4th United States Cavalry, Collection of Documents Signed by Civil and Indian War Heroes, Including Eli Long & Elmer Otis 

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Jun 13, 2014 - Jun 14, 2014

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• Lot Description
  Lot of 20+ documents. 

  
  

  Indiana native, Clarence Mauck (1839-1881) received a commission March 27, 1861 as 2^nd lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment (and the first cavalry regiment, formed only six years earlier, which would replace the Dragoon regiments of previous decades). He trained at Fort Columbus (NY) and Carlisle Barracks (PA) through the spring. They were then sent to Fort Wise, CO and Fort Leavenworth, KS until February 1862. Thus, even as U.S. “Regulars” most were getting Western training at the beginning of the Civil War, although two companies served with the Army of the Potomac in the east, seeing action at Manassas, in the Peninsular Campaign, Fredericksburg and Antietam. 

  
  The unit, now the 4^th U.S. Cavalry, having been redesignated August 3, 1861, was finally brought back to Tennessee. It served most of the war in the Western Theater, with the two units from the east being reunited with them in Tennessee. Lieutenant Mauck served in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia, and was wounded in October 1864 in Rome, GA. He spent a month recovering before being assigned recruiting duty for most of the next year. After the end of the Civil War, the 4^th was sent to Texas, where it spent most of the next four years guarding the mails and the scattered settlements against Indian attacks.
  
  In December 1870, Col. Ranald Slidell MacKenzie was given command of the regiment, and ordered to stop the Kiowa and Comanche raids. He moved his headquarters from Fort Concho to Fort Richardson, although some companies remained at Concho and Fort Griffin. Mauck spent the remainder of his career at various western forts. The first hint that something was going awry came in early 1880. He is listed as being on sick leave from the end of April to late May of that year. He then commanded the post at Fort Stanton, NM until the end of August, and was put back on sick leave in September. Clarence Mauck died in January 1881 in San Antonio, Texas, reportedly of consumption (tuberculosis). 
  
  These letters came into the Mauck family either through Clarence directly or his widow later. The earliest is dated Head Quarters, Detachment 4^th Cavalry, Fort Wise, C.T. (Colorado), November 22, 1861. This is Order No. 1 from Captain Elmer Otis, Commanding the detachment, appointing Clarence Mauck AAQM and ACS of the detachment. Elmer Ignatius Otis (1830-1897) graduated from USMA in 1853 (Cullum #1615). He became Captain of the redesignated 4^th Cavalry, having moved up through the ranks in the 1^st Cavalry, primarily on frontier duty.  Near the end of the War, Otis was commissioned Major and moved back to the 1^st Cavalry. He then saw service in the 9^th Cavalry before being commissioned Lt. Col. of the 7^th Cavalry to date from June 25, 1876, having been tasked with reconstituting that unit which had been nearly destroyed at the Little Bighorn. He also served on Marcus Reno’s court-martial board. Otis retired as Colonel in early 1891 after nearly four decades of service.
  
  Two forms are signed by J.M. Warner, 1^st. Lt. 8^th Infy., AAQM, per Clarence Mauck, 1^stLt. 4^th Cav. These are invoices of subsistence stores, Fort Wise, C.T. for Nov. 22 and Dec. 13, 1861. (One for a Sibley tent and poles to Elmer Otis, the other one for 13 bushels of potatoes.) James Meech Warner was an 1860 graduate of USMA. He was assigned to the 10^th, then the 8^th Infantry before the war, then entered Volunteer service as Col. of the 11^th VT Infy. in 1862. He was commissioned Brig. Gen. of Vols. just after the end of the war, and mustered out of volunteer service in January, returning to the 8^th U.S. Infantry, but he resigned shortly after. During the Civil War he was awarded brevets of Maj., Lt. Col., and Col. for “gallant and meritorious service during the war,” Brig. Gen. for service at Spotsylvania CH and Winchester, Fisher’s Hill and Cedar Creek. 
  
  Special Order No. 11, Head Quarters Louisville Barracks, March 15, 1862 sent Lt. Mauck with his command to Nashville, TN. Signed by Major F[ranklin]. F[oster] Flint. Flint (1821-1891) was a USMA graduate in 1841. He served for four decades until his retirement in 1882. 
  
  A group of seven invoices and cover letter from Eli Long are also included. The letter is from Hd. Qrs 2^nd Cav. Brig. 2^nd Div., Camp near Stevenson Ala. Sept. 1^st 1863. Long tells Mauck that he is enclosing receipts that need to be signed and returned. He also notes: “I will hand you the Co. fund as soon as we meet or I have a safe opportunity of sending it. Have just returned from Trenton, GA. Met no rebs. Remember to all of the fellows.” Eli Long (1837-1903) was a native of Kentucky, graduating from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1855. He received his appointment of 2^nd Lieutenant in the newly formed 1^st Cavalry in June 1856 and immediately saw frontier service. He was appointed 1^st Lieut. just as the Civil War was about to erupt. During the war he was wounded five times and received brevets for many of them (left side – Farmington, TN, bvt. Major; head – Jonesboro, Atlanta campaign; right arm and thigh – Lovejoy’s Station, GA, bvt. Col.; head – Selma, AL, bvt. Brig. Gen.). He also was brevetted for actions at Knoxville, TN (Lt. Col.) and “gallant and meritorious service” (Maj. Gen. and Maj. Gen. Vols.). After recovering from wounds received at Selma, Long was appointed to command the District of New Jersey. He retired in 1867 with the rank of Major General.
  
  Plus two Special Orders signed by Major W[illiam]. B[edford] Royall, 5^th U.S. Cavalry, Mounted Recruiting Service, Carlisle Barracks, and a monthly report signed by Royall. S.O. No. 24, dated 19 December 1864, orders Clarence Mauck to Pittsburgh, PA to open a recruiting station there. S.O. No. 10, dated 6 March 1865 orders 1^st Lieut. John Johnson to relieve Mauck, who is to rejoin his regiment. The Tri-Monthly Recruiting Report is from Oct. 20 to 31, 1865 (during another stint in Pittsburgh), filled out by Mauck and signed off by Royall. The fourth item is a request by Mauck to Royall for permission to accompany the latest batch of recruits to Carlisle Barracks, Feb. 24, 1865. Docketed by Royall on verso. 
  
  William Bedford Royall (1825-1895) enlisted in the 2^nd MO Infy. in July 1846 for service in the Mexican War. He mustered out in late Oct. 1848. His first experience fighting Indians came as he accompanied a company of recruits on the Santa Fe trail in May 1848. He would have many more encounters over the years. When the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry was formed in 1855, he received a commission as 1^st Lieutenant. He was promoted March 1861 to Captain and commissioned into the 5^th U.S. Cavalry. A Virginian by birth, Missourian by choice, he still remained loyal to the Union. He was wounded at Old Church, VA, and assigned to recruiting duty as a consequence. It took a number of years to recover from his wounds, but after the end of the Civil War, he was once again in the field fighting Indians. He received brevets for service at Hanover CH, VA (Major) and Old Church, VA (Lt. Col.), and “arduous and faithful service” (Col.). He became Lt. Col. of the 3^rd. Cavalry in Dec. 1875, and the following year was in command of that  unit with the rank of Colonel, attached to General Crook’s command on the Yellowstone Expedition. He also received a brevet of Brig. Gen in 1890 for service in action against Indians at Rosebud Creek, MT in June 1876. He retired in 1887 with the rank of full Brigadier General. He died in Washington, DC in 1895 and is buried in Arlington.
  
  

  After the end of the Civil War, Mauck continued in the 4^th Cavalry. The unit was sent to Texas in late summer, and Mauck rejoined them there in November after his recruiting sojourn in Pennsylvania. On 4 March 1868 Mauck received $24.06 from Wirt Davis, then Bvt. Major and Post Treasurer at Camp Verde, Texas. Invoice (1p, 8 x 9.5 in.) signed boldly by Davis. Wirt Davis (1839-1914) was one of those capable soldiers who started at the bottom and worked his way through the ranks. He enlisted in the 1^st Cavalry as a private, and shortly becoming corporal (Co. K). He remained in the redesignated 4^thCavalry and received promotions to Sergeant and 1^st Serg. (Co. L), from May 1860; 2^ndLieut. April 1863; 1^st Lieut. April 1865; Captain, June 1868; Major (5^th Cav.) April 1890; Lt. Col. (8^th Cav.) July 1898; Col. 3^rd Cav.) Jan. 1900; retired 1901 as Brig. Gen.  (see his page at Arlington Natl. Cem.) He received brevets for actions at Chickamauga, GA, the cavalry actions in Mississippi, and the capture of Selma, AL; and later for actions against Indians on the North Fork of the Red River, TX and actions in the Big Horn Mountains, MT. The latter was the “Dull Knife” battle with Col. Ranald MacKenzie’s 4^th Cav. against Dull Knife’s Cheyennes during Crook’s campaign in the winter of 1876 after the Little Big Horn disaster during the summer.
  
  There is a letter from Ranald Mackenzie, ALS, 2+ pp, 7.75 x 9.75 in., Fort Sill, April 18^th(not stated, but likely 1875 given the Fort Sill location) appointing him temporary commander. “I shall have to send you to the Cantonment as you are the only captain at Cheyenne agency or this place [available for such duty]…. I write you to explain why I have been obliged to go back on my promise not again to give you a command.... I can not tell how long you will be in command but prepare for a very considerable time. Genl. Pope has telegraphed me to send a Captain competent to command and I trust you will not give me cause for regret.” Boldly signed Ranald Mackenzie. 
  
  Ranald (also spelled Ronald in some sources) Slidell Mackenzie (1840-1889) was an 1862 graduate of USMA for whom the war offered opportunities to show “what they were made of.” After graduation Mackenzie was assigned to the 9^th Army Corps as an assistant engineer, and sent to northern Virginia. He received brevets for Manassas (1^st Lieut.), Chancellorsville (Capt.), Gettysburg (Major); Petersburg (Lt. Col.); Cedar Creek (Col.); Opequan, Fisher’s Hill and Middletown, VA (Brig. Genl. Vols.); and “Gallant and meritorious services in the field during the rebellion” (Brig. Gen. USA and Maj. Gen. Vols.). He received a promotion to captain shortly after Gettysburg, and Col. Vols. of the 2^nd CT HA. He was present at Five Forks, in the pursuit of Lee’s army and present at Appomattox CH. After the failure of the 4^th Cavalry to stop Indian raids in Texas, Mackenzie was assigned to command, at barely 30 years of age. In May 1871 General Sherman came to Fort Richardson. After Kiowas murdered teamsters on a wagon train, Sherman had three leaders arrested for trial on the murders. One of the three, Satank (Sitting Bear), was shot by a trooper after removing his handcuffs (by taking off enough skin to slip them off) and attacking another trooper with a knife. (While he was escaping his restraints he was singing the Kiowa death song – having decades before sworn death before dishonor - clearly a case of “death by cop” in an earlier incarnation.) 
  
  Mackenzie led several expeditions against Comanches and Kiowas later in the summer, with mixed success. The following summer, Mackenzie set off again to locate the “problem” Comanches, and located a large village on the North Fork of the Red River. Nearly 100 Indians were killed or captured with a loss of only 3 cavalrymen (plus 3 injured). The following spring they were ordered to end the depredations in Texas by Indians, mostly Kickapoo and Apache, which had cost millions of dollars in damage, plus many lives. The Indians had set up bases in Mexico, coming across the border to raid the Texas towns, then escaping back into Mexico. Without permission of the Mexican government, Mackenzie took five companies of the 4^th Cav. and crossed the Rio Grande. He surprised three villages of raiders near Remolino, Coahuila, burned the villages and killed an estimated 19, losing only one trooper. It is estimated that these now-seasoned fighters rode 160 miles in just over 2 days (49 hours). (The raid was the model, although loosely, for the movie, Rio Grande [John Wayne].) Numerous other raids followed, both into the Southern Plains, and back into Mexico in 1878. Mackenzie is still a hero in South Texas for finally putting an end to the raiding. In 1880 the 4^th was transferred to Arizona Territory, where Mackenzie began working his “magic” on the various Apache groups and the Navajo. W.B. Royall took over as Colonel of the 4^th in 1882, and by then Mackenzie had pacified Kiowas, Comanches, Northern Cheyennes, Utes, White Mountain, Jircarilla, and Mescalero Apaches, Navajos and others to settle on their respective reservations. [Later under Royall, the 4^th would capture/negotiate surrender of Geronimo, ending the unit’s Indian Wars participation.]
  
  Included are two printed General Orders, Nos. 82, dated 14 Nov. 1878, enumerating prices of clothing and equipment for the Army (6 pages plus foldout sheet), and No. 28, dated 28 April 1880, most of which pertains to the GAR (cannon balls and cannons for monuments, use of army equipment for reunion encampments, etc.) (single sheet). Both signed in type by E.D. Townsend, Adj. Genl. Edward Davis Townsend (1817-1893) graduated from USMA in 1837, and commissioned in the 2^nd Artillery. He fought Seminoles and helped move the Cherokees before the Mexican War. In 1846 he was transferred to the AG’s Corps in Washington, as the Mexican War was heating up. He then served in the northwest for the first part of the 1850s, returning to Washington, DC in 1856, where he remained for the rest of his career. He received brevets for “meritorious and faithful service during the war.” He was promoted to Brig. Genl. in 1869 and became Adjutant Genl. at that time. He retired in 1880, and continued to live in Washington until he was accidentally killed by a shock from a cable car in 1893. 
  
  The last two letters are from long-time associates of Mauck, and both younger members of the unit, to his widow shortly after his death in Jan. 1881. One is dated 8 May 1881, Mescalero Indian Agency, NM, 7.75 x 9.75 in., 1+ page from Matthias W. Day, CMOH. Since the men had to purchase their equipment, and Mrs. Mauck had no real use for it, she let some be raffled off or otherwise sold to men of the unit. Day relates to her that the harness was raffled for $75, plus a trunk sold for $10. He promises to inquire about getting the proceeds of the sales to her. Matthias Walter Day (1853-1927) graduated from USMA in 1877, not particularly high in his class, and was assigned to the 10^th Cavalry. He moved to the 9^th Cavalry, one of units of African-American soldiers known as “Buffalo soldiers” in the Indian Wars, in early 1878.He received a brevet for “gallant service in actions against Indians during the attack on Geronimo’s stronghold” in 1885. He received the Medal of Honor for “bravery in actions” against Apaches in Las Animas Canyon, NM in Sept. 1879, for “…advancing into the enemy’s line and carrying a wounded soldier of his command [on his back down a rocky trail] under a hot fire and after he had been ordered to retreat.” [The citation indicates alone, but two men were trapped, and Sergt. John Denny, one of the Buffalo Soldiers, helped rescue the second man.]  Initially, Captain Beyer, who ordered the retreat because they were running low on ammunition and needed to get out to prevent being surrounded, wanted Day court-martialed for disregarding an order. Day was cleared by a board of inquiry, and subsequently received the Medal of Honor along with John Denny. In the early 1880s, the 9^th was transferred to the Southern Plains. Day was something of a celebrity because of his ability as a marksman. When the Spanish-American War broke out, Day became Lt. Col. of Vols. of the reactivated 1^st Ohio Cav. (deactivated after the Civil War). Although among the regiments making up the “Rough Riders,” the 1^st Ohio did not see any action because of lack of transport to Cuba. They were, however, sent to the Philippines and fought against the Moros. After hostilities ended, Day was posted to a number of units before returning to the 9^th Cavalry as its Colonel for a year until his retirement in 1912.
  
  The second letter to Mrs. Mauck is from Abiel Smith and seems to be mostly personal in nature. Smith indicates his regret for not buying some of their furniture (she moved East after Clarence’s death), and tells her that when she visits Washington, he will pick her up and drive her to his place that he is building so she can see it. Letter seems to be from Ft. Myer, VA (adjacent to Arlington), 5 Nov. 1881. Abiel Leonard Smith (1857-1946) graduated from USMA in 1878 and was commissioned to the 19^th US Infantry. In 1879 he transferred to the 4^th Cavalry. He was promoted to 1^st Lieut. 1883, Capt. In 1892, Lt. Col. Vols. in the Commissary dept. during the Spanish-American War; Col. & Asst. Commissary Genl. 1905; Brig. Genl. in QM Corps 1916. He received a brevet in 1890 for “gallant service in the campaign against Geronimo’s Band of Indians in Sonora, Mexico from July to September of 1886.” Smith retired in 1918 after forty years of service, and took up residence in Carmel, NY, about 50 miles north of NYC, even though he was born and raised in Missouri. He died in 1946, having witnessed yet another World War.
  
  The last items are blank forms for homesteads “under act June 8, 1872.” They have not been filled out.

   

  Condition

  As expected. Some toning. Only one letter (last) with separations of folds.
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