3rd New York Cavalry Signed Documents Lot

This lot consists of 21 documents relating to equipment, provisions, quartermaster returns, ordnance requisition, and more.  Nearly all bare the signatures of higher ranking officers in the regiment, with some having great wartime records, and even early Indian Wars involvement.  The 3rd New York Cavalry served during the war in the Army of the Potomac, Department of North Carolina, and the Army of the James, with many engagements against the enemy.

This is the chronological list of items: (photographed in order).

• Special Requisition, Co. E, Feb. 1862 signed by Ferris Jacobs, Jr., and Colonel Simon H. Mix.
• Provision Return, 10 Feb., 1862 for  Non Commissioned Staft, signed by Col. Simon Mix and Samuel C. Pierce, Adjt.
• Provision Return, 11 Feb., 1862, same signatures.
• Provision Return, 21 Feb., 1862, signed by, ( wagon master) Regt. QM W.J. Steadman, and Major John Mix.
• Provision Return (in manuscript), 25 Feb., 1862, signed by John Mix and Adjt (can’t make out).
• Manuscript document listing food, and other articles purchased by company F funds, Feb, 1862, signed by  Capt, MacNamara.
• Manuscript -Invoice of Clothing, Camp & Garrison Equipment,  3 March, 1862, signed by Capt. MacNamara.
• Clothing, Camp Provisions, 9 March, 1862, signed by 1st Lt. James R. Chamberlin, Act. Regt, Quartermaster.
• Manuscript doc, accoutrement, personal and horse return by Capt. John M. Wilson.
• 3 documents, 4 March, 1862, Ordnance, Clothing, etc docs signed by Capt. Ferris Jacobs, Jr.
• Provision Return, 14 March, 1862, signed by W.J. Steadman.
• Special Requisition Ordnance (horse gear), 25 April, 1862, signed by Capt. Jephta Garrard, and Col. Simon Mix.
• 4 documents, Ordnance and Clothing Stores, 25 April, 1862, all signed by James R. Chamberlin.
• Manuscript receipt for milk, 3rd Cav. Hospital, 1 Feb, 1862, by William H. Pleasants.
• 2 misc documents.

Simon H.Mix, enlisted as LtCol. 8/16/61, promoted to Colonel in April of 1862.  He died of wounds  at Petersburg and taken POW at that time.

Ferris Jacobs, Jr. enlisted as Captain 8/22/61. Rose to LtCol.  Then commissioned as LtCol. in the 26th NY Cavalry, Brevet Brigadier General 3/65, and Colonel. 6/65.  After the war, a member of the House of Representatives from NY 1881-83.

Jeptha Garrard, enlisted as Captain 8/18/ 61, to Colonel of US CT 1st Cavalry on 12/30/1863, Brevet Brigadier General 3/11865.  He was originally a captain with the 6th independent company of the Ohio Vol. Cavalry before merging with the 3rd NY.

Wallace Steadman, enlisted as private 8/18/1861, re-enlisted 12/1863, discharged 8/29/1865 at Camp Parole, Md.  POW at Stony Creek, Va, 6/29/1864, confined at Andersonville, Ga., paroled 5/2/65.  Was promoted to Serg’t 9/1/63.

Samuel C. Pierce, enlisted as 1st Lieutenant, 8/20/61, mustered out 7/12/1865.  POW Reams Station, Va, 6/29/64, confined at Columbia, SC, and escaped on 11/28/1864.  Adjutant 9/21/1864, Captain 12/27/1862.

James R. Chamberlin, enlisted 8/31/1961 as a private, hospitalized at Fort Monroe, Va, wounded as well, no date listed.  resigned to raise a new regiment, 1st Lt., Adjutant of 1st Bn., rose to rank of Captain.  After the war he opened the Chamberlin Rubber Goods Co,, Rochester, NY in 1866.

Michael MacNamara, enlisted on 11/4/1861, as 1st Lt., and resigned 1/26/1863.

John M. Wilson, enlisted on 8/27/1861 at Rochester, NY as a Captain. On 8/27/1861, he was commissioned into “H” Co. and mustered out on 9/6/1864 at Bermuda Hundred, Va.

John Mix, enlisted 9/21/ 1861 as Major, resigned on 12/27/1862, then commissioned into the 2nd U.S. Cavalry as a 1st Lieutenant. Captain 10/19/1865. He was enlisted into Company F, 2^nd U.S. Dragoons on April 11, 1852, and re-enlisted into the same company  at Fort Riley, Kansas on February 21, 1857.  Appointed a second lieutenant in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, still in Company F,  on August 14, 1861. On December 27, 1862, Mix resigned his volunteer commission (with 3rd NY), and returned to the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry.  While unusual, it was not unheard of for regular officers to resign their volunteer commissions and return to their units.   After a stellar service record during the war, Mix returned home, and rejoined his Company M at Fort Sedgwick, Colorado Territory in October 1866 and served there for the next three years.  His tenure there included “numerous successful field operations along the line of the Republican River,”   Most of the time at Sedgwick, Mix was at odds with post commander, Captain James P.W. Neill, 18th U,S. Infantry, and was once placed under arrest. (Neill had his trouble with alcohol and at time unhappy that Mix shared command of the post).  After the Fetterman Massacre near Fort Phil Kearny, Mix’s company was sent to that place to support the Army’s endeavors on the Bozeman Trail.

In February 1874, Captain Mix and Co. M was reassigned to Fort Laramie.  They served here until September 1877, when the majority of the regiment was transferred to newly constructed Forts Keough and Custer in Montana Territory.  Fort Custer, on the Big Horn River at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, was garrisoned by the regimental headquarters and four companies, including Company M. On January 25, 1881, John  Mix was promoted to major and assigned to the 9^th U.S. Cavalry.  He had served for 29 years in the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, ten years in Company F and 19 in Company M.  He joined his new regiment in New Mexico several weeks later.  Major John Mix died in Santa Fe on October 26, 1881, while en route from Porter, New Mexico to New York.  Assistant Surgeon St. Clair Streett listed his cause of death as “malignant disease of the walls of the chest and axillary glands attended with complete paralysis of both lower extremities.”  He is buried next to his wife in Section 21, Cedar Grove Cemetery, New London, Connecticut.

(A good deal of this information was posted on the history of John Mix is by dccaughey in 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Fiddler’s Green, officers).website

Condition of the document overall is very good +. A great blend of documents signed by officers who performed well during the war, and received higher rank in the Volunteers during the Civil War.