108. THIRD AND SIXTH CAVALRY

The Peculiarly Arduous Service Required of Cavalry

Organization of the Third Cavalry

Departure for the Front in November, 1861

Winter Quarters at St. Louis

Campaigns of 1862 in Tennessee and Mississippi

Campaigns of 1863

Long Marches and Heavy Captures of Prisoners

Winter Quarters at LaOrange, Tennessee

Veteran Re-enlistment and Furlough

Provost Duty at St. Louis

Service in Arkansas

Winter Quarters, 1864-65, at Brownsville

Services under General Canby

Frontier Duty in Texas

Muster Out and Discharge

Livingston County Members of the Regiment

The Sixth Cavalry

Organization and Departure from Michigan

Services in the Vicinity of Washington

Assignment to Duty in the Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac

Its Campaigning in 1863

Winter Quarters at Stevensburg

The Richmond Raid

Continuous Campaigning in 1864

Campaign of 1865

General Pickett's Opinion of a Charge made by the Sixth

Movement to North Carolina

Return to Washington and Participation in the Grand Review

Transfer to Fort Leavenworth

Service on the Plains

Muster Out and Discharge

Members of the Sixth from Livingston County

     ALTHOUGH the cavalry branch of the army, was not brought into as many general engagements as the infantry, and consequently suffered less in killed and wounded, yet its service was of an  109. extremely arduous nature, compelling men to be almost constantly in the saddle, riding day and night for hundreds, and sometimes for a thousand, miles in a single expedition. But the character of this service, being that of almost constant marching and change of station and duty, renders it impracticable to follow and trace the movements of cavalry with as much of precision and detail as can be done in the case of infantry regiments.

THIRD CAVALRY

     The Third Cavalry contained between eighty and one hundred men from Livingston County; these being most numerous in Company G, but a considerable number being found in Companies I and L, and a few in other companies.

     The regiment was raised in the summer and fall of 1861, having its rendezvous at Grand Rapids. It left that place more than a thousand strong, November 18, 1861, and proceeded to St. Louis, Missouri, where it remained in winter quarters at the Benton Barracks. In 1862 it moved south, and participated in the operations at New Madrid and Island Number Ten, also in the siege of Corinth, and the subsequent campaign in Northern Mississippi, where it remained during the entire season, capturing in that series of operations twelve hundred and eighty-six prisoners of the enemy, among whom were five field and thirty-two line officers. It passed the winter in Northern Mississippi, and in 1863 was again employed in that State and Western Tennessee in almost continuous marching, fighting, and raiding, and by the first of November in that year had taken an additional number of prisoners, sufficient to make the whole number captured by it since its commencement of service two thousand one hundred, of whom about fifty were officers. "During the year (from January 1 to November 1, 1863) the regiment marched a distance of ten thousand eight hundred miles, exclusive of marches by separate companies and detachments." Accompanying the Third in its movements, was a light battery of twelve-pound howitzers. On the first of January, 1864, the regiment arrived at La Grange, Tennessee, where it prepared winter quarters, and where, during January, nearly six hundred of its members re-enlisted as veterans, and received the usual furlough, to rendezvous at Kalamazoo. From that place they moved, with their numbers largely augmented by recruits, to St. Louis, where they remained about two months on provost duty in the city, while awaiting the arrival of new horses and equipments. Still dismounted, the regiment moved May 18th, and proceeded to Arkansas, there joining the army of General Steele. It was mounted and armed with the Spencer repeating-carbine on the first of August, and from that time until winter was engaged in scouting and outpost duty in that State. Its winter quarters were at Brownsville Station, on the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad. On the fourteenth of March it was transferred from Arkansas to the military division of West Mississippi, under General Canby, to move with the forces designed to operate against Mobile. After the fall of that city the regiment was employed on outpost duty till after the surrender of Lee and Johnston, and was then detailed as the escort of General Canby, on the occasion of his receiving the surrender of the Confederate General Taylor and his army. It moved across the country from Mobile to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, arriving there May 22, 1865. On Sheridan's assuming command of the Division of the Southwest, the Third was ordered to join troops designed for Texas, and left Baton Rouge June 10th, moving by way of Shreveport, and across Texas to San Antonio, where it remained, employed in garrison duty, scouting expeditions for the protection of the frontier, and other similar duty till February 15, 1866, when it was dismounted and mustered out of service. The men returned via Victoria, Indianola, New Orleans, and Cairo, Illinois, to Jackson, Michigan, and there received their final payment, March 15, 1866.

MEMBERS OF THE THIRD CAVALRY FROM LIVINGSTON COUNTY

111. SIXTH CAVALRY

      The Sixth Michigan Cavalry, which was organized at Grand Rapids in the autumn of 1862, carried on its rolls the names of more than fifty men from Livingston County, the largest number being in Company D. The regiment was mustered into the United States service with twelve hundred men, under Colonel George Gray, on the thirteenth of October in that year, and on the tenth of December following left the rendezvous for Washington, District of Columbia, mounted and equipped, but not armed. It remained in the Vicinity of Washington through the winter, and on the opening of the campaign of 1863 joined the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, being assigned to the Second Brigade of the Third Division. During the campaign of that year it experienced much of active service in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, taking part in engagements and skirmishes as follows: Hanover, Virginia, June 30th; Hunterstown, Pennsylvania, July 2d; Gettysburg, July 3d; Monterey, Maryland, July 4th; Cavetown, Maryland, July 5th: Smithtown, Boonsboro', Hagerstown, and Williamsport, Maryland, July 6th; Hagerstown and Williamsport, July 10th; Falling Waters, Virginia (where, according to official reports, it was highly distinguished for gallant behavior), July 14th; Snicker's Gap, July 19th; Kelly's Ford, September 13th; Culpeper Court-House, September 14th; Raccoon Ford, September 16th; White's Ford, September 21st; Jack's Shop, September 26th; James City, October 12th; Brandy Station, October 13th; Buckland's Mills, October 19th; Stevensburg, November 19th; and Morton's Ford, November 26th. From the latter date it remained in winter quarters at Stevensburg until the twenty-eighth of February, 1864, when it joined the cavalry column of Kilpatrick, on his great raid to the vicinity of Richmond. Returning from that expedition to camp at Stevensburg, it was transferred to the First Cavalry Division, and soon after moved camp to Culpeper. It was engaged, and fought bravely, near Chancellorsville, May 6th, and skirmished on the seventh and eighth. On the morning of the ninth it moved with General Sheridan's command on the raid to the rear of the Confederate army, holding the advance. From this time until the close of the year its history is one of almost continuous movement, which may be summed up by the enumeration of the fights and skirmishes in which it took part, as follows: Beaver Dam, Virginia, May 9th; Yellow Tavern, May 10th; and 11th; Meadow Bridge, May 12th; Hanover Court-House, Virginia, May 27th; Hawes' Shop, May 28th; Baltimore Cross-Roads, May 29th; Cold Harbor, May 30th; and June 1st; Trevillian Station, June 11th; and 12th; Cold Harbor, July 21st; Winchester, August 11th; Front Royal, August 16th; Leetown, August 25th; Shepherdstown, Virginia, August 26th; Smithfield, August 29th; Berryville, September 3d; Summit, September 4th; Opequan, September 19th; Luray, September 24th; Port Republic, September 26th, 27th, and 28th; Mount Crawford, Virginia, October 2d; Woodstock, October 9th; Cedar Creek, October 19th; Madison Court-House, December 24th.

      On the opening of the spring campaign it moved with the other cavalry forces of Sheridan, February 27, 1865, towards Gordonsville, and fought at Louisa Court-House, March 8th. Then the command moved by way of White House Landing to and across the James River, and joined the Army of the Potomac in time to take part in the final battles of the war, being engaged at Five Forks, Virginia, March 30th, 31st, and April 1st at Southside Railroad, April 2d; Duck Pond Mills, April 4th; Sailor's Creek, April 6th; and Appomattox, April 9th. In one of these engagements the rebel general Pickett was captured, and he afterwards spoke of the charge of the Sixth on that occasion as "the bravest charge he had ever seen."

     After Lee's surrender the regiment moved to Petersburg, thence to North Carolina, and then north to Washington, District of Columbia, where it marched in the great review of May 23d. Immediately after it was ordered West, and moved with the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers, to Fort Leavenworth. There it received orders to move over the Plains, westward, on duty in the Indian country. The officers and men were greatly disgusted at this, but they would not soil their noble record by disobedience, and so they moved unhesitatingly to the performance of the disagreeable duty, on which they remained till the seventeenth of September, 1865, when the men of the regiment whose term did not expire before February 1, 1866, were consolidated with the First Michigan Cavalry, and the remainder of the command was ordered back to Fort Leavenworth, where it was mustered out of service, November 24, 1865. Returning to Michigan, it arrived at Jackson, November 30th, and was there disbanded.

MEMBERS OF THE SIXTH CAVALRY FROM LIVINGSTON COUNTY