A Bugler By Any Other Name…

22 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by dccaughey in 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Battle fo the Rosebud, buglers, cavalry, Civil War

Tags

buglers, cavalry, Civil War, Fort Phil Kearny, Rosebud

On several excursions through Wyoming, I have stopped at Fort Phil Kearny, home of 2^nd U.S. Cavalry troopers during both the Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box Fight. On each occasion, I noted sketches of the fort displayed in the visitor center attributed to Bugler Antonio Nicolai of the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry in June 1867. Tracking down Bugler Nicolai has been on the back burner my to-do list for quite some time, but I think I have managed to find the bugler better known for his pen than his music. As with many cavalry soldiers of this period, it’s a tale of long service both during the Civil War and on the frontier.

It also turned out to be a search for someone else. There is no record of an Antonio Nicolai serving in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, or elsewhere in the Army, between 1860 and 1890. Antonio may have been a nickname or a misunderstanding, but the name of the artist in question is Gustavus Nicolai.

Gustavus Nicolai was born in Berlin, Germany in 1828. After immigrating to America, he lived in Pennsylvania. He was enlisted into Company B, 4^th U.S. Artillery as a private by Lieutenant William Royall on November 17, 1856 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His enlistment documents describe him as 5’ 2” tall, with brown hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion. He was 25 years old, and listed his occupation as musician. He was discharged at the end of his enlistment on November 17, 1861 at Camp Duncan, District of Columbia.

Gustavus was out of uniform only two days before enlisting in Company E, 12^th Pennsylvania Cavalry on November 19^th. He served in the regiment through the entire war without incident, transferring to Company C at some point. He mustered out with the regiment on July 20, 1865.

Nicolai rejoined the regular army on September 7, 1865. He was enlisted as a bugler into Company D, 2^nd U.S. Cavalry by Lieutenant McGregor at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He listed his age as 36, but there were no changes to his description other than his complexion now being dark. He remained in this company as a bugler for the rest of his career.

Bugler Nicolai arrived at Fort Phil Kearny with his company and Company L in January 1867, reinforcing the fort’s garrison following the Fetterman Massacre. This brought the strength of the cavalry garrison to three companies on paper. The remaining 25 men of Company C departed to Fort Laramie the following month. Company L left in March, leaving Company D as the sole cavalry company for the rest of 1867 other than a brief sojourn to Fort C.F. Smith in July.

Although Captain D.S. Gordon officially commanded the company, First Lieutenant James “Teddy” Egan was the senior officer present with the company at Fort Phil Kearny in 1867. The company’s other bugler, Edward L. Train, was mortally wounded in sight of the fort on June 11^th, dying two days later. At some point during this month, Nicolai sketched this picture of the fort, looking to the northwest. (Photo courtesy of Wyoming Tales and Trails)

ftkearneyplan

Bugler Nicolai was discharged at the expiration of his enlistment at Duck Creek, Dakota Territory on September 7, 1868. He re-enlisted in the company by Lieutenant Stambaugh at Fort D.A. Russell, present day Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on September 25^th. He served continuously through his next three enlistments in Utah, Montana and Idaho Territory, including the battle of the Rosebud in 1876.

During a patrol along the Yellowstone from Fort Ellis in the summer of 1879, Dr. Weir Mitchell made the following observations about the bugler, in Lippincott’s Magazine and later excerpted in the Army and Navy Journal of May 22, 1880 on page 5:

“Nicolai, the German bugler of Major Gregg’s Company (D, 2d Cavalry), is another of Dr. Mitchell’s characters. “He had been a wood-engraver, and drew very cleverly, but owing to a failure in sight, enlisted in the Army, and has now been twenty-five years a soldier. He was a gay, bright fellow, who never neglected a chance to get just not too drunk to sound the calls with some odd variations. As soon as we were in camp his little wicky-up was built with two or three poles and a blanket-shelter: pretty soon he had a fire blazing and something cooking for dinner. Then his sketch-book would be on his knee, and he, supremely content, would amuse himself with his pencil, rarely talking with the other men, and living a simple, hermit-like life, with apparently not the least desire to better it. On the march he fell in behind the major, for whom he had an almost canine attachment, repaid by such indulgence as seemed only fair toward so old a soldier.”

Bugler Nicolai was discharged from the Army on February 11, 1885, per Special Order 14, Adjutant General’s Office, 1885 while at Boise Barracks, Idaho. He had nearly twenty-nine years in uniform at the time, counting his volunteer service during the Civil War. The order must have concerned disability and retirement, as Nicolai was admitted to the Soldiers Home near Washington, D.C. six days later, on the February 17^th. He filed for his military pension on November 27, 1886.

Gustavus Nicolai died in Hampton, Virginia, just outside of Fort Monroe, on January 21, 1897. He is buried in plot 733a of Hampton National Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia.

Works Cited

“A Civilian at Fort Ellis,” Army and Navy Journal, Volume XVII, Number 42, May 22, 1880, page 5, column 3.

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

National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Army Post Returns, 1806-1916: Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.

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

Illustration: The 1867 image of Fort Phil Kearny is from Wyoming Tales and Trails. Used with thanks.

Bugler Adolph Metzger

07 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by dccaughey in 2nd U.S. Cavalry

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

2nd U.S. Cavalry, Adolph Metzger, Fetterman Massacre, Fort Phil Kearny

Adolph Metzger was born in Balingen, Wurtemberg, Germany about 1834. He immigrated to the United States as a young man and settled in Philadelphia, where he worked as a laborer.

On May 29, 1855, he was enlisted into Company C, Regiment of Mounted Rifles by Lieutenant Burns. His enlistment documents describe him as 21 years of age, 5’ 5” tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a dark complexion. After service with his regiment in the southwest, he was discharged at the expiration of his enlistment at Hatch’s Ranch, New Mexico as a private on May 29, 1860.

Civilian life apparently didn’t resonate with Adolph, and he re-entered the army a few months later. On November 14th he was enlisted into Company C, 2nd U.S. Cavalry by Lieutenant Wilkins as a bugler. He was working in Newport, Kentucky as a laborer at the time of his enlistment, and it is unclear whether he was east- or westbound at the time. Miraculously, he aged only three years in the five and a half years since his first enlistment, listing his age as 24. He served through the various campaigns of the Civil War without major incident, and was discharged the day prior to his third enlistment at Light House Landing, Virginia shortly after the regiment’s return from the battle of Trevilian Station.

Bugler Metzger was enlisted into Company C, 2nd U.S. Cavalry by Lieutenant Robert Lennox on July 12, 1864. Although he had grown three inches since his last enlistment, he had aged only a single year. A few weeks later, probably during a furlough granted due to his reenlistment, Adolph married Fredericka Cooper. The ceremony took place on August 2nd, at the German Evangelical Church in Washington, D.C. The bride was only 15 or 16 at the time of the wedding, and Adolph apparently did not inform his parents back in Germany of his changed marital status.

He remained with his company through the end of the war and its subsequent recruiting and refitting in Maryland. When the regiment moved west in October 1865, his wife remained behind. Due to the numerous changes of post and their attendant dangers, this was probably a wise choice.

In November 1866, the company was assigned to Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory, in present day Wyoming. Second Lieutenant Horatio S. Bingham was the company’s commander and sole officer for the assignment. Bingham, who had served as a captain in the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry during the Civil War, had been appointed an officer in the regiment in February. Lieutenant Bingham was killed in an engagement with Indians on December 6, 1866 when he and a small group of soldiers were decoyed away from the main body while attempting to assist a woodcutting party which was under attack.

On December 21st, twenty six members of the company, including Bugler Metzger, rode out of the fort to assist another woodcutting party. A mixed party of infantry and cavalry sortied from the fort under the command of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William J. Fetterman. The force was drawn into a trap out of view of the fort and wiped out in less than twnety minutes by over a thousand Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. The only survivor was a gray cavalry horse named Dapple Dave, badly wounded by both bullets and arrows. The horse was probably Metzger’s, as it was the practice in that unit to mount buglers on white or gray horses to make it easier to find the commander during a battle.

Metzger was one of only two soldiers whose body wasn’t mutilated by the victorious Indians. The other was Sergeant James Baker, also a Civil War veteran of Company C. According to several verbal accounts from Indians who participated in the battle, Bugler Metzger fought to the very last. Once his ammunition was exhausted, he continued to fight using his bugle as a bludgeon until overcome.

The bugle is now part of the collection of the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, who very kindly granted me one-time permission to publish a photo with this post. It was found around 1935 by early homesteader Christian Hepp, who ran cattle near the grounds of the ruins of the fort. Since Metzger was the only bugler in the expedition, it seems extremely likely that it was his.

Photo courtesy of Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum.

The dead from the fight were brought back to Fort Phil Kearny, and initially interred there. After the fort was abandoned and when Custer National Cemetery was created at Little Big Horn, they were moved there. They now lie there in graves numbered 15-49 and 108-144.

Headstone, Custer National Cemetery.

Metzger’s wife Fredericka drew his pension. This was later disputed by his mother, who contacted the American consulate in Stuttgart to press her claim. She maintained that Adolph could not possibly have been married without informing his family in Germany. Her claim was later rejected.

Notes:

1. One account from a soldier in Company C mentions a man named Footer as the company’s bugler, but there was no such person assigned to the cavalry company or the 18th Infantry at the post at this time. Since the account was written several years later, it seems likely he confused the name of the bugler. Some accounts describe the bugler as a teenager, but there’s no evidence to support this.
2. Historian John H. Monnett maintains that the story of Metzger and the bugle is apocryphal. For more information, see his very detailed book Where A Hundred Soldiers Were Killed. He makes a very strong case.

Sources:

Brady, Cyrus Townsend. Indian Fights and Fighters. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1971.
Fort Phil Kearny/ Bozeman Trail Association. Portraits of Fort Phil Kearny. Banner, WY: 1993.
Guthrie, John. “Fetterman Massacre,” Annals of Wyoming 9 (October 1932): 714-718. Accessed via Internet Archive on August 30, 2015.
Lambert, Joseph. One Hundred Years With the Second Cavalry. San Antonio: Newton Publishing Company, 1999.
Monnett, John H. Where A Hundred Soldiers Were Killed. Albuquerque: University of New mexico Press, 2010.
National Archives, Record Group 94, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General, 1861-1870.
National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914
National Archives, Record Group 94, U.S. Returns from Regular Army Non-infantry Regiments, 1821-1916: 2nd U.S. Cavalry.
National Archives, Record Group 94, Civil War Widows Pensions. Accessed via Fold3.com on August 30, 2015.
Rodenbough, Theophilus F. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.
Utley, Robert M. Frontier Regulars. Lincoln: Univeristy of Nebraska Press: 1973.
Watson, Elmo Scott. “The Bravery of Our Bugler is Much Spoken Of,” Old Travois Trails 1 (1941): 139.