The Third Michigan Cavalry was organized at Grand Rapids, Mich., in September, 1861, and mustered into the United States service October 4th following, with an enrollment of 1160 officers and enlisted men. At its organization the commissioned officers were as follows:

FIELD AND STAFF.

Colonel, Francis W. Kellogg, Grand Rapids. Lieutenant Colonel, Rob­ert H. G. Minty, Detroit. Major First Battalion, Edward Gray, Detroit. Major Second Battalion, Wm. S. Burton, South Haven. Major Third Bat­talion, Obid H. Foote, Grand Rapids. Surgeon, Josiah Andrews, Paw Paw. Assistant Surgeon, Lucius C. Woodman, Paw Paw. Chaplain, Joel Ken­nedy, Grand Rapids. Regimental Adjutant, Robert O. Selfridge, Tecumseh. Adjutant First Battalion, Alanson Tracy, Detroit. Adjutant Second Bat­talion, Danby L. Coon, Ionia. Adjutant Third Battalion, Lanson K. Jennie, Grand Rapids. Regimental Quartermaster, William W. Cantine, Grand Rapids. Quartermaster First Battalion, Chauncey C. Douglass, Grand Rapids. Quartermaster Second Battalion, Henry Jewell, Grand Rapids. Quartermaster Third Battalion, Mortimer L. Hopkins, Grand Rapids.

COMPANY OR LINE OFFICERS.

1. Captain, Gilbert Moyers, Allegan. First Lieutenant, Horace H. Pope, Allegan. Second Lieutenant, Isaac Wilson, Allegan.
2. Captain, Lyman G. Wilcox, Detroit. First Lieutenant, William T. Magoffin, St. Johns. Second Lieutenant, Thomas B. Wier, Ann Arbor.
3. Captain, Gilbert J. Hudson, Paw Paw. First Lieutenant, Joseph W. Huston, Paw Paw. Second Lieutenant, Barney H. Dykeman, Paw Paw.
4. Captain, Daniel Kellogg, Ypsilanti. First Lieutenant, Cicero New­ell, Ypsilanti. Second Lieutenant, Philo D. Cutler, Ionia.
5. Captain, Mulford M. Latimer, Jackson. First Lieutenant, Stewart Ives, Big Rapids. Second Lieutenant, Caleb E. Brown, Jackson.
6. Captain, John L. McLeod, Schoolcraft. First Lieutenant, Theodore Reese, Chicago, 111. Second Lieutenant, Frederick C. Adamson, Detroit.
7. Captain, Tunis V. Quackenbush, Whitmore Lake. First Lieuten­ant, William C. Stevens, Whitmore Lake. Second Lieutenant, Daniel M. Caldwell, Pontiac.
8. Captain, Conrad Highwood, Detroit. First Lieutenant, Oliver C. Leonardson, Port Huron. Second Lieutenant, Carl B. Scheffler, Jackson.
9. Captain, William Dunham, Fentonville. First Lieutenant, William H. Dickerson, Grand Rapids. Second Lieutenant, Heber Crane, Detroit.
11. Captain, Collins Davis, Tecumseh. First Lieutenant, Dewitt C. Smith, Jackson. Second Lieutenant, Amos M. Adams, Adrian.
12. Captain, Thomas H. Botham, St. Joseph. First Lieutenant, William H. Patton, Detroit. Second Lieutenant, Monroe G. Carlton, St. Joseph.
13. Captain, Thomas Saylor, Saginaw. First Lieutenant, Edward B. Nugent, Saginaw. Second Lieutenant, Terrence P. McEntee, Saginaw,

The regiment left Grand Rapids November 28, 1861, for St. Louis, Mo., under command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. G. Minty. In March, 1862, the Third was in the army commanded by General Pope, who at that date was operating against Island No. 10, in the Mississippi River, the regiment being located at New Madrid, Mo., and was constantly under fire for several days. The water at this place was extremely bad, and more sick­ness was contracted here than at any one period of the four and a half years’ service of the regiment, the death rate being very heavy.

Governor Blair commissioned Captain John K. Mizner, U. S. A., Colonel of the regiment March 7, 1862, and he immediately assumed command.

After the evacuation of New Madrid and the surrender of Island No. 10 the regiment was sent up the Tennessee River to the battlefield of Shiloh and took part in the siege of Corinth, Miss., which lasted until the end of May, and during that time the regiment performed most efficient service and was highly commended by officers in high command.

After the fall of Corinth the Third served under General Rosecranz in the campaign in Mississippi and Alabama, which was directed by General Grant. It bore a conspicuous part in the battle of Iuka, Sept. 19, 1862, and acted so gallantly that General Rosecranz acknowledged its meritorious services in general orders.

One of its hardest fought battles was that of Corinth, Miss., October 3 and 4, 1862. For several days some portions of the regiment were in the saddle without intermission day and night. On the retreat of the rebels south the Third Cavalry were constantly on their flanks and rear, capturing many prisoners. This pursuit extended over 75 miles into the heart of Mississippi.

During the following months of that year the regiment was constantly on scouting duty, and its marches and engagements with the enemy were continuous and incessant. During this period it was under command of Captain Lyman G. Wilcox, Colonel Mizner having been made Chief of Cavalry for the Sixteenth Army Corps, while Lieutenant Colonel Minty was commissioned Colonel of the Fourth Cavalry and returned to Michigan and organized that regiment.

In November the confederates destroyed telegraphic communications between General Grant and General Sherman, the former at La Grange and the latter at Memphis, Tenn. It was important that General Grant should communicate with General Sherman. Captain Cicero Newell, who had been commissioned Captain of company K, April 11, 1862, vice Davis, resigned, was selected, with his company, to carry the dispatches, although the coun­try was held by the enemy in strong force and every road guarded. By persistent effort and marked tact and bravery Captain Newell succeeded in delivering the dispatches and received a complimentary letter from General Sherman for the daring deed. This was only one of the many daring ex­peditions by the officers and men of this regiment during that momentous period.

The regiment did efficient service in northern Mississippi and Ten­nessee during the winter of 1863, and took part in a severe engagement at Jackson, Tenn., in July of that year. In August it was engaged with the enemy at Grenada, Miss., and destroyed an immense amount of railroad stock, including 60 locomotives and nearly 500 cars. During the following months of the year, by continuous marches and fighting, it succeeded in driving from the country the notorious bands of guerrillas that had long infested that section. It met on several occasions the forces under Generals

Forest and Chalmers, and severe engagements took place at Ripley, Orizaba and Ellistown, Miss., and at Purdy and Jack’s Creek, Tenn.

A comprehensive history of a cavalry regiment can only be written by recording its daily movements. When not moving with its brigade it is often sent on dangerous and important missions far from its support, and has to depend upon the officer in command for a successful termination, and frequently he finds most exacting and trying conditions confronting him.

The different companies of this regiment were daily sent on dangerous scouting duty, either separately or by detachments, and often secured in­formation that was of vital importance to the commanding General. These separate companies or detachments had to rely upon themselves in critical situations, and they often displayed during the war the genius of general­ship that would have distinguished them in history were such circumstances not so frequent or were they written up at the time and made public.

In the movements of a great army the minor movements of regiments and companies are overshadowed and unknown except to those who take part. A regiment of cavalry performs most incessant and arduous service during a campaign, but its reconnaissances and scouts, its skirmishes and charges, are only a part of the main army and are seldom mentioned with the importance they deserve. The frequent charges, marches, battles and skirmishes of a cavalry regiment cannot be recorded with justice in a brief outline of its history.

In January, 1864, the Third, was at La Grange, Tenn., where the regi­ment re-enlisted and was sent to Michigan on veteran furlough. The repu­tation it had attained drew a large number of recruits to its ranks at this time, and at the termination of the 30-day furlough the regiment reassem­bled at Kalamazoo and again, under command of Colonel Mizner, returned to St. Louis, Mo., where, in May, 1864, it was sent to Little Rock, Ark., and was soon engaged in scouting and driving General Shelby and the confed­erates he commanded beyond the Arkansas River.

From November, 1864, to February, 1865, the headquarters of the Third were at Brownsville Station, Ark., and many marches and scouts were made in the surrounding country, securing large supplies for the Union army, thus immeasurably crippling the confederates, whose resources were constantly being curtailed.

In March, 1865, the Third was transferred to the Military Department of the Mississippi, commanded by General Canby, to operate against Mobile. After the fall of that city it marched across Alabama and Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La. When General Sheridan was sent west to command the Military Department of the Southwest the regiment was ordered to report to him for duty, and immediately joined the expedition to San Antonio, Texas, where it arrived August 2, after a long and fatiguing march. Here it was employed in guarding the Mexican border, where it performed garrison duty and engaged in constant scouting. Its headquarters were at San Antonio, Texas, until February 15, 1866, when it was dismounted and marched to Indianola, where it took a steamer for Cairo, Ill., via New Orleans, etc.

On its return to Michigan, March 10, 1866, the regiment was rendez­voused at Jackson, where it was paid off and disbanded. The veterans of 1861 in this organization saw four years and six months’ service and a great majority of its recruits served well and faithfully for over three years. Its members, both officers and enlisted men, came from all sections of the state, and in a short time after their muster out could be found at their

former avocations, the better citizens for having been good soldiers. Their long and arduous service added luster to the lasting reputation won by the cavalry regiments from Michigan.

SOME OF ITS ACTUAL SERVICE.

From March, 1862, until December, 1863, the regiment took part in the following engagements and skirmishes: New Madrid, Mo., March 13, 1862; siege of Island No. 10, Mo., March 14 to April 7, 1862; Farmington, Miss., May 5, 1862; siege of Corinth, Miss., May 10 to 31, 1862; Spangler’s Mills, Miss., July 26, 1862; Bay Springs, Miss., Sept. 10, 1862; Iuka, Miss., Sept. 19, 1862; Corinth, Miss., Oct. 3 and 4, 1862; Hatchie, Miss., Oct. 6, 1862; Holly Springs, Miss., Nov. 7, 1862; Hudsonville, Miss., Nov. 14, 1862; Lumkin’s Mill, Miss., Nov. 29, 1862; Coffeeville, Miss., Nov. 29, 1862; Ox­ford, Miss., Dec. 2, 1862; Coffeeville, Miss., Dec. 5, 1862; Brownsville, Miss., Jan. 14, 1863; Clifton, Miss., Feb. 10, 1863; Panolo, Miss., July 20, 1863; Grenada, Miss., Aug. 14, 1863; Byhalia, Miss., Oct. 12, 1863; Wyatt’s Ford, Miss., Oct. 13, 1863; Ripley, Miss., Nov. 29, 1863; Orizaba, Miss., Nov. 30, 1863; Ellistown, Miss., Dec. 3, 1863; Purdy, Miss., Dec. 22, 1863; Jack’s Creek, Tenn., Dec. 24, 1863.

Shortly after the engagement at Jack’s Creek the regiment returned to Michigan on veteran furlough, and on its return to the front was closely identified with the skirmishes and battles in the southwest, including the battle at Mobile, and at the surrender of the last rebel troops under General Richard Taylor. It is the record of the regiment that it did active service in ten states, occupying more territory and marching more miles than any regiment that left the state.

A BRIEF SYNOPSIS.

Volumes could be written from the few statistical lines recorded be­neath, every figure of which represents an individual part taken by some soldier in the great War of the Rebellion.