There was a good deal of discussion on Rantings of a Civil War Historian last week about cavalry in the Western Theater. While the majority of the Regular regiments served in the Eastern Theater, there was a good bit of Regular action in the west as well, particularly involving the 3rd and 4th US Cavalry. Elements of several regiments were involved in early battles such as Wilson’s Creek and Valverde, as companies tried to return to their consolidating regiments.

The 3rd Cavalry served in New Mexico the first two years of the war, then spent 1863 fighting in Tennessee and Alabama. They fought in Arkansas in 1864, then the Chattanooga campaign.

Split between theaters in the early stages of the war, the 4th Cavalry eventually consolidated in the Western Theater and fought the remainder of the war there. Major battles that they participated in (not in order) include: Wilson’s Creek, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

So the Western Theater will definitely be addressed here, I’m just not sure when.

In retrospect, I should have labeled one of last week’s posts “Coming Soon.” There have been delays in several posts in the making, all of which readers should see here in the near future. The initial Fiddler’s Green entry on August V. Kautz is nearly finished, for example. There was more information there than I’d expected, including an attempted ascent of Mount Rainier before the war. The comparison of resignations in the two dragoon regiments and the two cavalry regiments is still in the works, as is the road to war entry for the 1st Dragoons/1st Cavalry. All of these are still in the works, they’re just not finished yet.

An article that I read on Dimitri Rotov’s blog while looking for information on Stephen Sears’ To The Gates of Richmond led me to The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. This work is actually available in its entirety online. I must caution the casual explorer, however. Each volume consists of two parts, and all three that I looked at yesterday were greater than 100MB in size. There is some very interesting information in there, though.

Another question that has been puzzling me recently — where do all of the digital Civil War pictures come from? I know of the online collection at the Library of Congress, but that doesn’t seem to account for all of those that I see online.

Is there a copyright issue similar to printed works? Some that I see are attributed, generally to the Library of Congress. Many, however, aren’t. The numerous Wikipedia articles, particularly the biographies, come to mind. Is it as simple as a right-click, copy and paste? This doesn’t seem right. Or are some folks simply not doing the right thing?

No, this isn’t the launch of another series of posts listing officers. The purpose of this post is to illustrate attrition among the officers of the 2nd (later 5th) US Cavalry during 1861. I’ve found the numbers thus far intriguing. Complaints about Secretary of War Davis filling the two cavalry regiments with southerners appear to be justified. I’m still working on the two dragoon regiments, but resignation numbers appear to be significantly higher within the cavalry regiments.

The 2nd Cavalry was hit particularly hard by resignations, and arguably had the highest concentration of military talent of any army regiment at the outbreak of the war. A list of those assigned on January 1, 1861 follows at the end of the post. Of the 34 officers assigned to the regiment, eighteen resigned and one died during the regiment’s exodus from Texas. Another, 1stLt Kenner Garrard, was captured and subsequently prevented from serving with the regiment due to the terms of his parole until 1862. He was then appointed LtCol of the 146th NY Infantry, and merely occupied a captain’s billet on the rolls.

Twelve of the eighteen officers who resigned from the regiment later became generals in the Confederate Army. Among their number were Albert S. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, John B. Hood, Earl Van Dorn, Fitzhugh Lee and Edmund K. Smith. Another commanded a brigade, but was only promoted to Colonel.

Of the fifteen who remained with the regiment, four were generals of volunteers by the end of the year: George H. Thomas, George Stoneman, Innis N. Palmer and Richard W. Johnson. Another, Albert G. Brackett, served as Colonel of the 9th Illinois Cavalry and was away from the regiment. By year’s end, only six of these fifteen officers were still present for duty with the regiment.

Eben Swift’s entry on the regiment in Rodenbough’s 1896 The Army of the United States told the tale of officers in the Regular cavalry regiments quite well.

“A regular regiment, during the war, was under many disadvantages. Its field officers, and many others, were commanding volunteers and serving on important duty elsewhere. The Fifth Cavalry, with the exception of a few months, was commanded by captains and lieutenants. The command of the regiment changed thirty-four times, and, curiously enough, it frequently served under men who had been in its ranks not very long before. It was often difficult to get one officer to a squadron.”

Officers assigned to the 2nd US Cavalry on January 1, 1861 (* indicates resignation later in the year):

Col (Brevet Brig Gen) Albert S. Johnston*
LtCol Robert E. Lee*
Major Earl Van Dorn*
Major George H. Thomas
Company A
Captain (unknown)
1stLt George B. Cosby*
2ndLt A. Parker Porter
Company B
Captain Edmund K. Smith*
1stLt Walter H. Jenifer*
2ndLt Fitzhugh Lee*
Company C
Captain Innis N. Palmer
1stLt William B. Royall
2ndLt Wade H. Gibbes*
Company D
Captain James Oakes
1stLt William P. Chambliss
2ndLt George A. Cunningham*
Company E
Captain George Stoneman
1stLt James B. Wetherell
2ndLt Joseph F. Minter*
Company F
Captain Richard W. Johnson
1stLt John T. Schaaf*
2ndLt Charles W. Phifer*
Company G
Captain William R. Bradfute*
1stLt Kenner Garrard
2ndLt Manning M. Kimmel*
Company H
Captain Nathan G. Evans*
1stLt Robert N. Eagle
2ndLt James E. Harrison
Company I
Captain Albert V. Brackett
1stLt Charles W. Field*
2ndLt Wesley Owens
Company K
Captain Charles J. Whiting
1stLt John B. Hood*
2ndLt James A. Major*

Fiddler’s Green is a poem that discusses where cavalrymen go when they die. Not heaven, perhaps something like Valhalla or Elysium. It seems to me an appropriate title for biographies of dead cavalry leaders. This led to another thread, however. Where did it come from?

As mentioned previously, I first came across it during an assignment to a cavalry regiment in Louisiana. It was one of many items of cavalry lore, tradition and warfighting that troopers aspiring to earn their spurs had to memorize and demonstrate during a grueling 24-48 hour “spur ride.”

A few months later I was in an Irish pub (The Irish Rover in Louisville, to be precise) and heard a song called Fiddler’s Green about fishermen dying and going to heaven. Well, so much for originality, but I still like the poem. So where did it come from?

Fiddler’s Green is indeed heaven for fishermen, an opposite of Davy Jones’ locker, which probably came across with English or Irish immigrants to the US sometime in the early 1800s. At some point, the term was stolen and turned into this poem about the cavalry. Given how many immigrants served in the Army during this period, it’s not too surprising. ‘Garryowen’ of Custer’s 7th cavalry is still associated with that regiment and the US Cavalry as a whole. No one seems to know exactly when or how, although I have seen references attributing it to the 6th and 7th Cavalry in the late 1800s.

Its first appearance in print was in 1923, in The Cavalry Journal. An article in the November/December 1965 issue of Armor Magazine by Paul M. Crosby explores “The Legend of Fiddler’s Green”, but I haven’t as yet discovered a copy. Another explanation followed in the January/February 1968 issue of the same magazine by Leendert Verhoeff. Whatever its origins, here’s the poem:

FIDDLER’S GREEN

Halfway down the road to hell,
In a shady meadow green,
Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddler’s Green.

Marching past, straight through to hell,
The infantry are seen,
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marine,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddler’s Green.

Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene,
No trooper ever gets to hell
Ere he’s emptied his canteen,
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddler’s Green.

And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge or fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddler’s Green.

Sorry, folks, this entry doesn’t focus on who was where when doing what. While important for setting stages and understanding why things happened the way they did, the simple fact of the matter is that trying to cover too much too quickly results in shallow work. When I read my own entry and then ask myself, “Yes, but so what?”, there’s an issue. So, while feverish material gathering continues, I’ll be taking a little more time for analysis.

Part of the problem is that there’s so much material that turns up once one starts looking. I don’t seem to have a thread or two to trace, I have that ball of yarn that the cat’s been playing with. Sometimes, though, it seems like a thread is looking for you instead of you for it. We’ll take as an example one August V. Kautz, once of the 6th US Cavalry during the Civil War.

I first came across Kautz on US Regulars Archive, where I saw his Customs of Service for Officers of the Army and Customs of Service for NonCommissioned Officers and Enlisted Men. Interesting, but not what I was looking for at the time, so I moved on.

Last week when driving home from a business meeting, I saw the sign for the Five Forks battlefield visitor center and turned in. On the bookshelf was a book on Sheridan (I think) and Kautz’ cavalry raid of 1865. Hm, Kautz again, I thought. But I was in a hurry to get home. I didn’t linger long and I didn’t buy the book.

Last weekend as I was thumbing through the War Department’s General Orders from 1861 and 1862, he found me again. This time it was in the list of appointments for the original officers of the 6th US Cavalry. There, in General Orders No. 65, August 23, 1861, is the appointment to captain of First Lieutenant August V. Kautz from the 4th US Infantry. Hmm, there he is again. Odd, I wonder who he was. But I was trying to finish the 1st/4th Cavalry and start the 1st Dragoons, so I moved on.

Yesterday, I’m in the university library on my lunch hour looking through the Supplement to the Official Records. It’s an unwieldy, cumbersome resource, but there are occasional gems in there. As I’m paging through additions to the records from early 1862 on the battle of Valverde, I discovered a diary extract. Not just one, but several, that cover most of 1862 at a minimum. Whose? Why my stalker friend August Kautz, of course. So at this point I decided that I have two choices: either research the guy or get a restraining order against him. Since Option B isn’t viable, you’ll be reading about him here in the near future.

I’ve come across several officers so far that I’d like to look into more. Many interesting fellows served during the war in the Regulars, and several of them deserve attention. I wanted to think of a tag line for the biographies before I started them, however. JD Petruzzi has a Faded Hoofbeats section at Hoofbeats and Cold Steel, which I think is a great label. Then I remembered Fiddler’s Green, a poem troopers had to memorize during their spur rides in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. I’ll post about it more later, but suffice for now to say that it is a place where dead cavalry troopers go. Perfect. So now there’s a concept, we just need more entries. Back to work.

This next series of entries will examine the paths taken by each of the different regiments from January 1st, 1861 to their first battles. Consolidation of the regiments themselves will likely be discussed at a later date, as I know of at least one of the initial five that didn’t have all of its companies together until the battle of Middleburg in June, 1863.

As states seceded and the likelihood of war increased, the nation’s cavalry and infantry regiments were thinly spread on small posts throughout the west. The only regular army units east of the Mississippi at the beginning of 1861 belonged to the artillery. As one looks at the distribution of the various regiments below, it is important to note that regimental commanders did not necessarily command their entire regiment. The authority of the department commander superseded that of the regimental commander. The two companies of the 2nd Dragoons in New Mexico, for example, belonged to the Department of New Mexico commander, not to Colonel Cooke. Colonel Cooke at the time commanded both the 2nd Dragoons and the Department of Utah. Both dragoon regiments were spread across three departments, and the others were each contained within one.

The 1st Dragoons were stationed primarily in the far west, with regimental headquarters and four companies in the Department of Oregon. Companies C, E and I were at Fort Walla Walla, Washington, and Company H was relatively nearby at Fort Dalles, Oregon. Four more companies (A, B, F and K) served in the Department of California. Companies B and K were at Fort Tejon, California and Company F served at Fort Crook, California. Company A was located at Fort Churchill, Utah (which is within 100 miles of Reno, Nevada). The Department of New Mexico commanded Companies D and G, who were both stationed at Fort Breckinridge, New Mexico (I’m still looking for this one).

The Department of Utah was headquartered at Camp Floyd, Utah. Colonel Cooke changed the name to Camp Crittenden on February 6, 1861. Three companies of the 2nd Dragoons (B, E and H) were stationed there with him. Companies G and I served in the Department of New Mexico at Taos. The remaining four companies served in the Department of the West, which comprised roughly the ground between Independence, Missouri and the Rockies. Companies C and K were stationed at Fort Scott, Kansas (later Nebraska). Companies D and F served at Fort Laramie, Nebraska (later Wyoming), with Company A at Fort Kearny, Nebraska.

The entire Regiment of Mounted Rifles served in the Department of New Mexico. Four companies were at Fort Union (D, E, H and K), with two each at Fort Craig (A and F) and Albuquerque (G and I). Company B served at Fort Stanton, and Company C at Hatch’s Ranch.

The 1st Cavalry occupied only four posts in Kansas, Arkansas, and the Indian Territories (modern day Oklahoma). Four companies (F, G, H and K) and the regimental headquarters were at Fort Wise, Kansas. Companies D and E served at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The other four companies were stationed in the Indian Territories, with a squadron of cavalry each at Fort Arbuckle (A and B) and Fort Washita (C and I).

Last in seniority was the 2nd Cavalry, which served entirely within the Department of Texas. A squadron each served at Fort Mason (A and F) and Camp Cooper (D and H), with the rest on company-sized posts. Company B was stationed at Camp Colorado, Company C at Fort Inge, and Company K at Camp Wood. Company E occupied Camp Hudson, Company I Camp Ives, and Company G served at “Camp on the Rio Grande.” This regiment was the first to move east in its entirety, as they were forced to depart rather summarily when Texas seceded.

I’m a little leery of posts forecasting upcoming events, but will try one and see how it turns out. This week I’ll be exploring the roads to war taken by the various regiments from January 1861 to their first battles. I initially didn’t think there would be too much info on the Regulars in 1861 since there were so few battles, but once one starts pulling on a thread….

I’ll continue to look at officer turnover in the other regiments, but each won’t receive the in detail treatment that the 1st/4th did. Preliminary looks show that the dragoon and mounted rifles regiments fared better with resignations than the two cavalry regiments, but this was to be expected given the accusations of preference for southerners in the 1st and 2nd Cavalry.

I’ve also discovered that the first time the Regular cavalry fought together was not on the Peninsula in the McClellan’s Cavalry Reserve, but at Bull Run in a Regular cavalry battalion under Major Innis Palmer. I don’t think there’s a great deal of information there, but we’ll explore what there is. And at the end of the week the first batch of info from the researcher at Carlisle should appear.

June was a quiet month for the regiment. 2ndLt Charles C. Campbell, one of the West Point graduates from the first class of the year, was dismissed from the service for “resigning his commission in the face of the enemy.” This was apparently different from other resignations, as it was listed under dismissals instead of resignations in War Department General Orders No. 62. Joseph C. Audenreid, a cadet from the second class of 1861, replaced him on June 24th. Audenreid subsequently vacated the commission for an appointment as a 1stLt in the forming 6th US Cavalry.

Captain John A. Thompson transferred from Company K to command of Company F on July 1st, in place of Captain Eli Long. Long, though still nominally assigned to the regiment, had been appointed Colonel of the 4th Ohio Cavalry earlier in the year. Captain Frank Wheaton of Company A was appointed LtCol of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry on July 10th. Companies A and E participated in the crossing of the Potomac and first battle of Bull Run later in the month. On July 31st, Captain Henry B. Davidson of Company H was dropped from the army’s rolls for absence. He started leave on July 1st and never returned.

August was another turbulent month for officers of the regiment. On August 3rd, the regiment became the 4th US cavalry by an act of Congress consolidating all six mounted regiments under one arm. Two days later, three more civilians were appointed second lieutenants in the regiment. Copley Amory of Massachusetts and Anson O. Doolittle of Wisconsin joined Company B. Joseph Hedges of Ohio filled the vacant second lieutenant position in Company A. Two second lieutenants were assigned to Company B because the 1stLt, George G. Huntt, was assigned as the regimental adjutant the same month. Captain William N.R. Beall of Company A resigned on August 20th. George Bayard assumed this position the same day, his first lieutenancy in Company D filled by Tillinghast L’Hommediu of Company E.

Three of the regiment’s officers were appointed brigadier generals of volunteers in August as well. Major Samuel D. Sturgis was first on the 10th, followed three days later by Major George Stoneman through presidential appointment. Colonel John Sedgwick followed on August 31st. All three continued to be carried on the regiment’s rolls. Two of the regiment’s companies fought in the battle of Wilson’s Creek in August as well.

George Bayard departed in September to accept the colonelcy of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. Eugene B. Beaumont was promoted to 1stLt of Company B on September 14. Two enlisted men were commissioned second lieutenants in October. First Sergeant William O’Connell of Company B was assigned to Company E, and First Sergeant Henry Gordon of Company C was assigned to Company H. LtCol Wood and Captain David S. Stanley of Company C were appointed brigadier generals of volunteers on October 11 and September 28 respectively

The regiment didn’t feel Wood’s loss too keenly, as he was promoted to Colonel of the 2nd US Cavalry on November 12th. He was replaced by LtCol James Oakes of the 5th US Cavalry. Oakes had also been appointed as a brigadier general of volunteers on May 17th, but turned down the appointment due to the lingering effects of injuries received fighting Indians prior to the war.

At the end of the year, only five of the thirty four officers assigned to the 4th USCavalry are still with the regiment. Three of them were first lieutenants and the other two were second lieutenants at the beginning of the year. The colonel nominally in command of the regiment and both majors were serving with volunteer units. Five of the ten company commanders, technically present with the unit, were also with volunteer units. Lieutenants lead six of the ten companies. Although 34 officers are assigned to the regiment, only 25 are present. Officer assignments as of December 31, 1861 are listed below:

Colonel John Sedgwick (BG, Volunteers)
Lt Col James Oakes
Maj Samuel D. Sturgis (BG, Volunteers)
Maj George Stoneman (BG, Volunteers)
Adjutant (1Lt) George G. Huntt

Company A
Capt George D. Bayard (Col, 1st PA Cav)
1st Lt Thomas H. McCormick
2nd Lt Joseph Hedges
Company B
Capt Frank Wheaton (LtCol, 2nd RI Inf)
1st Lt Eugene B. Beaumont
2nd Lt Anson O. Doolittle
2nd Lt Amory Copley
Company C
Capt David S. Stanley (BG, Volunteers)
1st Lt Charles S. Bowman
2nd Lt Michael J. Kelly
Company D
Capt Eugene W. Crittenden
1st Lt Tillinghast L’Hommediu
2nd Lt Edward D. Baker
Company E
Capt James B. McIntyre
1st Lt Samuel W. Stockton
2nd Lt William O’Connell
Company F
Capt John A. Thompson
1st Lt Thomas B. Alexander
2nd Lt VACANT
Company G
Capt Elmer Otis
1st Lt Walter Wilson
2nd Lt Edward M. McCook
Company H
Capt VACANT
1st Lt John A. Wilcox
2nd Lt Henry Gordon
Company I
Capt Eugene A. Carr (Col, 3rd IL Cav)
1st Lt Napoleon B. McLoughlin
2nd Lt Malbone F. Watson
Company K
Capt Eli Long (Col, 4th OH Cav)
1st Lt Clarence Mouck
2nd Lt William W. Webb

I found some interesting information on manning within the Regulars at the beginning of the war in the OR the other night. On page 22 of Series III, Volume 1 is an abstract of returns by arm of service from December 31, 1860. While Robert M. Utley (Frontiersmen in Blue) briefly discussed absenteeism in Regular units on the frontier before the war, to see actual statistics really brought the point home.

The returns for the cavalry included all five mounted regiments and those working at the general recruiting depots. The returns list 82 officers and 3,123 enlisted men present, for an aggregate of 3,205. Even setting aside anyone who might have been stationed at one of the depots or schools, the regiments are badly shorthanded. Quick division renders the numbers to 16 officers and 624 enlisted men per regiment, and one officer and 62 enlisted men per company. The same returns list 100 officers and 482 enlisted men as absent, for an aggregate of 582. This breaks down to 20 officers and 96 enlisted men per regiment, and two officers and nine enlisted men per company. Again, these numbers assume no one from the cavalry at the depots, and so must be considered optimistic.

These averages, while general and somewhat arbitrary, seem to bear out. Company E, 2nd US Cavalry is listed in returns by General McDowell on July 16, 1861 with 4 officers and 56 men present for duty (OR, Ser I, Vol 2, pg 309). Even at the first battle of Bull Run one of the seven companies of Regular cavalry was commanded by a lieutenant. Just before the battle of Wilson’s Creek the four companies of the 1st US Cavalry under Major Sturgis are listed at a combined strength of 250 (OR, Ser I, Vol 3, pg 48).

The true extent of the shortages will be revealed by the muster rolls, but these numbers in the meantime are themselves revealing. And this is before the resignations and battles started.