Dragoon

for

Life!

The Thoroughbred

January 2023

Starting Strong!

Info on the Race

Attention Dragoons in the Richmond, VA area:

The Capital Ale House Loch Lothian 1 mile/5K/10K has selected the 2d Cavalry Association as its military unit honoree for 2023.

The race will be held on Saturday, 4 MAR 2023, in Midlothian Virginia.

Race proceeds will support K9s for Warriors, the largest provider of service dogs for disabled veterans and the

2d Cavalry Association.

2d Cavalry Association members can register for free by using the Promo Code 2dcav

The 2d Cavalry Association has donated prizes for the winners as well as several raffles

All race participants will receive an official Adventure Race t-shirt with the shoulder patch of the 2d Cavalry Regiment.

Additional information can be found following the button on the left:

From the President

Jamuary 27, 2003

On behalf of the Board, I want to wish everyone reading this note a Happy New Year! I hope that you are charging into 2023 saber drawn determined to tackle all challenges and obstacles in true dragoon fashion.

I am excited about our upcoming reunion in Annapolis April 27-30. While registration is off to a good start, there is still plenty of room for those that want to participate. Please consider attending; if you have any questions, please reach out to members reunion committee to get your issues addressed. The reunion team has put together a wonderful agenda.

Bob Young at [email protected]

Jack Waldron at [email protected]

Jeff Davidson at [email protected]

If you are attending, please plan to join us for the Association Meeting on Sunday morning for an

update on Association business and discussion forum. Much of what the Board is working on

will be raised in this meeting. This part of the Reunion provides an opportunity for all members

to have a voice in our next steps forward.

I hope that you enjoy the articles in this edition. I’d very much appreciate feedback on the

content and, especially, volunteers to furnish similar materials in the future. You can reach me at

[email protected], our editor, John MacEnroe at [email protected] or our

historian, Matt Simon at [email protected]. The Thoroughbred should be a treasure trove

of historical informational about our Regiment that historians will lean on for generations to tell

our story. Only you can make that happen—please help by contributing our stories, insights and

experiences.

Always Ready

Tim White

I want Reunion Swag

Memorial Brick Project

Fiddlers Green

Col (R) Joe Krawczyk will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 2 March 2003 at 0815.

ANC Funeral Information

New Association tie

During the July meeting of the Board of Directors, we authorized the creation of a new tie for wear by Association members. The finished product is woven silk and is available for $40, postage included.

You would think that would be the end of it… I’ll get the tie, pair it with a navy blazer and be so cool at the next reunion with Stetson and spurs….

Not so fast, in the production process, the back label ended with Cavalry being misspelled. The ties themselves are perfect.

Email me at [email protected] or click the button.

Send me a misspelled tie!

Flossenburg Revisited

In the July 2022 issue, I asked for your memories about the Flossenburg Concentration Camp. I got several responses that I’d like to share with you.

Jim Mathison sent me A Place Called Flossenburg about his memories of the camp. Jim, who first arrived in Amberg in 1961, wrote down his memories of the Cold War for his sons and grandson. I am grateful that he shared his thoughts with us.

“’I moved here after the war.’ “We had no idea what was going on.” “Arbeit macht Frei.” “…the final solution….”

In the small village of Flossenburg, in northern Bavaria, in the area called the Oberfaltz, lies one of the most profoundly moving places that I have ever visited. When I first went there in 1962, relatively few Americans had been there or even heard of the place. One of the primary reasons for this is that the village was located close to the Czech border, and in the days of the Cold War, neither US troops nor their dependents could visit there.

I first stopped there almost by accident. In those days we ran patrols and operated observation posts almost continuously on both the Czech and the East German borders. I was making my first visit to the border and, in an effort to learn the business, I went out on a regularly scheduled patrol. We had two border camps in our sector, and one of our tasks was to make contact with a patrol from the other camp. I had written down the map coordinates from the patrol briefing, and was finding the location on the map. The sergeant who was the patrol leader said, “Don’t worry about finding the location, LT. The contact point is in the Flossenburg parking lot.” “Does the town only have one parking lot?” I asked. “We mean the Flossenburg Concentration Camp parking lot,” he replied.

I had heard of Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, and other camps, but had never heard of a place called Flossenburg. We arrived early for our meeting with the other patrol, and my sergeant took me on a tour. It was a cold day, and rather late, so there were no other people to be seen. The quiet was almost overwhelming – just our footsteps on the gravel paths and the rustling of the wind in the trees. That day I began my education about this darkest chapter in the short life of the Third Reich – this darkest chapter of 20th Century human history.

Oh, sure, I had heard of the 6 Million Jews who were killed. I had seen the pictures of the camps and heard my dad’s story of one of his comrades who had been to one in 1945. Perhaps it was the immensity of the event. Or, perhaps it was the lack of personalization. For whatever reason, the holocaust had never seemed real to me. I don’t mean that I did not believe it, but I had trouble grasping it. That all changed that day at Flossenburg.

The records say that somewhere in the neighborhood of 73,000 souls died in Flossenburg, which was a labor camp, rather than an extermination camp. A good number of the fatalities were Jewish, but other groups – gays, gypsies, and others who had committed offenses against the Nazis – made up the majority of the population. The most famous victims were seven of those implicated in the plot to kill Hitler, who were executed on 9 April 1945 as American troops were approaching the area. Admiral Canaris and Pastor Bohnhoeffer are probably the two most familiar names.

Some of the original buildings remain, including the headquarters, shown below as it is today, and as it was in 1945.

In the headquarters is a visitors’ center, but it closes around 4 PM, and I’ve only been inside once. At the time I was there, there was a movie that gives an overview of the camp, but it was in German only.

Two memorial chapels have been built since the War – Christian and Jewish. Both are open during visiting hours. There are a couple of guard towers, part of the fence, the cremation oven, and various memorials. Probably the most impressive single thing is this pile of what looks like dirt.

In reality, the ashes, bones, and other remains of the bodies that the Nazis were trying to dispose of were piled here, and the site has been kept as a mass grave

The grounds have been maintained as a memorial to those who died, and it is in an almost park-like setting. For a number of years, I went to the Grafenwoehr Training Area for BCTP exercises almost every year. Hardly a year passed that I did not visit the camp. Sometimes I took colleagues, and once I took my Jewish boss, who, in spite of having spent several years in Germany, had never visited one of the camps. I found, however, that I preferred to go alone, and, if possible, toward the end of the day, just like on that first visit so many years ago. I could sit and listen to the wind in the trees – or is the voices of the victims that I hear, telling us that we must never let such a thing happen again.”

———-

Brian Parten, who served in C Troop under CPT Tom Molino and 1SG Richard Miller offered his comments as well.

“There was a small wooden building at the bottom of the Camp, that appeared to be a tool shed. I saw a sawhorse. Also, near the tool shed but in front, were two square brick retainer walls. One larger than the other with grass mounds in the shape of a pyramid. The larger of the two had a plaque in front of it that said these are the Bones and Ashes from Mass Burnings.

Further, once the firing squad had shot all who came into the camp alive, the corpses were destroyed in the following manner. By placing them on to “one of two” metal body length trays. I personally stood inside the only other building in the Camp. The cinder block walled square in outside appearance, the furnace.

Outside was a covered black chimney. I opened one of the black furnace hatch doors. I pulled the metal tray out. I looked inside, saw wood and other ashes then sniffed with my nose so as never to forget this day.

The north wall was a combination of the rock faced mountain and rocks they brought in to blend in with the mountain. The north wall was taller than the south wall. It was 18-20′ high. The south wall was man made and it was approximately 8-10′ high. There were two guard towers just inside the Camp gate.

Before I left that day I took one last picture. As I walked out the open gate I stepped to my right and leaned way out to see the face of the North wall. The face of the North Wall on the outside was a sheer straight mountain side of rock with no outcroppings or ledges. It fell all the way down to the valley floor which I estimated to be about 3000 meters below.

The valley floor below was well within 1 Kilometer of the border. The West German Border was falling away as I photographed the Czech frontier, lined with tank traps, double stacked.

One staggered to the side of the one in front of it. For me this record matters.”

I agree with Brian that this record matters. Brian’s recollections are important; each of you have stories to tell that are similarly important and should be preserved. Collectively, our stories are threads that are woven into the rich tapestry of the Regiment.

Finally, Don Holder (65), told me that “the camp was a regular stop for VIPs visiting Camp Pitman in Weiden when I joined K/3/2 in 1966. Border tours often stopped by there. We didn’t have a lot information on the place but the Border Ops guys had enough to give a fair brief on the camp. The wives club from Amberg stopped there on one of its trips into the border area.”

My thanks to these contributors! I truly appreciate their willingness to share their experiences with us. I know that more stories abound about Flossenburg within our membership. I encourage more of you to share with us.

My goal is simply to promote storytelling within our ranks so that the richness of the Regiment’s history as lived through each of our veterans is not lost in time. Only you can tell the story of what you lived and experienced while serving in the Regiment. Remember your regiment by telling your story. Please let us hear from you!

Tim White

[email protected]

Outposts

In September I visited several sites where various troops of the Regiment were housed during the Indian Wars. As much to talk about the posts is to highlight the work of our very own Tacoma Dave Gettman in recording the roster of troopers who served throughout the Regiment’s history. Dave has dug deep into and mastered Ancestry.com for the information on the troopers.

I visited Forts Ellis, Custer, and Keogh. Below is a picture of what I found for each fort along with brief details that I’ve culled from several sources, including Lambert’s One Hundred Years with the Second Cavalry and Fraser’s Forts of the West. Dave has picked one trooper from his extensive data base that was connected with each post.

Fort Ellis

Fort Ellis is nothing more than a historical marker, with the grounds now part of an agricultural research center. This outpost was established in 1867. According to Lambert, F, G, H, and L Troops were stationed at Fort Ellis throughout 1870. When the rest of the Regiment moved to Forts Custer and Keogh in 1876, these troops remained at Fort Ellis.

Cpl. Garland (MoH received February 28, 1878, for actions at Little Muddy Creek, Montana Territory, May 7, 1877, and Camas Meadows, Idaho Territory, August 20, 1877), was appointed a hospital steward on November 5, 1878, during his enlistment with the 2d Cavalry, and transferred to that branch. Following the end of his 5-year term of service (1876-81) he re-enlisted for another 5-year term as a hospital steward at the same post where he had served with the 2d Cavalry, Fort Ellis, Montana Territory. He committed suicide by morphine poisoning twenty months later on May 21, 1883.

Fort Custer

Established in 1877, Fort Custer no longer exists either, having been abandoned in 1898. In fact, the marker sits on the grounds of the local museum as it was the victim of vandalism on the site of the fort. I met Landa and her grandmother, Charlene, at the Farmer’s Daugher General Store & Soda Fountain (https://www.thefarmersdaughtergeneralstore.com) in Hardin, MT as a result of my wife’s sleuthing. Turns out that Charlene and her husband lived and farmed the ground that had been Fort Custer. The artifacts they recovered are amazing. I highly recommend a stop there if you are ever in the area.

In 1876, HQ, C, D, K, and M troops moved to Fort Custer and remained there until May 1884. Officers of the 2^nd Cavalary: LTC Albert G. Brackett, MAJ David S. Gordon, COL John D. Davidson (6^th Colonel of the Regiment), MAJ Eugene M. Baker, CPT Edward J. Spaulding and LTC Andrew Alexander and COL John P. Hatch (7^th Colonel of the Regiment), all commanded Fort Custer at various times. Richard Upton’s Fort Custer on the Big Horn, 1877-1898, provides details of the 2^nd Cavalry’s role in the fort’s history.

Patrick Finnegan was recruited into the US Army for a term of five years on September 5, 1850, in the city of New York by Maj. Kearny. A 22-year-old laborer born in Tyrone, Ireland, Finnegan had blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion, and stood 5’7 ¾” tall. He was assigned to Company C, 2d Regiment of Dragoons, who were joined with the Texas Rangers at the time fighting Indians between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. He was a corporal when he was discharged two months early at Fort Chadbourne, Texas, for re-enlistment in his company. Fort Chadbourne was just three years old at the time.

As with his previous enlistment, the second 5-year term ended two months early with a re-enlistment in C Company, this time at Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory, named for a relative of the officer who had first recruited Finnegan into the Army. His third five-year term would end 10 months early, with a re-enlistment in his company with the newly redesignated 2d US Cavalry Regiment, at Lighthouse Landing, Virginia, while guarding the Nation’s capital during the Civil War. Enlistment four went the full five years, ending at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, on July 11, 1867, just seven months after 82 men, including twenty-seven from C Company, 2d Cavalry, and another fifty from the 18^th Infantry, under the command of Capt. Fetterman, 18^th Infantry, were all massacred by Indians in the Peno Valley. July 11 was also just eleven days prior to the Kidder Massacre in which ten troopers from Company M, 2d Cavalry, under command of Lieut. Lyman Kidder, 2d Cavalry, were massacred by Indians while carrying dispatches intended for Col. Custer.

Finnegan would not enlist again for two and a half years, when he rejoined the Army on New Year’s Day 1870 at Omaha Barracks, Nebraska, and was again assigned to Company C, 2d Cavalry, at Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory. Five years later he was discharged at the end of his term of service, still at Fort Laramie, and took four months off before rejoining the company there for his sixth and final enlistment with the 2d Cavalry. He and the company were at Fort Custer, Wyoming Territory, when Finnegan was discharged for disability as a private on November 9, 1879, having served his entire twenty-six-year Army career with C Company.

Fort Keogh

Sadly, Fort Keogh is gone as well; the grounds also an agricultural research facility. The fort took its name from Custer’s adjutant, Captain Miles Keogh. Attached to the Range Riders Museum (https://www.rangeridersmuseum.com) is this marker. One of the officers’ quarters has been preserved as part of the museum and is worth the visit should you be in Miles City. I spoke at length with Gary, a docent at the museum who had served in the cavalry via the Montana National Guard.

In 1876 when the post was established, Troops A, B, E, I moved to Fort Keogh.

William Mulligan served 10 enlistments in the Army. I couldn’t locate his first enlistment, but 7 of the remaining 9 enlistments were partially or entirely with the 2d Cavalry. During one 3-year enlistment alone he was in six different outfits! And wait until you see the list of officers that recruited him.

A musician born in Langford, Ireland, about 1842, William Mulligan had blue eyes, dark hair, and stood about 5’5” tall. The first enlistment I could locate (his second) was October 5, 1868, at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, were he was recruited by Lieut. Alfred E. Bates. Bates served in the 2d Cavalry from his first commission as 2d Lieutenant in 1865 until his promotion to Major and appointment as Paymaster in 1875. Bates was the Regimental Quartermaster from September 1866 to May 1867, and Regimental Adjutant from May 1867 to June 1869. Bates was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed Department Paymaster General in 1897.

Pvt. Mulligan served from 1868 until 1873 with the Band, and Companies A and D, 2d Cavalry, and was discharged at Camp Douglas, Utah Territory with the rank of Bugler. He was then re-enlisted at Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming Territory, by Capt. Thomas B. Dewees. Dewees began his military career as a Private in 1858 with the 2d Regiment of Dragoons, and by 1861 had gone from Private, to Corporal, to Sergeant, to 1^st Sergeant. Dewees was commissioned a 2d Lieutenant in the 2d Cavalry in October 1861, promoted to 1^st Lieutenant in July 1862, and Brevet Captain in June 1863 for gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Beverly Ford, Virginia, during the Civil War. Dewees served as Regimental Adjutant from July 1865 to March 1866, and Regimental Quartermaster from March to July 1866. Dewees was promoted to Captain in July 1866, and left the 2d Cavalry upon his promotion to Major, 9^th Cavalry, in 1881, having served 23 years with the 2d Regiment.

Bugler Mulligan next served with Company A, Band, and Company A again, 2d Cavalry, from 1873 to 1878, when he was discharged at Fort Keogh, Montana Territory, with the rank of Trumpeter. His fourth enlistment begins in 1880 at Fort Custer, Montana Territory, with Company C, 2d Cavalry, and ends in 1882 at Terry’s Landing, Missouri, still a Trumpeter with Company C, 2d Cavalry. Mulligan had been re-enlisted for his fourth enlistment by Capt. Edward J. Spaulding, who was another enlisted 2d Dragoon who rose through the ranks. Spaulding started as a Private in 1857, and by 1862 had been promoted to Corporal, Sergeant, and Quartermaster Sergeant before being commissioned a 2d Lieutenant in the 2d Cavalry, July 17, 1862. The following October (1862) Spaulding was appointed Regimental Commissary until February 1867. Spaulding was breveted Captain in June 1863 for gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Beverly Ford, Virginia, promoted to Captain in February 1867, and left the 2d Cavalry upon his promotion to Major, 4^th Cavalry, in 1886, having served 29 years with the 2d Regiment.

Enlistment five for Trumpeter Mulligan is with Band and Troop D, 1^st Cavalry, 1884-85 at Fort Custer, Montana Territory, where he is discharged as a Private by Special Order 98, Adjutant General’s Office, 1885. Enlistment six for Private Mulligan with Companies L and E, 2d Cavalry, begins at Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, in 1889, where he is re-enlisted by Lieut. Frederick W. Sibley, son of the famous 2d Dragoon Henry H. Sibley. Henry Sibley served with the 2d Dragoons during the Seminole War and the War with Mexico, and was the inventor of many things including the Sibley tent and Sibley stove which were used by both sides during the Civil War. Henry Sibley lost out on a huge payment from the War Department when he resigned his commission to join the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War, having been promised $5 for each of the 44,000 tents produced for the Army between 1856 and 1861. Frederick Sibley was commissioned a 2d Lieutenant in the 2d Cavalry in 1874 promoted to 1^st Lieutenant in 1881, served as Regimental Adjutant from January 1889 to January 1993, was breveted 1^st Lieutenant in 1890 for gallant service against Indians on the Little Big Horn River, Montana, July 7, 1876, promoted to Captain in 1893, and Major when he left the Regiment in 1902. Major Frederick Sibley returned to the 2d Cavalry from 1903-09, serving 34 years with the 2d Regiment.

Enlistment six for Private Mulligan ends at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, where he is discharged with the rank of Farrier in 1894 and is re-enlisted the next day with Troop E, 2d Cavalry, by Lieut. Lloyd M. Brett. Brett is first commissioned in the 2d Cavalry as a 2d Lieutenant in 1879, and promoted to 1^st Lieutenant in 1886. Brett is appointed Regimental Adjutant from January 1893 to January 1897 and promoted to Captain in 1897, leaving the 2d Regiment in 1899. Brett received the Medal of Honor February 7, 1895, for most distinguished gallantry in action against hostile Sioux Indians near O’Fallons Creek, Montana, April 1, 1880, while serving as a 2d Lieutenant with the 2d Cavalry. Brett later served as a Brigadier General in WW I where he earned the Army Distinguished Service Medal while commanding the 80^th Infantry Division. Prior to WW I Brett served as the acting superintendent of Yellowstone National Park from 1910-16.

Enlistments seven and eight for Private Mulligan (1894-97 and 1897-1900) are both at Fort Wingate with Troop E, 2d Cavalry as a Private. Enlistment nine begins in 1901 at Fort Wingate with Troop E, 2d Cavalry, but he is transferred to Troop C, 5^th Cavalry, then Troop H, 5^th Cavalry, Company I, 23d Infantry, Troop B, 2d Cavalry, and finally Troop C, 15^th Cavalry. He is discharged at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, in 1904 as a private. His tenth and final enlistment begins and ends at Fort Ethan Allen, 1904-05, where he is discharged from Troop C, 15^th Cavalry, upon his retirement at 61 years old as a 1^st Sergeant.

These installations were not just a collection of buildings, corrals and a parade field. Troopers from which our Regimental DNA flow brought life to these often-desolate locations. We owe it to them, ourselves and our nation to never forget their contributions on behalf of us all.

Camp Gates

In June, Frank Hurd, Honorary Colonel of the Regiment, and I visited many sites familiar to veterans of the Cold War during our trip to Germany. This is a picture of Camp Gates, now a solar panel field. Gates was one of the camps used by the Regiment to support border operations. There is no reference to the 2ACR at this location, no mention of our years of duty and sacrifice across the grenz from the Warsaw Pact. More to follow as we develop plans to mark these sites.

Like Forts Ellis, Custer and Keogh on the western frontier, troopers of the Regiment served in camps such as Coburg, Gates, Hof, May, Pitman, and Reed on the very edge of freedom for decades. Who are the Garland’s, the Mulligan’s and the Finnegan’s of those border camps? You are! Help us to preserve the history of the Regiment by telling us your story. This isn’t simply about the Cold War. No, this is much bigger and broader. Many of you have been posted across the geography of Operation Desert Storm and the War on Terror. Let us together record now what you have done so that historians in the future will be able to accurately tell our story.

Tacoma Dave, thank you for your outstanding work providing us with this information, an amazing contribution! I look forward to highlighting more of your work in future editions of The Thoroughbred and to stimulating others to emulate your passion preserving the history of the Regiment. These service details of Garland, Finnegan and Mulligan add texture, color and dimension to the story of the Regiment.

Tim White

[email protected]

Camp Gates

Tim White

[email protected]

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