Carlisle Barracks and the Mounted Recruiting Service, part 3

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by dccaughey in 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, cavalry depots, officers, recruiting, resignations

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Carlisle Barracks, cavalry, Civil War, david H. Hastings, recruiting, William B. Royall

As 1864 opened, the only four operating recruiting stations were Cincinnati, Cleveland, Harrisburg and New York. Lieutenant Anson Doolittle of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry added a fifth in Madison, Wisconsin on January 8^th.

In April, the growing controversy surrounding repairs to the post reached a head. There were a number of issues concerning the contracts and materials needed to repair the post after July’s attack, and then-Captain Hastings wrote on several occasions for guidance and clarification from the Quartermaster General concerning the repairs. Naturally enough, those who did not receive contracts or orders for material were disgruntled. As post commander, Hastings was of course at the center of the storm. Unfortunately for him, he had unwisely pursued repairs without the specific approval of the Quartermaster General, and found himself in a great deal of trouble as a result.

Hastings, who had been promoted to major in the 5^th U.S. Cavalry in September, was relieved of command on April 21, 1864. Charges were subsequently preferred, which led to a conviction by a General Court Martial. The sentence was initially very severe, but was later commuted to six months suspension of pay and benefits, causing a Congressional investigation. In December, Major Hastings was permitted to retire “for incapacity resulting from injuries received, or from exposure in the line of duty, in conformity with an Act of Congress, of August, 1861.” Lieutenant Hancock T. McLean of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry, assigned to the post the month before, briefly assumed command of the post. Thomas Tousey, in his book Military History of Carlisle Barracks and Carlisle, provides a thorough discussion of the issues surrounding Hastings’ dismissal.

On May 19, 1864, Major William B. Royall of the 5^th U.S. Cavalry assumed command of the post. Like the two officers who had preceded him, Royall was another very experienced cavalryman. He initially entered service as a volunteer officer at the beginning of the Mexican War, and had been assigned to the 5^th (then 2^nd) U.S. Cavalry when it was formed in 1855. He was severely wounded during fighting at Old Church, Virginia on June 13, 1862. He received six saber wounds in hand to hand combat, including “two sabre-contusions on the right side of the head; a cut two inches long on the forehead; a long cut on the left cheek which bled profusely; a cut on the right wrist, dividing a tendon; and an incised fracture, four inches long, of the left parietal bone.” He received a well-deserved brevet promotion for his conduct in the battle, but recovering from his many wounds took many months. He came to Carlisle after serving two months at the Cavalry Bureau in Washington.

As spring turned to summer, activity increased around the depot. The Madison recruiting station closed, and a new one opened in Rochester, New York. Since the regiments were involved in active campaigning, officers from Carlisle were ordered to conduct parties of recruits to their new regiments. If annotated on maps or in reports, these detachments were labeled with the regiment of the officer leading them. A detachment of recruits bound for the 1^st U.S. Cavalry led by an officer of the 3^rd, for example, would be noted as a detachment of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry.

Lieutenant Hancock McLean of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry conducted a detachment of recruits to the 5^th Cavalry in late May. Lieutenant Frank Stanwood of the 3^rd Cavalry led a detachment of recruits to the 5^th & 6^th U.S. Cavalry in late June. During Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early’s advance on Washington the following month, Lt. Stanwood was ordered by the commander of the Department of the Susquehanna to scout south toward the Potomac. This seemingly errant band of regulars of the “3^rd U.S. Cavalry,” which never served in the eastern theater during the war, has caused confusion among researchers, including this author.

The remainder of the summer and fall passed unremarkably. Captain Thompson of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry opened a recruiting station in St Louis in August. Lieutenant Stanwood conducted another party of 155 recruits to the 5^th U.S. Cavalry in October. An additional 135 recruits were transferred in November, and 142 more in December. Captain Thompson closed the recruiting station in St Louis in November, while stations reopened in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia as the year’s campaigning drew to a close.

During the early months of 1865, the depot continued to forward recruits to the field: 129 in January, 134 in February, 123 in March and 94 in April. It is doubtful this last group reached its destination before the cessation of hostilities. At the end of the war, recruiting stations were still operating in Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Rochester.

The careers of several officers other the commanders were significantly affected by recruiting duty. Copley Amory of the 4^th U.S. Cavalry was appointed a second lieutenant from Massachusetts on August 5, 1861. He returned to Carlisle from May to December 1862, when he was returned to his regiment. He was again assigned to the depot in June 1863, this time forwarded to the recruiting station in Boston. After six more months of recruiting duty, he resigned in December 1863.

Irish-born John McDonald enlisted as a private in Company K, 1^st U.S. Dragoons in 1857, and was promoted to first sergeant prior to his appointment as a lieutenant in the same regiment. He was assigned to the depot in October 1862, remaining until ordered to rejoin his regiment on February 6, 1863. On June 15, 1863, he was ordered back to the depot, and remained on recruiting service the rest of the war.

Next is the oft-mentioned Frank Stanwood of the 3^rd U.S. Cavalry. He joined at Carlisle as a new second lieutenant on September 27, 1861. He remained until transferred to his regiment as a first lieutenant on August 21, 1862. He served as the regimental quartermaster from his arrival until January 15, 1863. In April, he was ordered back to the mounted recruiting service, where he remained until February 1865. In all, Stanwood served only twelve months with his regiment during the war. Ironically, he received a brevet promotion to captain on March 13, 1865 “for coolness, energy and skill in battle.” He also received brevets to major and lieutenant colonel the same day for what was probably a more accurate description of “faithful and meritorious service during the war.”

Finally, Robert S. Smith was appointed a second lieutenant in the 2^nd U.S. Dragoons on May 4, 1861. He remained on recruiting service through promotions to first lieutenant and captain. Smith did not actually join his regiment until September 5, 1864, over three years after his appointment! Two weeks later he saw his first combat while leading his company at the battle of Opequon, or 3^rd Winchester on September 19th. Interestingly, his testimony of valor observed on the field in his first fight was later significant in the award of the Medal of Honor to First Sergeant Conrad Schmidt of Company K.

The concluding post of this series will discuss the recruiting stations and list the sources used to compile the article.

Carlisle Barracks and the Mounted Recruiting Service, part 1

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by dccaughey in 1861, 1st U.S. Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, cavalry, manning, officers, recruiting, training

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1st U.S. Cavalry, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Carlisle Barracks, cavalry, Civil War, david H. Hastings, Lawrence P. Graham, recruiting

While I’ve covered bits and pieces of regular cavalry recruiting in the past, an in depth look at the post returns for Carlisle Barracks during the war revealed a wealth of information on how and where this recruiting was accomplished. This not the be-all, end-all for this topic. It’s a blog post, after all, not a journal article. There are several bits of information that could be of tremendous help, such as the location of the recruiting station in Buffalo, and any newspaper coverage of it. But I think it is the most comprehensive examination of the process to date.

The theory behind cavalry recruiting changed little with the advent of the war. The process was relatively simple. Mounted regiments were tasked to provide officers, noncommissioned officers and sometimes musicians to man recruiting stations at selected cities in the United States. Periodically these recruits were forwarded from the recruiting stations to Carlisle Barracks. Here the “Permanent Company,” a training cadre, provided them basic instruction as a cavalryman. Once the troopers could demonstrate a reasonable aptitude in both the mounted and dismounted tasks of the “School of the Trooper,” as defined in the Cavalry Tactics manual, they were dispatched in detachments to their designated regiments. This movement was frequently supervised by the same officers and soldiers who originally recruited them. While this process did not change noticeably in substance during the war, it changed significantly in scope.

Whereas prior to the war only one or two recruiting stations were active at a time, during the course of the Civil War nineteen different cities had stations active at various times. These were in addition to the stations utilized for the initial recruiting of the twelve companies of the 6^th U.S. Cavalry in 1861, which did not fall in the purview of Carlisle Barracks. It also did not cover the recruiting of volunteers in their camps which occurred near Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Theater in October 1862. It did, however, include the additional companies, usually designated L and M, added to existing regiments during the war, as well as companies consolidated within the regiments and sent to Carlisle to refit.

Recruiting for the mounted regiments was the responsibility of the “Mounted Recruiting Service.” This was a purely administrative command, as Congress had not authorized such an organization outside the scope of the existing regiments. As with all such taskings, the required officers and soldiers were taken “out of hide” from the regiments in the field. The post commander of Carlisle Barracks had the additional title and responsibilities of the “Superintendent, Mounted Recruiting Service.” Before the war, this was a major’s position, but during the war it was held by a captain and briefly by a lieutenant.

The commander at the outbreak of the war was Major Lawrence Pike Graham of the 2^nd Dragoons. Graham was something of a legend in the mounted forces. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the 2^nd Dragoons in 1837, and spent the next several years in the Seminole Wars in Florida. During the Mexican War, he commended the other company in Captain Charles May’s squadron during the famous charge at Resaca de la Palma. During the Sioux campaign of 1854-55, he commanded a squadron of his own.

Other than the post commander, only the surgeon and the chaplain were permanently assigned to the post. Surgeon Burton Randall served as the post surgeon until September 1861, when he was assigned to a hospital in Annapolis. A Maryland native, Randall graduated as a physician from University of Pennsylvania in 1828. He entered service as an assistant surgeon in 1832, and was promoted to surgeon in 1838. He served as one of the principal military surgeons of the Mexican War while assigned to the 5^th U.S. Infantry. Surgeon and assistant surgeon were ranks for doctors, and this denoted pay grade, not level of skill or ability. A civilian physician, D.A. Mahon, served as post surgeon until May 1862, when he was replaced by Assistant Surgeon Joseph Jefferson Burr Wright. J.J.B. Wright was appointed an assistant surgeon in 1833, and served as the medical director for the Department of Missouri prior to his assignment to Carlisle Barracks. James A. Ross served as the post chaplain throughout the war.

At least two lieutenants were placed on extra duty from their regiments and assigned temporarily to Carlisle Barracks. One of these normally served in charge of the permanent company, and the other was in charge of the current group of unassigned. Equally important, and probably consuming far more of their time, were their additional duties. One served as Acting Assistant Quartermaster and Acting Assistant Commisary of Subsistence for the post, while the other served as the post adjutant.

1861 was a relatively quiet year for the depot. The regiments were too busy trying to reach their assigned destinations to worry about replacements, and there were too few experienced officers and noncommissioned officers present to detach many for recruiting duty. Three recruiting stations were opened in 1861, Boston, Cincinnati and New York City. Training at the depot continued and small detachments were forwarded once trained. Only three events of significance took place at Carlisle.

The first was the arrival of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry in April following their exodus from Texas. They spent April and part of May remounting the regiment and filling their ranks, gaining 174 recruits from the depot in April. They temporarily emptied the depot, but it put a nearly full strength cavalry regiment into the field near Washington D.C.

The second was the assignment of newly appointed cavalry officers to Carlisle Barracks to undertake their initial training as well. New subalterns who were experienced noncommissioned officers remained with their regiments, while those appointed from civilian life reported for various lengths of time to receive their initial training as well. While veterans like John Mix, Thomas Dewees and Samuel Whitside stayed in the field, others like Theophilus Rodenbough, Isaac Dunkelberger and George Sanford were put through their paces by the permanent company.

The third event was the first wartime change of command at Carlisle Barracks. On September 4, 1861, Major Graham was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers, and reassigned to Washington. He was succeeded by Captain David H. Hastings of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry. Hastings was another seasoned veteran. An Irish immigrant, he enlisted in 1837 and worked his way through the ranks to serve as a first sergeant in infantry, artillery and engineer companies prior to receiving a commission in the 1^st Dragoons in 1848. Severely wounded near Mexico City and again severely injured when his horse fell pursuing Indians in New Mexico in 1857, Captain Hastings was of far more use to the Army for his mind than his body at this point in his career.