Civil War CDV's Kansas 7th Cavalry

[Custermen]

While researching battles and cavalry skirmishes in West Tennessee and North Mississippi, I saw a reference to 7th Kansas Cavalry. It jumped out because I had seen many references to the 7th Illinois Cavalry---which was garrisoned for more than a year around Memphis and the M&C RR. I've also seen references to 7 Tennessee Cavalry(US) and a few others maybe.

The 7th Kansas Cavalry did patrol the area between Memphis and LaGrange and raids into Mississippi. I wanted to find out if Wm F. Cody did serve with them while in this area. The 3-year enlistment was expiring in 1864, so sometime around February 1864, they returned to Leavenworth to recruit more replacements. Wm. Cody was hanging out and gambling in Leavenworth saloons, and I guess he saw this as a chance for adventure and enlisted. The 7 Kansas Cavalry returned to West Tennessee but were on the move a lot.

 

I think I have a journal from a soldier of the 7 Kansas Cavalry, which was published in limited quantity. I will have to check my files to make sure I have the correct unit.

[Bob Hudson]

Wm. Cody was hanging out and gambling in Leavenworth saloons, and I guess he saw this as a chance for adventure and enlisted. The 7 Kansas Cavalry returned to West Tennessee but were on the move a lot.

 

 

Cody enlisted Feb. 1864 and was the 7th until the end of the war so he would been with them at:

 

...Veterans on furlough February 4-March 4; then moved to St. Louis, Mo., March 12. Moved to Memphis June 6. Near Memphis May 2 (detachment). LaFayette June 9.

Smith's Expedition to Tupelo, Miss., July 5–18. King's Creek July 9. Pontotoc July 11–12. Tupelo July 13–14. Oldtown Creek July 15. Ellistown July 16. Tupelo July 25.

Smith's Expedition to Oxford, Miss., August 1–30. Tallahatchie River August 7–9. Hurricane Creek, Oxford, August 9. Hurricane Creek August 13, 14, 16 and 19. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., arriving September 17.

Pursuit of Price through Missouri September 30-November 26. Little Blue October 21. Independence October 22. Big Blue and State Line, Westport, October 23. Mine Creek, Little Osage River, October 25. Duty by detachments in St. Louis District until July 18, 1865. Moselle Bridge, near Franklin, December 7, 1864 (Company E).

Expedition from Bloomfield into Dunklin County March 3–7, 1865. Skirmishes near Bloomfield March 3 and 7. Dunklin County March 4. Skirmish McKinzie's Creek, near Patterson, April 15, Ordered to Omaha, Neb., July 18; thence to Fort Kearney and duty there until September. Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, arriving September 14.

[Custermen]

 

LaFayette June 9

 

LaFayette is now named Rossville, TN, which is only a few miles East of Collierville. I was working with a group of volunteers researching the activities in our town and thought we could find documentation that he was here. Almost impossible for him to have served in a cavalry unit that patrolled between Memphis and LaFayette without a least passing through the town..

 

 

(Company E).

 

BTW, if my memory is correct, Wm Cody was in Company H.

[Custermen]

Fold3 only has an index card for the records of Kansas. For some reason, it is filed under the surname "Codg".

 

 

The Union XVI Corps built earth forts to protect the M&C RR between Memphis and LaGrange. There were forts at Germantown, Collierville, LaFayette, and two forts at Moscow. They also had camps set-up every 3 miles along the RR. (BTW--there is a hidden for in the low woods that is about the size of 2 football fields.) Some of these forts still exist but the one in Collierville has been lost. All of these towns saw a lot troop movement as they sat on the RR and the main road that connected Memphis and LaGrange. Union troops passed from Corinth to Memphis in 1862 and then returned the same way in late 1863 and 1864. General Chalmers almost caught General Sherman when his train was passing on October 11, 1863. After that, Sherman began closing down these forts and moving all these garrison troops towards Atlanta. Collierville was also the jumping off point for Soy Smith's raid in February 1864, that was supposed to link up with Sherman's Meridian Expedition.

 

I don't know why I can't edit my post---but the town we were researching was Collierville.

[KASTAUFFER]

Very nice find Bob. I love this kind of historical material,

 

Kurt

[wildcat123]

I have a reference that runs through the brief history of each Kansas regiment during the Civil War. I checked it for more info on the Cody connection, but it didn't mention it. It did match the 30 day furlough in Leavenworth in Feb-Mar 1864 that Bob wrote about. The history of these small, obscure local regiments is really fascinating.

[irish]

Very interesting. Wyanet Illinois was and still is a small farming community in a Western Bureau County.

[Allan H.]

Bob,

As a proud Jayhawker and a former resident of the city of Lawrence- the birthplace of both North Carolina and Kentucky basketball- I am THRILLED to get to see these CdV's. Thank you for sharing these images and the history of this unit with us.

 

As an aside, there are a number of CW graves on the west campus of Kansas University- across the street from the residence halls. It is frequently where people go to "hang out" and for some reason, a lot of coeds have sunbathed there year after year.

 

Allan

[Custermen]

Post photos.

[Allan H.]

Custermen-

Without going there myself to take some photos, I searched for a couple of images on line and was not disappointed. The first image is from the Lawrence "Journal-World website- http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2011/may/24/lawrence-area-memorials-and-historical-sites/83889/ which shows a photo of the grave of Adam Airis who served in Company B of the 13th Wisconsin Infantry. According to an article on KU History dot Com, http://kuhistory.com/articles/lost-and-found/ the article states
/I/"The largest group of interments occurred during spring 1862, when 18 members of the 13th Wisconsin Volunteers died of typhoid fever during their encampment in Lawrence while en route to Corinth, Mississippi, following the Battle of Shiloh./-I/

 

Airis was one of the fallen. The photo of three of the headstones is taken with the Fred Ellsworth Residence Hall serving as a backdrop. There is a photo somewhere of some girls in bikinis laying out among the stones, but I couldn't find it. Sorry.

 

This little cemetery has been called the Pioneer Cemetery as well as the Oread Cemetery. A number of Lawrence residence who were victims of William Quantrill's raid on Lawrence on August 21, 1863 are also buried there.

 

Allan

[Kansas Raider]

Hi, I also have a small grouping of Co, D, 7th Kansas Cavalry CDV's. All different from yours except one image. A great find.

[Bob Hudson]

Hi, I also have a small grouping of Co, D, 7th Kansas Cavalry CDV's. All different from yours except one image. A great find.

 

As I said, when I lived in Kansas (2001-2005) I was surprised by what I learned of the Border War: I had known it only as a sports rivalry.

 

 

My late father-in-law had a painting he'd commissioned of a tiger with a Jayhawk in its mouth. My mother-in-law made him hang it in the basement.

 

Here's another Missourian's view of the Jawhawk (I'm sure there's something similar taking on Missouri's veneration of Jesse James):

 

 

 

And in Kansas, of course, the Quantrell raid on Lawrence doesn't exactly make him a locasl hero:

 

[gwb123]

There's a Murphy's Law that when you buy a group of vintage photos, the most interesting one is the most faded.

 

I took a shot at this one, but I am sure that I accomplished much in bringing out the image.

[Jayhawker353]

Wonderful find. My ancestors were known to have been involved in the Bleeding Kansas area. Interesting that this names a Hewitt coming from our area of OH/IL, though I can find no sure relation by this name in my records.

[Kansas Raider]

Just found this topic. I to have several images of the 7th Kansas Cav. I had a relation in Co. D. here is a scan of him

[Kansas Raider]

Check out this image of a member of the 7th. Look at how he signed his name on the back. Can anybody ID him.

[Bob Hudson]

War Eagle shows up in the Kansas Indian Home Guards - so many Civil War soldiers served in short term units early in the war so perhaps that was his first unit and joined the 7th later.

 

[Bob Hudson]

It appears the 2nd Infantry Regiment Kansas was a three month outfit mustered out in Oct. 1861, 3 days after the 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth. My guess is that War Eagle became part of the 7th then and was with them when they were sent off to Corinth, Mississippi, arriving July 10, 1862.

 

check out https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/jennison-s-jayhawkers/18939

[Bob Hudson]

A CDV of a former member of the Indian Home Guard seems like a scarce item.

 

https://www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/historyculture/forgotten-warriors.htm

[Kansas Raider]

Thanks for the help. I will scan my images of the 7th and put them on. It might take me a little bit.

[Kansas Raider]

here is the start of my 7th Kansas Cav images

[Kansas Raider]

the back of the second image

[Kansas Raider]

last one for the night

[Kansas Raider]

I have a image that came with the 7th Kansas Cavalry. it is signed E.E.Ward, 2nd Lt., CO. D, 1st Ala. Inf. I can not find 1st Ala Inf US. Is the 1st Aba. actually the 55th Inf. USCT. Because I find him in the 55th USCT as 2nd Lt. CO. D

[Kansas Raider]

Here is a scan of the image