Muster Roll Company F, 30 April 1855

May 10, 2009

1st Sgt. Thomas Fitzsimmons NY 20 Jan. 1851; Reduced to the ranks and transferred to Co. K Sgt. Hugh Cameron NY 4 Mar. 1851 DS Burgwin Sgt. James Arthur Ft. Mass. 20 Aug. 1853 Re-enlisted; reduced to the ranks; sent to G Compy. Sgt. Charles Hamish Ft. Mass. 21 Aug. 1853 Re-enlisted Corp. Robert Walsh [...]

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Taos Mutiny 1855

May 1, 2009

THE TAOS MUTINY: THE ANATOMY OF A RIOT Copyright Will Gorenfeld May 24, 2009 On the 16th day of March in the year 1860, Aaron Stevens, a principled young man and abolitionist, finds himself awaiting execution on the gallows in Charleston, Virginia. A jury has declared guilty him of complicity in John Brown—™s abortive raid [...]

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Aaron Stevens Writes Home from Cantoment Burgwin 1854

April 29, 2009

Bugler Aaron Stevens, Co. F., 1st Dragoons wrote the following letter to his sister in Connecticut. In less than four months he would find himself caught up in the Taos mutiny of 1855. Sentenced to death by a military tribunal for attempting to shoot his commanding officer, Stevens would embark on a journey which would [...]

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Recruitment Advertisement 1833

April 27, 2009

The army would routinely place advertisements for recruits in newspapers. One of the first advertisements for recruits for in the newly formed Regiment of Dragoons was placed by Capt. Nathan Boone on October 26, 1833, in the Jeffersonian Republican. It read as follows: The undersigned being anxious to make up his Company of United States [...]

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A LETTER FROM HEADQUARTERS: New Horse Equipage and Seeing the Elephant, 1846

March 2, 2009

On August 18, 1846, Company B of the 1st United States Dragoons participated in the bloodless conquest of Santa Fe.  Brig. General Stephen W. Kearny, with orders to proceed to California, broke up Company B and transferred most of its enlisted men and mounts to the other four companies of Dragoons and headed west.  Lt. [...]

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Taos Riot 1855. Johnston Court Martial

February 23, 2009

Following the 1855 Taos Riot by members of F Company, 1st Dragoons, the President of the United States ordered that two of the officers involved be court martialed. Lt. Robert Johnston was charged with not assisting in the suppression of the riot and tried in Santa Fe in February of 1856. A transcription of his [...]

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Letters Home: Mathias Baker

February 22, 2009

Mathias Baker ran off from his prosperous New York home and joined the 1st Dragoons in 1845. He accompanied Stephen W. Kearny to Santa Fe in 1846. Returning to Ft. Leavenworth with Lt. John Love to rebuild the company, he writes of the trek back to the states. Baker accompanied Love to New Mexico in [...]

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Fort Stanton Cave

October 19, 2008

THE FIRST DRAGOONS AND FORT STANTON CAVE By Mike Bilbo (Outdoor Recreation Planner/Cave Specialist, BLM-Socorro Field Office) Prologue In 1855, a patrol of the 1st Dragoons from Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory, explore a large limestone cave located about one mile north of the fort. Their horses tied up and under guard, the men slowly [...]

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Disabled Dragoon Officers

September 21, 2008

Capt. James Allen’s Burial Missouri Republican, 31 August 1846 It is with sincere regret that I inform you of the death of Lt. Col ALLEN. He died this morning at 3 o—™clock, of congestive fever, after an illness of ten days, in his 38th year of age. He, you know, was Capt. of 1st Dragoons, [...]

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Resigning Dragoon Officers: William Magruder

September 20, 2008

Obtaining a rebel commission was not an easy thing for officers of the regular army. First, one had to choose between the loyalty owed to his home state and to the oath to defend the Constitution. Many officers of Southern birth remained in the federal army. Of 821 West Point educated officers actively serving in [...]

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