California Genealogy and History Archives
Civil War Veterans
|
GENERAL
WILLIAM SPENCER McCASKEY, a Captain of the 79th Pennsylvania
of Company “B”. Civil War Veteran of Monterey County. William
Spencer McCaskey was born near Paradise, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
on October 2, 1843. He was an Army Career man. During the time of the
American Civil War, he held the rank of Captain during that period in
the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry of Company B. His
service extends beyond this period. He died on August 12, 1914 while in
the Garden of his home on the corner of Ocean View & Monterey
Avenues in Pacific Grove, California.
His internment was made on August 14, 1914 at the Presidio
Cemetery in San Francisco, California. (San Francisco National Cemetery) There
is a huge amount of information on this General. There is an obituary
from the “Monterey American” newspaper issue August 13, 1914 and the
Funeral notice from the “Monterey Daily Cypress” on August 15, 1914,
followed by a Biographical Sketch of the General. McCASKEY,
WILLIAM SPENCER (1843-1914) CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, PRESIDIO The
passing of Major General William S. McCaskey, who departed this life on
Monday evening while at work in his garden in Pacific Grove takes away a
prominent army officer. He
had been enjoying his usual good health during the day, but was taken
ill shortly after dinner and passed away the cause being uremia.
He was seventy one years of age, and was a retired army officer
of considerable service. Besides
his widow there are several sons and daughters left to mourn his going.
They are as follows: Mrs. Wm. H.H. Chapman, widow of Captain Wm. H.H. Chapman, Twentieth U.S. Infantry. He
enlisted as a private in Company F of the First Pennsylvania Infantry on
April 20, 1861 and served during the Civil War.
He was promoted successively to first sergeant of Company b,
Seventy ninth Pennsylvania Infantry, second lieutenant, Seventy ninth
Pennsylvania Infantry; also first lieutenant and captain the same
regiment. He was honorably
mustered out on July 12th 1865. After
the war he enlisted in the regular army and served as follows: Second and first lieutenant in the Thirteenth Infantry, February 23rd 1866 General
McCaskey was a native of Pennsylvania and was born on October 2nd 1843.
He came to the Pacific Coast after he was retired and he had been
a resident of Pacific Grove for a number of years. The
body will be sent to San Francisco on the 8:05 train tomorrow morning;
the cavalcade procession leaving the residence at the corner of Ocean
View and Monterey avenues at 7:15 o’clock.
There will be a large escort of officers from the Presidio as
well as an escort of Grand Army men. Monterey Daily Cypress August 15,
1914 San
Francisco, August 14, Funeral
services for the late Major General William S. McCaskey, United States
army, retired, who died at his home in Pacific Grove on Wednesday, were
held at the Presidio of San Francisco this afternoon at 3:30 o’clock,
interment being at the National Cemetery at the Army post. Major
General Arthur Murray, commanding the Western Department: Brigadier
General J.P. Wiser, commanding the Pacific Coast artillery district;
Colonel George K. McGunnegle, commanding officer at Fort McDowell;
Colonel Hamilton S. Wallace, department quartermaster; Colonel Frank B.
McCoy, commanding officer at the Presidio, and Lieutenant Colonel L.E.
Goodier, department judge advocate general acted as pallbearers. The
body was received by a military escort of honor and taken to the post
chapel of the Presidio. The
entire Thirteenth Infantry and the band escorted the body to the grave. General McCaskey was a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted as a private in the First Pennsylvania Infantry at the outbreak of hostilities. He became a captain in the volunteer forces before he was mustered out in July 1865. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the regular military establishment February 22, 1866, and immediately commissioned a first lieutenant. He attained the rank of major general in April 1907, and was placed on the retired list October 2 of the same year. He was universally liked in the service and his death will be sincerely mourned by thousands of officers and men of the service who have served under him. GEN.
WILLIAM SPENCER McCASKEY now
in command of the 20th United States Infantry, with headquarters at Fort
Sheridan, twenty-five miles north of Chicago, Ill., was born near
Paradise, Lancaster Co., Pa., Oct. 2, 1843. He is of a family well known
in Lancaster city and county, two of his brothers being Prof. J. P.
McCaskey, the well-known teacher and publisher, and Dr. J. B. McCaskey,
dentist, on East King street. On the side of his father, William
McCaskey, who was a man of iron will and fine executive ability, he is
of strong Scotch-Irish stock, his grandfather having come to this
country about 1795. Among his mother's ancestors are Douglas and Wilson,
of Scotland; Davis and Piersol, of Wales; Eckert and others, of
Switzerland and Germany, all of whom came to Pennsylvania long before
the war of the Revolution. His great-grandfather, William McCaskey, was
a freeholder in County Monaghan, Ireland and an officer in the British
army on duty in America during the Revolutionary war. Two of his
maternal grandfathers, Gabriel Davis and Zaccheus Piersol, were officers
in the American army. After
removing to Lancaster, in 1855, the subject of our sketch attended the
public schools. In 1859 he left the high school and was an apprentice
for two years in the Examiner printing office, in Lancaster, until the
breaking out of the Civil war. While in this office he belonged to a
military company of young fellows who were drilled regularly by the late
Dr. E. K. Young. Nearly all the members of the company of boys who had
been trained by this earnest drill-master afterward became officers in
the army. Perhaps the most noted of them all, and certainly the man who
has seen most service, having been a soldier on active duty for more
than forty years, is Col. McCaskey. When Fort Sumter was fired upon,
April 13, 1861, and President Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five
thousand men for ninety days, two companies from Lancaster responded
promptly. The Lancaster Fencibles, Capt. Emlen Franklin, of which he was
one of the youngest members, not yet eighteen years old, and the Jackson
Rifles, Capt. Henry A. Hambright, filled up their ranks at once, and
left for Harrisburg April 19th, within less than a week from the fall of
Sumter. They were sworn into the United States service April 20th, and
became respectively F and K Cos., of the 1st Regiment Pennsylvania
Volunteers. The first sergeant of the Fencibles was David Miles,
afterwards lieutenant-colonel of the 79th Regiment. On the 21st of
April, the regiment, with two others, under command of Gen. Wynkoop, was
sent toward Baltimore to reinforce the 6th Massachusetts, which had been
attacked in that city. Fort McHenry was not then garrisoned, and the
object of the movement of the Pennsylvania Brigade was to attract the
attention of the Baltimoreans in the direction of Cockeysville, in order
that Fort McHenry, on the opposite side of the city, might, be occupied
with troops from Washington. During
the months of May and June the regiment guarded bridges on the Northern
Central Railroad, north of Baltimore, marched through Baltimore to
Cantons, thence to Hagerstown, Md., and later was stationed in Frederick
City as provost guard, after which it joined Gen. Patterson's army, at
Martinsburg, Va., and took part in the pursuit of Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston's army en route to reinforce Gen. Beauregard at Bull Run. Gen.
Patterson's army halted at Charleston, W. Va., and was at that point
during the battle of Manassas. The regiment, while at Charleston,
volunteered to remain in the service beyond its term if it should be
needed. The Fencibles and Rifles, who had all the while been conspicuous
in the regiment for discipline, drill and manly conduct and bearing,
returned from their ninety-days enlistment July 27th, the regiment
having been mustered out at Harrisburg, and were welcomed with
enthusiasm by the people of Lancaster. Nearly all of them began
immediately to plan for re-enlistment for three years or the war. Of the
75,000 men who answered the first call for volunteers, but twenty remain
on the active list of the army (March, 1903) as commissioned officers,
and the name of Col. McCaskey is the tenth upon this list of honor. Capt.
Henry A. Hambright, of Co. K (Lancaster Rifles), was appointed to a
captaincy in the regular army, but was detached for the purpose of
raising a regiment of riflemen to be accepted for three years or the
war. The regiment was mustered into the service at Camp Negley,
Pittsburg, Sept. 5, 1861, as the 79th Pa. Vols. Nine of the ten
companies were recruited in Lancaster county. One of these, Co. B, was
raised by Capt. David Miles, Lieut. Druckenmiller and Sergt. McCaskey,
who was promoted to second lieutenant Oct. 9, 1862, the day following
the battle of Perryville, having served one year as first sergeant. He
was made first lieutenant April 10, 1863, captain July 1, 1863, and was
mustered out with his company July 12, 1865. With
the 77th and 78th Regiments and a light battery, the 79th Regiment
formed what was known as Negley's Brigade of Pennsvlvania Volunteers.
The brigade embarked at Pittsburg and was sent to Louisville in October,
1861, where it was reported to General William T. Sherman. It formed
part of the advance to Green River, Ky., and during the spring of 1862
was detached and started to the relief of Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson,
Tenn. Its services not being needed, it returned to the Army of the
Ohio. During the advance on Nashville, and toward Shiloh, it was
detached and stationed at Columbia, Tenn., forming part of Mitchell's
flying division. In June, 1862, they made a movement, over two ranges of
mountains, and in concert with troops from Huntsville, Ala., feigned an
attack on Chattanooga, thereby causing the evacuation on Cumberland Gap
by the Confederates, and permitting its occupancy by Federal troops.
This was the first movement toward East Tennessee. In September the
brigade retired to Nashville, with Gen. Buell's army, and was known
thereafter as Starkweather's Brigade. After
a year of hard service, in which these men of the Keystone saw much of
Kentucky on long and hurried marches, and were drilled into a
magnificent fighting organization, the 79th had its awful baptism of
fire at Perryville, or Chaplin Hills, Ky. In this bloody engagement,
which was a close standup fight, without cover, the regiment lost
one-third of its strength in killed and wounded. Starkweather's
Brigade, of Rousseau's Division, to which this regiment belonged, stood
like a rock in the way of the Rebel advance, and saved the day when the
enemy came, driving everything before them, confident of victory. Five
men were shot by the side of First Sergt. McCaskey, but the shortening
line closed up and they held their ground, bitinig cartridges until
tongues and throats were so black and dry they could hardly speak. More
than 50,000 troops were engaged in this desperately contested battle,
the importance of which has not been generally recognized. Gen. Bragg,
with the memories of Shiloh fresh in his mind, wrote: “For the time
engaged, it was the severest and most desperately contested engagement
within my knowledge.”; Gen. McCook declared it to be “The bloodiest
battle of modern times for the numbers engaged on our side”; of less
than 13,000 troops of the 1st Corps engaged, 3,299, more than
one-fourth, were killed, wounded and missing. The brigade took part in
the pursuit of Bragg's army, having the usual rearguard fighting. This
was followed by incessant marching, skirmishing, fighting -
Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga. On Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 1, 2,
3, 1863, the battle of Stone River, or Murfreesboro, was fought, and the
regiment did its full share of duty, whatever was required of it. It
formed part of Rousseau's 1st Division, 14th Army Corps, under Gen.
Thomas. It participated in the Tullahoma campaign, having several
engagements. It was also, in the Chickamauga campaign and was engaged in
that battle for two days, suffering heavily. It was identified with Gen.
Baird's division, still the 1st of the 14th Corps. The division held the
key point of the line on Sunday, Sept. 21, 1863, and remained in line
until ordered to retire. The 14th Army Corps, under Gen. Thomas, ever
afterward known as “the Rock of Chickamauga” saved the army from
rout in that great battle. The 79th also passed through the siege and
starvation experience of Chattanooga, from September to November, 1863. The
79th went into the battle of Chickamauga with seventeen officers and 350
men, of whom sixteen were killed, sixty-six wounded and forty-seven
missing, an aggregate of 129. An incident occurred here which we have
heard repeatedly spoken of, showing the coolness of Capt. McCaskey in
the midst of the greatest danger. As they lay on the firing line,
protected by almost nothing in the way of earthworks, the line of the
enemy just beyond, and each firing to kill any who might be exposed, he
saw that two of his men had been wounded by the tin cases from a gun in
the rear firing grape and canister at point blank range. He got up,
walked back to the commanding officer, then to the gun, had its position
changed, then to his place in the line and lay down unharmed, all the
while a conspicuous mark, the bullets raining about him, and many of
them no doubt aimed directly at him. He seemed to bear a charmed life,
for, though present in each of the twenty-eight battles in which the
regiment was engaged (never absent from the regiment at any time for any
cause), and constantly on active duty, he was never wounded. Bullets cut
his clothing, spent balls hit him, and he was knocked down by the impact
of a cannon ball striking the timbers near his head, but he was never
hurt. In
March, 1864, the regiment re-enlisted, and came home to Lancaster for a
furlough of thirty days. Returning to Chattanooga, they joined Gen.
Sherman's army May 7th, and within an hour participated in the first
charge made upon the enemy's works on Rocky Ridge, Ga. During the next
four months the regiment took part in all the movements and battles of
the 14th Army Corps, including Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, New Hope Church,
Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochie, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, July 22d and
28th, and closing with the battle of Jonesboro, Ga., Aug. 31, 1864.
During these four months there was hardly a day that the regiment was
not under fire. On
July 21st, 1864, Capt. McCaskey performed exactly the same service on a
different part of the Peach Tree Creek battlefield for which the late
Gen. Lawton and the present Gen. Baldwin were granted medals of honor.
He led the charge of the regiment, though there were many senior
officers present, and they were successful in capturing the enemy's
works. The 79th Pennsylvania and the 21st Ohio were ordered to charge
the works. Capt. McBride, then in temporary command of the 79th
Regiment, asked Capt. McCaskey to lead the charge with his company,
saying it was also the wish of the older captains that he should do
this. He knew the risk, but accepted it promptly, and led right over the
entrenchments, several paces in advance of old Co. B, which followed him
with cheers, the whole line rushing forward, as Co. B set the pace. They
succeeded in driving out the enemy. Nearly all the medals of honor
mentioned in the army register are for similar or less dangerous acts of
distinguished gallantry. One of the several brevets for which he was
recommended was for this charge at Peach Tree Creek. The
79th formed part of the 1st Division, 14th Army Corps, on Sherman's
famous March to the Sea, engaged in the siege of Savannah, Ga., and
accompanied the same army on its march through the Carolinas, engaging
in the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville, N. C., in the last of
which the regiment lost heavily. In the latter part of this engagement
it was commanded by Capt. McCaskey. This was the last engagement of any
importance between the armies of Gens. Sherman and Johnson. The regiment
proceeded to Richmond and thence to Washington, where it participated in
the grand review in May, 1865, and was then mustered out of the service,
July 12, 1865. From
the 19th of April, 1861, until July 26, 1865, with the exception of a
few weeks in 1861, he was continuously in the service. He was promoted
from second lieutenant to first lieutenant and from that to a captaincy
in quick succession, the latter commission dating July 1, 1863. He was
seventeen years and six months old when he entered the service, and was
a captain before he was twenty years of age. He was never absent from
his company or regiment when it was engaged in battle or campaigning,
and has lost but one month from sickness in more than forty years. This
was during the late service in the Philippines, when the doctors told
him he must quit or die. After
the close of the war, like many another, Captain McCaskey looked about
for something to do in civil life. One day, early in 1866, Thaddeus
Stevens, Jr., came into the office of Dr. McCaskey, to say that his
uncle, the “Old Commoner” had asked him whether there was any one
whom he would like to have appointed second lieutenant in the regular
army; that he had an appointment to make, and would name any friend whom
he would recommend. “Young Thad” wished Captain McCaskey appointed,
with whom he had served as a private in the Fencibles, and whom he knew
as a brave and skillful officer. It was some days before a letter was
sent to him at Poughkeepsie, where he was then at Eastman's Business
College, and before a reply was received Mr. Stevens called again,
saying that his uncle must make the appointment within two or three
days. He was much surprised and gratified at the offer of a commission.
He had not thought of this, but it seemed the thing that fit his case
exactly, and it had come to him as a gift from a friend. He received his
commission in the regular army April 26, 1866, and has passed through
all the grades up to his present rank. He has filled with marked
efficiency every position in line or staff that was open to him. From
April, 1866, until April, 1898, he served on the frontier in Dakota,
Montana, Minnesota, Texas and Missouri. He has been associated with
troops continuously during his forty and more years of service. He was
never on ordinary staff duty, and has commanded troops and served with
them a longer period than any other officer now on the active list. He
was selected for duty on the staff of the governor of Illinois, and
again on that of the governor of Wisconsin, as Instructor and Inspector,
but was relieved at his own request, for the reason that he could not
afford to live in a city with his large family. He has been on duty at
many forts and distant posts in the Northwest, some of which are now
thriving cities. In 1876 he succeeded Gen. Custer in command of Fort
Abraham Lincoln, near Bismarck, N. D., when that dashing cavalry officer
started on his fatal campaign against the Indians in the Big Horn
mountains. We have heard him say that the hardest thing he has ever had
to do was to tell Mrs. Custer and the ladies of the post the awful news
of the disaster, that came during the night, brought down the river by a
scout to him as the officer in command of the post. At
the outbreak of the Spanish-American war the 20th Infantry was ordered
to the Gulf. It left Fort Leavenworth April 19, 1898, and went into camp
at Mobile. Col. Hawkins and Lieut. Col. Wheaton, of the regiment, were
both made brigadier generals of volunteers, and the command devolved
upon Major McCaskey. He took the regiment to Cuba, and was present, in
command, day and night, in the battle of El Caney and during the
dreadful experiences of the campaign before and after the capture of
Santiago. In his official report he says: “The effective strength of
the regiment at the beginning of the first day's fight, July 1st, was 23
officers and 570 enlisted men” and gives a detailed account of
movements, duty and casualties, with very courteous individual mention
of officers of the command. He adds “The non-commissioned staff and
other enlisted men of the regiment sustained the reputation of the army
for fortitude, intelligent performance of duty, and ability to endure
under privations. They were cool under fire or in the charge, were under
perfect discipline at all times, and showed remarkable ingenuity in the
construction of entrenchments, the lines of which were mainly built with
bayonets, meat ration cans or tin cups.” In
a racy little book, “What I Saw in Cuba” Burr McIntosh, among other
things, pays many compliments to the officers of the 20th Regiment. He
went to Cuba on their transport, and when the regiment was landed
managed to swim ashore, contrary to Gen. Shafter's orders in regard to
newspaper men. He says “I started inland in search of Gen. Bates and
his command. A number of camp fires were glowing along the roadside in
front of the lines of tents pitched by the men of the 20th and the 3d,
the Independent Brigade commanded by Gen. Bates. As I approached them
almost the first man I met was Major McCaskey. Aboard ship he had always
been the essence of courtesy and kindness, but I knew he was a strict
disciplinarian, and it was with some hesitation I ventured within a few
yards of his camp fire. He recognized the figure, and with a stern look
asked: 'How did you get ashore?' I removed my hat, bowed and answered,
'Please, sir, I fell off the side of the boat. They tried to rescue me,
but there were no loose ropes, so I had to swim in. After this edifying
explanation I was invited to partake of the evening meal, which was
being prepared for him and two of his officers. I remember this most
because of the fact that it was the only one I enjoyed during my stay in
Cuba” From
Cuba Major McCaskey took the regiment to Montauk Point for some weeks,
and from there back to the old headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. Like
all the other regiments from Cuba, the 20th returned a wreck, and he at
once set about and completed the work of reorganization. His own health
had by this time been so much impaired that he was ordered on a long
sick leave, and was about to go to southern California when orders were
received for the regiment to start for the Philippines. Of course, he
did not accept the leave, but took the four weeks' voyage to Luzon
instead. They left Leavenworth Jan. 21, 1899. Col.
Elwell S. Otis, who was in command of the army in the Philippines, with
headquarters at Manila, needed a strong garrison in the turbulent city,
and chose for this important service his own old regiment, the 20th
United States Infantry, of which he had been colonel for more than
thirteen years. It was now commanded by his intimate personal friend,
Col. McCaskey, with whom he had been pleasantly associated all these
years, and in whose vigilance and ability in this trying situation he
had the fullest confidence. The regiment was held here for nearly two
years, and kept the great city of two or three hundred thousand people
in order by vigilant service at all hours of the day and night though
conflagration and uprising were all the while threatened. This service
was of a special character and of the utmost importance, and the 20th
was held as the garrison regiment during the administrations of both
Gen. Otis and Gen. MacArthur. Manila
was under strict martial law, the curfew regulation was in force and the
duties that confronted the regiment were both delicate and important. It
was absolutely necessary to prevent the disaffected natives from getting
together to form organizations and cause disturbance. At the same time,
upon the cosmopolitan inhabitants martial law must be administered
without unnecessary harshness, friction or oppression. There were no
tribunals, either civil or criminal in existence, except the provost
police courts. All disputes of every kind had to be decided temporarily,
at least, off-hand, by the military police captains at the various
stations, or by Colonel McCaskey, who was chief in command. In addition
to the police duties assigned to it the regiment acted for a time as a
reserve to the forces in the trenches, and was frequently called upon,
and for months was held in constant readiness by day or night to respond
promptly to any orders, either to reinforce a threatened point without
or promptly to put down disturbance within. The protection of all the
high officials and of trains on the railroad, the care and guarding of
all prisoners, both civil and military, looking after ladrones and
others in the suburbs and elsewhere, the safety of the immense depots of
supplies, and especially of the Maestranza Arsenal, which was the focus
of all insurgent plans, and the enforcing of Customs regulations, were
all a part of the duty of this regiment. The
20th Infantry had been recommended by Gen. Otis to be sent to China in
1900, as a representative organization. Gen. MacArthur also wished it to
go, but he found it impossible at that time to take it from the duty in
Manila with which it was so familiar, and he would not risk a change at
that important juncture. In a personal note to Col. McCaskey, dated
March 18, 1902, Gen. MacArthur says” I congratulate you heartily upon
your return from the Philippines. I appreciate very warmly all the good
work done by your regiment, especially in Manila. It was not showy, but
of incalculable value. Nobody knows that fact so well as Gen. Otis and
myself. We felt absolutely dependent upon the garrison of Manila, and
knew that everything would be secure in the hands of your regiment.” The
regiment was relieved from duty in Manila toward the end of January,
1901, and ordered to northern Luzon, where it was kept busy for some
months in field duty and cleared the region of armed insurgents. At the
time of leaving Manila it numbered 1,500 men, exclusive of officers.
Civil government being organized in the north, the 20th was ordered
south into Laguna and Batangas provinces, with headquarters at Tanauan.
The service here was very trying. Nearly everybody was busy on scouting
and other duty to keep the insurgents on the move. When, in December,
1901, Gen. J. F. Bell ordered his famous protection policy of
concentration camps, it was welcome news for the regiments operating
here, for both officers and men saw an end to their thankless and often
fruitless expeditions through almost impassable tropical jungles and
swamps, under burning suns or torrential rains. Immediate steps were
taken by Col. McCaskey to carry out the policy in his jurisdiction, and
the large camp of 18,000 or more people which be organized at Tanauan
was pronounced by Gens. Wheaton and Bell the model concentration camp of
the provinces. The humane and effective system here carried out, the
people well fed, well cared for, with constant occupation, under
constant sanitary inspection and medical care, had much to do with the
final collapse of the rebellion in these very troublesome provinces. If
the 20th did one thing better than another during its three years'
service in the Philippines it was the masterly way in which it carried
out the new American Protection Policy, which culminated early in April
in the surrender of Gen. Malvar and his entire command, thus ending the
revolution not only in Batangas Province, but also in the Philippine
Islands. The general plan and scheme followed in these camps were formed
by Col. William S. McCaskey. To carry out his instructions he detailed a
very efficient officer, Capt. H. C. Hale, ably assisted by Lieut. A. M.
Shipp and others. When
a lieutenant in the Northwest Col. McCaskey married Miss Nellie Garrison
of Detroit. Their children are four sons and two daughters, all of whom
are living. Two of them, Garrison and Douglas, are first lieutenants in
the regular service, the first in the 25th Infantry and the second in
the 4th Cavalry. Both won their commissions in the Cuban war, Douglas
having special honorable mention for gallantry in the desperate charge
at San Juan July 1, 1898. Garrison, after his school course, graduated
from the Pennsylvania Nautical School Ship “Saratoga” in 1893,
having made four cruises. He was also cadet on Pacific Mail Steamship,
1896 and 1897, served in quartermaster's department, 1897-98, was in the
battles of El Caney and Santiago, saw much active service in the
Philippines, rescued two soldiers from drowning, in Luzon, at night,
commanded army gunboats, 1901-2, escorted troops to Pekin, China, 1902,
and is at present senior aid on the staff of Gen. Lee in Batangas
province, Luzon. His third son, Douglas, served in the 4th United States
Cavalry at Fort Walla Walla, Wash., and Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, 1894
to 1897, was agent of quartermaster's department in 1898, saw hard
service in Cuba and the Philippines, and is now on duty at Fort
Leavenworth as squadron adjutant of the regiment. The eldest son, Hiram
Dryer, after graduating from the Lancaster High School in 1889 and
Lehigh University in 1893, with the degree of mining engineer--his
thesis being selected for the exhibit of the University at the Chicago
World's Fair in 1893--was assayer at the Boston Copper Smelting Works at
Great Falls, Montana, 1893-95, and instructor at Yeates Institute,
Lancaster, and Military Schools at Mt. Holly, Miss., and San Mateo, Cal.
In 1900 he went to Manila, and is now engineer and assayer in charge of
the Department of Mines, Philippine Islands, and is a very competent man
in his special line of work. The youngest son, Charles, was given his
choice to remain at the University of Kansas or go with his father to
the Philippines. He preferred to go with the regiment, and was in the
action at Guadeloupe Church, Luzon, 1899, as a civilian. He has been on
duty in the Customs Department, Manila, since April, 1899, and is now
Deputy Surveyor of the port of Manila. The eldest daughter, Margaret, is
married to Captain William H. Chapman, of the regular service, and the
youngest, Eleanor, is unmarried. Col.
McCaskey has a unique record. He is Lancaster county's most noted living
soldier. In length of service he ranks first of all her brave sons whom
she has at any time sent forth to military duty. In value of service his
career is perhaps second only to that of Gen. John F. Reynolds, who must
always stand as our foremost representative man in the army of the
United States. He was the youngest major in the regular service, and is
still, we think, the youngest officer of his rank in the army. He is a
man of high honor, excellent habits and irreproachable character, who
enjoys the respect and confidence of the officers and men of his
command. He is the intimate personal friend, for almost a generation, of
such men as Gen. Otis, Gen. Bates, Gen. Wheaton, Gen. MacArthur and
others of their class, who give tone to the best element in the army. He
has the reputation of being one of the most strict of disciplinarians,
but at the same time most watchful of the interests and well-being, of
his officers and men of all ranks. His work has been commended, and he
has been recommended for promotion by every general officer and every
regimental and post commander under whom he has served since he entered
in the regular army, in 1866, dozens of such papers being on file in the
War Department. Among general officers who have commended him, some of
them in strongest terms, are Gens. Sykes, Terry, Stanley, Otis,
MacArthur, Chaffee, Wheaton, Bates, Patterson, Holabird, Davis (N. H.),
Du Barry, Greene and others. He has been commended by all department
inspectors and in all efficiency reports made by regimental or post
commanders under whom he has served. He has never been in arrest, tried
or admonished, has never been reported for non-payment of debts, is not
addicted to the use of intoxicants nor to any other evil habit of army
or social life. He is a courteous gentleman, a man of domestic tastes
and habits, and it is a fortunate regiment that has such a man for its
commanding officer, fortunate no less for officers than men. He could
retire with the star of the Brigadier under the recent act of Congress,
and that is now practically his rank in the army whenever he chooses to
accept it. But he should be a Brigadier in active service rather than on
the retired list. He has earned this honorable rank, and it can come to
no man more worthily. He could have retired some time since on “term
of service” but, being a man of unusual mental and physical vigor, he
has had no wish to do so. Should he live until the age of retirement
under the law, he will have the unique distinction of being the last
officer, the last man, in the regular army who carried a rifle or bore a
commission under the flag in the great war of the Rebellion. (Source:
Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pa., Beers, 1903, pp. 122-126.) Compiled
and Submitted: by Tim P. Reese, PCC Camp
Abe Lincoln #10 based out of Santa Cruz, Ca Dept.
of Calif. and Pacific Sons
of Union Veterans of the Civil War P.
O. Box 1641, Monterey, Ca. 93942-1641 Sep 2009 From
‘Nationwide Gravesite Locator’ is found the following:
|
|
(click for larger view) |
|||
 |
 |
||
| Obituary #1 | Obituary #2 |