Otherwise it just seems mean.

Very handsome site indeed.

Of course. That image of De Forest at the beginning of this post comes from Beaudrye’s regimental history.

It didn’t even mention this. As Don Caughey points out, Victorians almost never spoke ill of others, and as a result, there is nothing in the book about this episode.

Eric

It’s frustrating to attempt to dig into accounts where someone is cashiered. It was a much more genteel era, and people went to great lengths to avoid putting something that could be considered slanderous about someone in print. I’ve had the same problems attempting to find out what Maj. Charles J. Whiting was cashiered for in 1863. I even found the order getting rid of him, but there is nothing more specific than “slanderous comments against the President.” It really makes me wonder what he said or, more likely, wrote that reached the wrong hands.

Have you checked Louis Napoleon Beaudry’s Historic records of the Fifth New York cavalry?

Mike Peters