Sergeant Leonard L. Lancaster sat in his tent outside Memphis, Tennessee early in the morning of April 13th, 1865. He had just finished breakfast in the mess with his ‘pards’ when a rider roared into camp with fantastic news. Headquarters had just received a telegram from the War Department that General Grant had received the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at some unknown place, Appomattox Courthouse, in Virginia, on April 12th. After four years in the saddle as a part of the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry the war seemed to be over. While there were still some holdouts in the west, the war in the eastern theater had reached its conclusion. The war was nearly over; the boys could finally dream about going home!
As the news spread through the camp a general roar of glee came from the tents. The boys were slapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves; they had survived the ordeal. They were going home!
Victory parades celebrated the day. The city and the military camps were lit up, speeches were made, cheers were given and a two hundred gun salute was fired from Fort Pickering.
“Well, Lenny, we’re done with all of this soldiering! It’s time to get ready to muster out of this outfit and go home,” stated Private Calvin Russell.
“Cal, it’s going to be great to get back home. I haven’t seen my wife in over a year, and the kids are growing up without me. It will be great to get back home. I got a letter from my wife, Rebecca, telling me that Ma passed away right after I left home after my reenlistment furlough last year. The farm was in bad shape when I last saw it; Rebecca just can’t handle the place all by herself and the kids are still too small to help out. Some of the neighbors have given her a hand, but they have their own farms to tend to and help when they can. It’s been tough on her.”
Everyone in the Union camps celebrated the end of the war. It was a joyous occasion. They had struggled for four years against the rebels along the Mississippi River. Home, home, home was all that they could talk about. Everyone wondered daily when they’d get the order to report to the Mustering Officer and get their papers to go home.
The shattering news came a few days later. An actor named John Wilkes Booth had barged into the Presidential box at the Ford Theater in Washington City and had fired a single shot that assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
Victory parades instantly became parades of mourning. Lancaster wrote home to his wife:
“My Dearest Darling Rebecca
We’ve been having funeral processions and every building in the city has been draped for the last week on account of the death of President Lincoln, business has been generally suspended for the last week…. We are expecting peace or rather hoping for it, but the death of the President makes our prospects look dark again. Give my love to all; Fear not I hope to be home soon.
Your loving husband
Lenny”
While the war continued the Confederate armies were rapidly capitulating. By April 26th General Joseph Johnston surrendered his command to General Sherman. By May 4th Lieutenant General Richard Taylor surrendered to General Canby ending the war along the Mississippi River. Only isolated units in the Trans-Mississippi River Theater of Operations under the command of General Kirby-Smith and the Cherokee General Stand Waite remained at war. General Smith surrendered on May 26, and Stand Waite finally surrender his forces on June 23, 1865. The war was over! Well Almost!
Their new Regimental Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas H. Dale, called a general meeting for the men of the Second Wisconsin Cavalry. There was a silent prayer that went through the regiment hoping that he would announce the date that they would receive the order to muster-out and prepare to go home.
Few of the men really liked Dale. His battalion had been separated from the main body of the regiment while they were in Arkansas. They had only recently rejoined the regiment when they moved to Memphis. Many of the soldiers from Dale’s battalion had not reenlisted in 1863, some said as a result of his poor leadership. As a result the majority of them had mustered out of the regiment and returned home at the end of their enlistments. Dale and a few of his cronies had finally rejoined the regiment and there were a number of bad feelings about them.
“You know Cal, while we were watching our ‘pards’ die in Helena, Arkansas from bad water and disease those boys were up in Missouri livin’ high on the hog! While we were skirmishing along the Mississippi River they were layin’ low in Springfield chasing bushwhackers. I’ve heard stories about Major Dale and how he avoided any direct combat all the time he was there. He was a typical political officer, not worth the powder it took to blow his nose!”
“Lenny I heard that very few of his soldiers reenlisted in 1863. Most took a discharge and mustered out and went home. I ran into a couple of them just before I enlisted and, while they had good things to say about the regiment, they had nothing good to say about their battalion commander. Now that SOB is commanding our regiment!”
“Cal, he’s a marionette! All of this spit and polish, no combat experience, and a crybaby at that. Every time that he doesn’t get his way he runs to the general and complains. God help us if we have to go into combat with him. I heard that when he was with us at Red Bone Church that he faked a gunshot wound to his foot to get himself evacuated back to camp rather than finish his mission. I wonder what this politician has to say to us at this meeting?”
The regimental Command Sergeant Major called all of the troopers to attention and then ordered ‘REST’. Lieutenant Colonel Dale came forward to address the men of the regiment:
“Men, most of you here figure that you’ll be going home soon and some of you will. But for all of you veterans who reenlisted back in 1863 and got that thirty-day furlough you have to remember that your term of enlistment stated three years of service from that date, or the duration of the war. For all of you who enlisted after 1863 you have the same commitment; three years from your date of enlistment, or the duration of the war.
Most of our regiment reenlisted or joined after 1863 and we’ve been ordered to prepare for a movement. Our time in the service isn’t up yet. Now some of you will be eligible to muster out and I’ve been told that a lot of our officers have tendered their resignations, and they will be leaving us. Your squadron’s Adjutants will be getting with you to make arrangement for mustering out; the rest of us still have that three-year enlistment commitment.
We’re being ordered to Alexandria, Louisiana and we’ll be joining a cavalry division commanded by Major General George A. Custer. We’ll move from Alexandria into Texas to secure the border from an invasion by the Mexican army. We’re a part of a Cavalry Corps.
With the departure of many of our officers I will be filling the vacancies with some of our senior Sergeants. I’ve been given liberal authority from Governor Lewis to make these appointments from the ranks. Check with the Regimental Adjutant for these promotions and they’ll assist you in filling out the proper paperwork. And in advance, congratulations!”
There was a shudder from the majority of the men present. They weren’t going home!
The war was officially over, and an order came directly from the Commanding General, George Custer:
“To the men of the Cavalry Division,
The war that you’ve been fighting for the past four years is over. Those who we’ve fought against are no longer our enemies but our fellow citizens. No longer can it be tolerated that you forage liberally off of the countryside. Henceforth, any soldier found taking the property of our fellow citizens without specific orders or without compensation will be held for court martial.
I know that in the past you have subsisted by living off of the fruit of the land. This will stop immediately! Quartermasters and Commissary officers are hereby ordered to operate a military mess operation. Individual messes that have in the past fed our troops in this theater are to be dissolved immediately.
Given By My Hand,
George A. Custer
Major General of Volunteers”
Strict military order and discipline will be observed at all times and in all places. Senior commanders will no longer tolerate any form of disobedience. Any soldier caught disobeying the orders of their officers will receive the lash, the number of blows not to be less than nine nor greater than thirty-nine.
General Custer’s order was read by Lieutenant Colonel Dale, the Regimental Commander at the morning formation. It was not well received by anyone in the command. During their time in the south the soldiers of the regiment were notorious for living off the land and resupplying themselves by foraging and in many cases absolute stealing. Trooper Calvin Russell and his ‘pards’ had been involved in a series of cotton raids as well as rustling horses from suspected secessionists.
At the same morning formation the Adjutant read a list of names, all Sergeants, who were to report to the headquarters immediately after the formation. Sergeant Leonard Lancaster was one of the noncommissioned officers ordered to report to Major Gilmore, the mustering officer,
“You lucky old sod,” remarked Trooper Russell, slapping him on the back.
“They must be going to muster you out and send you home. I heard a rumor floating around the camp that you married guys are going to get discharged and sent home!”
“Well, Cal, I don’t think so, if fact I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this. You heard the colonel saying that he was going to appoint a bunch of sergeants to fill some of the officer positions since a bunch of them resigned their commissions and went home as soon as the war ended. I really don’t mind being a sergeant. I get along with all of the boys. But when you put on those shoulder straps you have to become someone else, someone in charge and I really don’t think I want to be in charge. I’m not into all of that officer struttin’ and givin’ orders.”
“Ah, come on Lenny, you’d be a shoe-in. You get along with all of the boys and we’ve been listening to you givin’ orders for over a year now as our Sergeant. Besides you’ll get a big pay raise and a commission signed by Governor Lewis himself. When we finally do get home, think about it, you could use that commission and rank to get yourself into politics and get elected”
When the troops were dismissed Sergeant Lancaster and eighteen other sergeants fell into formation and were marched directly to the Adjutant’s tent. Here they received notification that they had been selected by Lieutenant Colonel Dale to serve as commissioned officers in the regiment replacing those who had resigned. The paperwork was completed, and each man was ordered to sign the muster log that discharged them from their enlistment and re-mustered them into the regiment as a commissioned officer. The Paymaster closed their accounts and when the paperwork was completed he opened a new pay account for each of these new officers based upon the position that they were to hold in their squadron. When the paperwork was completed the Adjutant had all of the men form up at Attention and turned the formation over to the regimental commander,
Colonel Dale had each of the men raise their right hand and take the oath:
‘I, Leonard L. Lancaster, do solemnly swear that to the best of my knowledge and ability, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”
With that Lenny Lancaster found himself commissioned as a Second Lieutenant assigned to Squadron “L”, Second Battalion, the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry.
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