Johnson of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry, but returned to the station before the end of the month.

Baltimore, Maryland. This station was also opened on September 4, 1862, by Lieutenant Anson O. Doolittle of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry. He was ordered back to Carlisle Barracks on November 29, 1862, and recruiting was not resumed here until Captain John B. McIntyre opened another station on April 6, 1865.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This station opened and closed three different times during the war, odd for one of the largest cities in the nation. Lieutenant Charles H. Gibson of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, a native Pennsylvanian, was ordered to open a station here in October, 1862. It may well have been the same location at the Girard House on Chestnut Street used by the 6^th U.S. Cavalry until that February. He was transferred back to his regiment on September 13, 1863. Lieutenant John H. Nichols of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry operated a station here for two weeks in April 1864 before returning to his regiment for the spring campaign. He was killed in action just two months later at the battle of Trevillian Station. Captain T.F. Rodenbough of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry opened the station for the final time during the war on November 18, 1864, less than two months after losing his arm at the battle of the Opequon, or Third Winchester. He turned the station over to Captain William Hawley of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry when ordered to rejoin his regiment on April 25, 1865.

Chicago, Illinois. The records concerning this station are curious. Captain John Feilner of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry was ordered to open a station in Chicago on October 4, 1862. However, Feilner was dropped from Carlisle’s post return at the end of the month, which would normally mean he had completed his duties and been sent back to his regiment. I also have not yet come across a single soldier recruited by Captain Feilner in Chicago, which leads me to believe the order was countermanded before the station could be opened.

Detroit, Michigan. Lieutenant and former first sergeant Thomas McGregor of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry was the sole operator of this recruiting station from October 16, 1862 to January 20, 1863. This was his first assignment after receiving his commission. He later received a brevet promotion for gallantry at the battle of Todd’s Tavern.

Elmira, New York. Captain William McLean of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry was the sole operator of this recruiting station from November 1, 1862 to February 19, 1863. Severely wounded and captured during the Peninsula campaign, he opened the station once paroled and left it to take command of his newly organized Company M. Unfortunately, he died of fever just two months later, on April 23, 1863, in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Captain Samuel H. Starr of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry recruited many men for his regiment here in October 1862 after resigning his volunteer commission, many of them prior volunteers from his New Jersey brigade. Interestingly, I found no record of him being assigned to the Mounted Recruiting Service, though he definitely served this duty. Lieutenant Elisha W. Tarlton of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry operated the only official recruiting station in the city from November 1, 1862 to March 1, 1863, when he was transferred to his regiment. A native of Kentucky, he later earned a brevet promotion for gallantry in action at Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Captain Marcus A. Reno of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry was ordered to open a recruiting station in Harrisburg while recovering from injuries sustained at the battle of Kelly’s Ford on March 17, 1863. Other than a brief absence serving with Pennsylvania troops during the Gettysburg campaign, he operated the station until September 23, 1863, when he was relieved by Lieutenant John McDonald of his regiment. Lieutenants Reuben Bernard and William Pennock, also of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry, were assigned here as mustering officer in July and August of 1862, and probably operated from the same office. Lieutenant McDonald, another former first sergeant, was transferred back to his regiment on November 26, 1864, and the station remained closed until opened by Lieutenant (and yet another former first sergeant) Dean Monahan of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry on March 12, 1865.

Madison, Wisconsin. Lieutenant Anson O. Doolittle of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry, assigned again to recruiting duty, was the sole operator of this station from January 8 to May 1, 1864, when he was ordered to report to the adjutant general. The assignment is understandable, as Doolittle was appointed to the Army from Wisconsin, and briefly served as a lieutenant in the 2^nd Wisconsin Infantry prior to receiving his regular army commission.

Rochester, New York. Lieutenant Thomas Simson of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry opened this station on May 12, 1864. Badly injured at Franklin, Tennessee, he had finally reported to his regiment the preceding month, but was not yet fit for field duty. Lieutenant Frank Stanwood of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry relieved him on December 21^st, when he was transferred back to his regiment. Lieutenant and former sergeant major Tullius C. Tupper of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry relieved Stanwood in turn on February 7, 1865.

St. Louis, Missouri. Captain John A. Thompson of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry was the sole operator of this station from August 13 to November 1, 1864, when he closed it and returned to his regiment. He had received a brevet promotion for gallant and meritorious service at Hoover’s Gap, Tennessee the previous year.

References:

Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register of the United States Army, volume 1. Washington, D.C.: The National Tribune, 1890.

Henry, Guy V. Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army, volume 1. New York: George W. Carleton, 1869.

NARA, M617, Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916 (accessed online, 2013)

Price, George F. Across the Continent with the Fifth U.S. Cavalry. New York: Antiquarian Press Limited, 1959.

Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Tousey, Lt. Col. Thomas G. Military History of Carlisle and Carlisle Barracks. Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1939.

Regular Cavalry in the Civil War

Category Archives: officers

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Carlisle Barracks and the Mounted Recruiting Service, part 4