February, 2010

Yesterday, I was one of the presenters at the 11th annual Civil War conference at Longwood University. My friend Patrick Schroeder, who is the National Park Service historian at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, puts on this event each year with Prof. David J. Coles of Longwood, who chairs the university’s history department.

The topic was cavalry operations, which is why I was invited. I accepted the invitation because it was Patrick’s event, and I helped him to identify speakers. Old friends Jeff Wert, Clark B. “Bud” Hall, and Scott Patchan were all to present at the conference, and it just seemed like too good a time to pass up. When I announced I was going to participate, fellow bloggers Don Caughey and Craig Swain indicated that they were going to come, as did some other folks that I have known over the years. Mix in a private tour of Appomattox Court House with Patrick, and staying at the spectacular Spring Grove Farm Bed & Breakfast, and I was sold on the thing.

The problem is that late February weather is always unpredictable, and Mother Nature surely didn’t cooperate with this. It’s about 7.5 hours from here to Appomattox. In order to get there in time to take Patrick’s tour, we either had to leave at like 5:00 AM on Friday morning, or leave Thursday night, drive part way, and then find a place to stay so we could get in in plenty of time. That’s what we did. We drove to Beckley, WV, and found a hotel room to spend the night. From the time we hit the Ohio River until we got to Beckley, it snowed hard, and the farther south we got, the harder it was snowing. By the time we got to Beckley, it was nearly a white out. It was snowing as hard as I have ever seen it snow, with 30 mph winds.

We got up early on Friday, loaded up and left, and as we headed first south and then east on I-64, it continued to snow very hard. Some of it was some real white knuckle driving, but it stopped about the time we hit the Virginia state line, and the sun eventually came out. By the time we got to Appomattox, it was still gray and very windy, but it was no longer snowing. It was cold walking around with Patrick, but it was well worth it. For those of you who have never been to Appomattox Court House, it is a pilgrimage well worth making. It’s one of those places where spirits linger, and visiting it is a very moving experience. One of Patrick’s real contributions has been to focus on the fighting that occurred there on April 8-9, 1865, and we saw all of those sites, including the recently acquired 47 acre parcel of the Appomattox Station battlefield, which was a neat thing to see.

The problem is that the weather was so bad that Jeff and Gloria Wert got snowed in and couldn’t make it. That left a gaping hole in the program. When it became obvious that there might be weather problems, Patrick asked me if I might be willing to do a second talk, and I agreed. My scheduled talk was based on my book Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Generalship of Philip H. Sheridan. Jeff was supposed to speak about Jeb Stuart, so I filled in with a talk based on JD’s and my book Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg. I spoke during both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The room was filled to overflowing. It looked like a room that seats 200 or so, and EVERY seat was filled, and then some. I had a chance to meet a number of readers of this blog, to meet folks who have helped me along the way like Ben Brockenbrough of Hanover Court House, Virginia, and new friends like Charlie Knight, who has a really good new book on the Battle of New Market coming out, as well as a new blog (which I have added to the blog roll), as well as some old friends like Harold Pearman and Charles Hawks of the Raleigh, NC Civil War Roundtable, who are both avid readers of my work. I also got to meet and make the acquaintance of Ranger Bert Dunkerly, who now works at Appomattox, but is an authority on the Revolutionary War in the Southern Colonies. We all sold lots of books yesterday.

My voice was completely shot by the end of the day, but it was a very good conference, and we had a good time. Susan, Bud Hall, Bud’s companion Kim, Don Caughey, and I all went to dinner together after the close of the conference, and then, after saying goodbye to Don, who had to get back to his hotel near the Richmond airport to catch his early morning flight home to Colorado, we went back to Spring Grove Farm for a nightcap.

After a lovely breakfast, Susan and I headed home and got home just in time to catch the last few minutes of the third period of the gold medal ice hockey game. Congratulations to the Canadians for winning the gold, but the US team has nothing to be ashamed of–they played great hockey, and Ryan Miller was nothing short of spectacular.

On the way home, we made a brief stop to check plumbing in White Sulphur Springs, WV. Right after we got off of I-64, I spotted a historical marker to the Battle of Dry Creek, which is also known as the Battle of White Sulphur Springs, which was completely unfamiliar to me. It was actually a two-day engagement where William Woods Averell–who has long been of great interest to me–commanded the Union troops, and now I’m interested in it. I may end up writing an article about it if I can find enough material. Time will tell. It was a surprise and completely unplanned battlefield visit.

So, it was an excellent weekend, filled with good friends, some wonderful battlefield stomping, good content, new book purchases on both the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, and beautiful surroundings. I’m a lucky guy.

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Some time ago, a friend named Jim Lamason came up with what seemed to be an honorable idea. Jim wanted to honor the men who gave the last full measure of their devotion at Gettysburg by forming a new organization to be called the Gettysburg Historical Association. I helped Jim with formulating the concept for this thing and agreed to serve on the board of directors. So did J. D. Petruzzi. Jim recognized that he is not the right person to serve as the president of such an organization, but agreed to do so when the others insisted he do so.

An organizational meeting was held at the end of January, and a set of bylaws was agreed upon. Most of the board was identified, and an executive committee was formed. Last weekend, a group of five of the board members, operating in secret, without following the protocols set forth in the bylaws, made a power play designed to force Jim to step aside as president. They succeeded. Jim resigned as president, board member and even as a member of the organization he founded.

Those five board members, acting in secret and without consulting with the other board members, then began taking unilateral and illegal steps. First came an announcement that the bylaws were null and void. Never mind that these people had agreed to them, and that the bylaws cannot be changed without a majority vote of the board of directors. Then came a refusal to communicate with another board member. At that point, it became clear that they have an agenda of their own, and that they intend to freeze out anyone who won’t drink their Kool-Aid and go along with their agenda. By nature, I am not one to drink anyone’s Kool-Aid, and when I made it clear that I wasn’t going along with their agenda, the erstwhile leader of the junta launched a vicious personal attack on me, demonstrating his true colors and showing what these people are really all about.

When I demanded that these people conform their conduct to the bylaws that they drafted and enacted, the response was a combination of hubris and childish personal insults. Consequently, four of the five board members who are not members of their little clique, including J. D. and me, have resigned, and I tend to think that the fifth, an honorable soldier on active duty in service to his country, will probably also resign. They’re now free to pursue their personal agenda and to enjoy the fruits of their scheme, for what that’s worth.

In the meantime, though, they have sullied the name of Gettysburg, they have dishonored the very people they claim to want to honor, and they have done a vast amount of damage to the cause, all in the name of hubris. To any of you who read this blog, I implore you to do yourselves a major favor and avoid this organization at all costs.

UPDATE, 11:15 AM: The fifth board member who was not a member of the clique has now also resigned, meaning that the five members of the clique are now alone and free to run things as they see fit, whether it’s legal or not. I have no doubt that they will find folks willing to drink their Kool-Aid and who will ratify their actions, which is all the more reason to avoid this organization at ALL costs.

I take no pleasure in any of this. In fact, I find it terribly sad and quite depressing. However, I felt that it was absolutely critical to make sure that the truth is told.

UPDATE, 9:15 AM, FEBRUARY 25: Two of the five remaining board members have apparently also resigned, even though they were two of the five who were involved in these events. That means that the three remaining members are the hard-core power-grabbers who pulled this off. They’ve now been exposed to the world for what they are. I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about what kind of people they are.

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Time for another profile of a completely forgotten cavalryman.

Richard S. C. Lord was born in 1832 on his father’s farm near Bellefontaine, Ohio. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy from Ohio in 1852, and graduated 40th out of 47 in the class of 1856. The class of 1856 also included future Civil War cavalry generals Fitzhugh Lee, Lunsford L. Lomax, George D. Bayard and James Forsyth. He and some of his classmates purchased the Patagonia silver mine in Arizona, but sold his interest in 1859 when his company departed Arizona for Ft. Fillmore.

He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant on July 1, 1856 and joined the infantry. He served garrison duty at the Newport Barracks in Kentucky 1856-1857 and then at the Carlisle Barracks. While serving at Newport, he was promoted to second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery.

On June 22, 1857, he was transferred to the 1st Dragoons and did frontier duty at Ft. Buchanan, New Mexico. In 1859, he alternated between Ft. Buchanan and Ft. Fillmore, often doing scouting duty and fighting a skirmish with Apache Indians near Camp Calabassee, New Mexico on August 26, 1860. He was assigned to Ft. Breckinridge, Utah not longer after and served there 1860-1861. On April 23, 1861, he was promoted to first lieutenant.

Lord returned to New Mexico in June 1861 and was promoted to captain on October 26, 1861. While commanding a company of the 1st U. S. Cavalry (as the 1st Dragoons were now known), he was engaged in the February 21, 1862 Battle of Valverde and in an action at Apache Canyon March 7-8, 1862. The conduct of his company at Valverde was criticized, and Lord underwent a court of inquiry that eventually exonerated his conduct there. He was then transferred east, and assumed command of the 1st U. S. Cavalry as its senior captain.

He led the 1st U. S. during the May 1863 Stoneman Raid, at Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, and during the Gettysburg Campaign (at Upperville on June 21, at Gettysburg July 3, and in several of the battles during the retreat. He received a brevet to major for gallant and meritorious services during the Gettysburg Campaign, to date to July 7, 1863.

While skirmishing at Funkstown on July 9, 1863, Lord was seriously wounded, and had to leave the army. He was on disability leave from July 10-September 3, 1863. When he returned to duty, he served as assistant at the newly-formed Cavalry Bureau in Washington, DC. On February 25, 1865, he returned to command the 1st U. S., and led it in the war in the east’s final campaigns, including the April 1, 1865 Battle of Five Forks, for which he received a brevet to lieutenant colonel.

After the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, the 1st U. S. became Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s escort, and accompanied Sheridan to New Orleans from June-September 1865. Lord was on recruiting duty from October 1865 to March 1866, and then was assigned to the Drum Barracks in Los Angeles, California from March to June 1866. Unfortunately, Lord had contracted tuberculosis some time during his service in the Civil War, and by June 1866, the disease had reached terminal status and he was gravely ill. He went east to appear before a retirement board, but was too ill.

Lord left the Army on sick leave on June 15, 1866, and died of the tuberculosis at his father’s home in Bellefontaine in October 16, 1866 ten days shy of his 34th birthday. He was buried in the Bellefontaine City Cemetery in his home town. His only child, Richard Stanton Lord, died the following year at age 3. Nothing is known of his wife.

I have never seen an image of Richard S. C. Lord, which is why there’s not one included here. However, Lord is one of those professional soldiers who left his mark, albeit anonymously, on the Civil War by honorably doing his duty well. He’s buried just over an hour from here, and when the winter breaks, I’m planning on visiting his grave to pay my respects.

Here’s to Richard S. C. Lord, completely forgotten Civil War cavalryman.

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My friend Teej Smith sent along a really intriguing little tidbit about the discovery of Civil War-era human remains found on Bald Head Island, south of Wilmington, NC. Susan and I have spent several delightful vacations at Teej’s lovely home on Bald Head, so this tidbit is of great interest to me.

ARTIFACTS FOUND WITH REMAINS COULD REVEAL AGE OF BONES

State archeologists uncovered a third set of human remains on the Bald Head Island golf course Friday, February 12th. After construction workers unearthed a human skull a week earlier while renovating the golf course, authorities cordoned off the area to determine whether they were dealing with a crime scene or significant historical artifacts. It didn’t take long for officials to rule out foul play. Within hours, more bones turned up, and now investigators are considering the possibility that they have stumbled upon a Civil War-era burial site. Department of Public Safety Chief Chip Munna said that because the bodies were buried in a deliberate fashion, with arms folded across the chest, there’s reason to believe this could be the site of an old cemetery. State archeologists are checking to see if there are any records of burial sites located on Bald Head Island.

The bones and the investigation are now under the purview of the State Office of Archeology, and definitive conclusions about the remains won’t be available for a couple of weeks. However, authorities believe the bones are from adult males who lived in the 19th century. Porcelain buttons found at the site were commonly used on undergarments in the 1840s. The ethnicity of the men has not yet been established, and with Bald Head’s varied history, the bones could have belonged to Civil War soldiers, slaves, or even pirates.

On February 12th, a state archeology team collected two sets of skeletal remains for further study off-Island. While covering the story, a local TV news reporter tripped over a part of a skull, landing on a set of teeth, which led investigators to uncover the third set of remains.

Whether there are more remains is still unclear, but either way, Assistant Village Manager Chris McCall said that the State Office of Archeology will not require any further excavation. Instead, the State is asking the Club to fill in the hole in which the remains were found, leaving any other remains undisturbed. The State may also require the Club to hire a contract archeologist to monitor the filling and conduct a “remote-sensing survey” once the site has been restored to its pre-construction state.

In the meantime, authorities urge the public to stay away from the investigation site. The golf course is private property, and it’s also a potentially hazardous construction area. Said DOPS Chief Munna, “Anyone caught trespassing or attempting to locate or remove any items related to this investigation will be prosecuted.”

There was a large sand fortification on Bald Head Island called Fort Holmes, named for the wretched Confederate general, Theophilus Holmes, but very little of the fort remains intact today. Most of it was destroyed during the development of the island, so it makes sense that men might have died of disease or what not there and that they would have been buried there on the island. Still, this sort of thing is always intriguing when it occurs.

Thanks to Teej for sending this along.

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I’ve also agreed to participate in an upcoming Civil War conference to be conducted at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The event is March 26-27, and I will be doing a completely different presentation at Liberty from the one I’m giving next weekend at Longwood University. There’s also a period church service on Sunday morning March 28 for those interested in such things, although Susan and I won’t be attending that for obvious reasons. Here’s the program for the Liberty event:

Liberty University Civil War Seminar 2010
“Jine the Cavalry”

The 14th Annual Liberty Civil War Seminar Schedule of Events: March 26 – 28, 2010

Friday Night
Location: The Pate Chapel at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA
6:30 p.m. Banquet/Welcome & Prayer
6:45 p.m. Meal
A silent auction will be held tonight to benefit the National Civil War Chaplains Museum.
9:30 p.m. Mr. Kenny Rowlette –Instructions for Saturday Session

Saturday
Location: The Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center
8:00 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 a.m. 1st speaker of the day
4:00 p.m. Kenny Rowlette–Closing Remarks & Door Prizes

In addition to the speakers’ presentations, there will be numerous exhibits of Civil War artifacts and memorabilia for the public, and vendors of Civil War items.

Sunday Morning
9:00 a.m.

Period Worship Service

Rev. Alan Farley of Reenactors Mission for Jesus Christ will be speaking in the Whorley Prayer Chapel on the campus of Liberty University.

Our Special Guest Speakers and their topics:

Dr. James I. Robertson
Keynote Address – Topic TBA

Kent Masterson Brown
John Hunt Morgan

Brenda Ayres
Flora: Mrs. J.E.B. Stuart

Scott Patchan
Phillip Sheridan: The Man Behind the Myth

Eric J. Wittenberg
Custer and the Cavalry Actions at Gettysburg

Jeffrey Wert
J.E.B. Stuart

Horace Mewborn
John Mosby

Clark Hall
The Battle of Brandy Station

Steven Alexander
George Custer During the Latter Years of the Civil War

Delanie Stephenson
Libby Custer: In the Shadow of Her Husband

Brian Wills
Nathan Bedford Forrest

Rev. Alan Farley
Period Church Service (Sunday, March 28,2010)

Seminar Admission Info:

In addition the Friday night Banquet and the Saturday Luncheon, both which feature antebellum menus and entertainment, there will be special door prizes and an exhibits.

On Sunday morning there will be a Period Church Service held in the Whorley Prayer Chapel at LU with special speaker, Rev. Alan Farley.

The presentations on Saturday will be held in Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Everyone is encouraged to secure reservations for this seminar by Wednesday, March 25. If you register before March 1st, admission to the seminar is $60 (which includes all of the seminar sessions, the Friday night banquet, and Saturday’s luncheon). Between March 1st and March 25th, admission is $65. After March 25, 2009, the price for both days is $75. Admission to the Seminar for Friday only is $35; admission for Saturday only is $40.

For special group pricing for the seminar or more information, call 434-592-4366 or email klburdeaux@liberty.edu.

Lodging Info:

Seminar attendees can choose to stay at either the Wingate by Windham Hotel or Days Inn at River Ridge Mall and will receive special LU Civil War Seminar rates.

WINGATE BY WYNDHAM:
www.wingate-lynchburg.com
Phone: (434) 845-1700 or 1-888-494-6428

DAYS INN at River Ridge Mall:
www.daysinn-lynchburg.com
Phone: (434) 847-8655 or 1-800-787-3297

My 49th birthday is Friday, March 26. I hope that some of you will come and help me celebrate it. I can’t think of a better way to do so than to spend it with my fellow Civil War cavalry scholars and good friends Jeff Wert, Bud Hall, Horace Mewborn, and Scott Patchan. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of hearing Brian Steele Wills speak, he’s hilarious–it’s like watching a stand-up comic do Civil War humor.

It will also be my pleasure to unveil my new book on the Battle of Brandy Station there, which goes to the printer today in order to be ready by the Liberty event.

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As I have announced here, I am branching out a bit into studying the Revolutionary War. So, too, has Michael Aubrecht. In fact, Michael has reconfigured his blog from a Civil War blog to a Revolutionary War blog called Blog or Die: A Historian’s Journey Through the Revolution. It will be interesting to see what Michael does with his reconfigured blog.

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Loyal reader Valerie Protopapas is also the newsletter editor for the Stuart-Mosby Historical Society. Although I am not a member of the Society, I have given the address on the anniversary of Jeb Stuart’s birth. Valerie is kind enough to make certain that I receive the newsletter whenever one is published–thank you, Valerie. I do read them, and I do appreciate them.

The November-December 2009 issue had an article titled “Two Accounts of Mosby’s Affect on the Battle of Brandy Station” that’s worthy of some more exploration. The first is a quote from John Formby’s 1910 book The American Civil War–A Concise History of Its Causes, Progress, and Results:

It was in the spring of 1863 that the celebrated “Jack” Mosby began his raids and surprises on Union outposts and communications. He was a partisan leader pure and simple, who depended for success on ubiquity and the smallness of his communications. When the Army of the Potomac was lying in front of Centreville, he attacked their outposts continually, and caused such a scare that the planks of the chain bridge at Washington were taken up at nights; at this time he could not muster more than 20 men. He was often pursued by large forces, but easily escaped. In February he nearly succeeded in capturing General (sic) Wyndham in his own quarters, and did take General Stoughton in his, soon after. Just before the battle of Brandy Station, Hooker asked for the cavalry division from Washington to reinforce Pleasonton, but it was refused as being necessary to hold the communications against Mosby, who had just destroyed a supply train. He was chased by a major-general and 3,000 men, vanished, and a few days afterwards captured a cavalry camp in Maryland. He often neutralized a hundred times his own force, and created a constant feeling of insecurity on the Union side.

Mosby himself weighed in on the issue in his memoirs. He wrote:

If Pleasonton had had those 6000 sabers with him…on June 9, 1863, in his great cavalry combat with Stuart at Brandy Station, the result might have been different. Hooker had asked for them, but had been refused, on the ground that they could not be spared from the defense of Washington.

In support of his claims, Mosby quoted Joseph Hooker’s testimony before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War after the Battle of Gettysburg:

I may state here that while at Fairfax Court House my cavalry was reinforced by that of Major-Gen. Stahel. The latter numbered 6100 sabers, and had been engaged in picketing a line from Occoquan River to Goose Creek…The force opposed to them was Mosby’s guerrillas, numbering about 200; and, if the reports of the newspapers were to be believed, this whole party was killed two or three times during the winter. From the time I took command of the Army of the Potomac there was no evidence that any force of the enemy, other than that above named, was within 100 miles of Washington City; and yet, the planks on the chain bridge were taken up at night during the greater part of the winter and spring.

At first blush, the statement that the addition of 6000 sabers to the 12,000 or so that Pleasonton took into battle at Brandy Station on June 9, 1863 would have made a significant difference certainly makes sense, as the addition of that division would have meant that Pleasonton’s force would have been twice the size of Stuart’s. Nobody disputes that.

However, the real question is whether there was ever any chance of Stahel’s division being added to the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps any sooner that it was, which was at the end of June 1863. The answer is absolutely not.

The reasons why are actually pretty simple. At the time of the Battle of Brandy Station, Alfred Pleasonton–who was then the INTERIM commander of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps (the actual commander, Maj. Gen. George Stoneman was on medical leave)–was still a brigadier general of volunteers. Julius Stahel, who commanded that division, was a major general, and outranked Pleasonton. Thus, by virtue of seniority, Stahel would have been entitled to take command of the Cavalry Corps and the expedition. Pleasonton, whose ambition knew no bounds, never, ever would have permitted that to occur; once Stahel was in command, it would have been all but impossible to remove him. Thus, the only way that Pleasonton could have the benefit of that division was if Stahel was no longer in command of it.

Further, it was well known that Alfred Pleasonton had a rabid case of xenophobia, and Stahel was a Hungarian immigrant. Pleasonton firmly believed that foreigners had no place fighting in this most American of wars, and he took active, affirmative steps to rid his command of high-ranking foreigners that was as extreme as sacrificing an entire regiment at Middleburg, VA in an effort to rid himself of Frenchman Alfred N. Duffie during the early phases of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Pleasonton succeeded in ridding himself of the threat posed by Stahel, but it didn’t happen until the last week of June 1863. Stahel was relieved of command of his division, and then the division became the Third Cavalry Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, under the command of Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick.

However, at the beginning of June, prior to the Battle of Brandy Station, Stahel was well-ensconced i command of his division, and, at that time, was going nowhere. Given that, and given that Stahel ranked Pleasonton, there was absolutely NO chance that his division would have joined the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps on June 9, 1863.

So, while Mosby certainly had a point, his own ego prohibited him from seeing the truth, which is that he really didn’t play any role at all in the great Battle of Brandy Station.

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I’m going to profile a forgotten horse artillerist today. Today’s profile is of Maj. Gen. William Montrose Graham.

William Montrose Graham was born in Washington, D.C. on September 28, 1834, the son of James Duncan and Charlotte (Meade) Graham. His mother was a sister of George Gordon Meade. His father was a member of the West Point class of 1817, and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He was a distinguished and gifted topographical and civil engineer who died in 1865. His uncle and namesake, Col. William Montrose Graham, was killed during the Mexican-American War while commanding the 11th U.S. Infantry at Molino del Rey.

William M. Graham was appointed a second lieutenant of the 1st U. S. Artillery on June 7, 1855. He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 1, 1861, and to captain on October 26, 1861. For much of the Civil War, he commanded Battery K, 1st U. S. Artillery, which was a horse artillery battery. He was brevetted major July 1, 1862 for his service during the Peninsula Campaign, he was brevetted lieutenant colonel September 17, 1862 for his service at Antietam, to colonel July 3, 1863 for his service at the Battle of Gettysburg, and to brigadier general March 17, 1865 for gallant and meritorious service throughout the Civil War.

He was appointed colonel of the 2nd District of Columbia Volunteers on April 7, 1865, and mustered out of the volunteer service on September 12, 1865. When he mustered out of the volunteer service, he returned to the Regular Army. He was promoted to major of the 4th U. S. Artillery on July 18, 1879 and to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Artillery on August 10, 1887. He was transferred to the the 5th Artillery on July 18, 1879, and was then promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 1st Artillery on August 10, 1887.

Graham was transferred to the 5th Artillery on May 1, 1890 and was then commissioned colonel of the 5th Artillery on July 1, 1891. On May 26, 1897, he was promoted to brigadier general. He retired from active service in the Regular Army on his 64th birthday, September 28, 1898. At the beginning of the Spanish-American War, he was commissioned major general of volunteers. He was ordered to Camp Russell A. Alger, located at Falls Church, VA, to take charge of the organization of the Second Army Corps, U. S. Volunteers, which was mobilized to a strength of 30,000. In August, 1898, he was transferred to Camp George Gordon Meade, near Middletown, PA, where he was honorably discharged from the volunteer service on November 30, 1898.

Graham was married to Mary Brewerton Ricketts, the sister of his fellow artillerist, Maj. Gen. James Brewerton Ricketts. They had several children, including Lt. William Montrose Graham, who served as a lieutenant in the 12th U.S. Cavalry. Two of his daughters married naval officers.

He died on January 1, 1916 at the age of 82 at his daughter’s home near Annapolis, Maryland, after a short bout with pneumonia. He was buried in Washington, DC’s Congressional Cemetery near his parents. His son William joined him there in 1918.

William Graham was one of those exceptional Regular Army artillerists that made the Army of the Potomac’s horse artillery a force to be reckoned with. Graham was a dedicated professional soldier who made a real difference on the battlefields where his gunner fought.

Here’s to William Montrose Graham, forgotten horse artillerist.

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