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The Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry was organized in the year 1863, with the following Field and Staff Officers.
Colonel – Werter R. Davis.
Lieut. Colonel – Samule Walker.
Majors – Jas. A. Price, Jas. Ketner, Clarkson Reynolds, W. F. Woodworth.
Adjutant – Philip Doppler.
Reg. Quartermaster – W. B. Halyard.
Commissary – Wm. P. Miller.
Surgeon – Jas. P. Erickson.
Chaplain – Thos. J. Ferril.
The 16th did not see the hard service which it was the fortune of the older regiments to perform.
At the battle of the Big Blue, in the vicinity of Westport, Mo., and in the pursuit of the retreating rebel army under Gen. Price, the 16th bore an honorable part, and gave proof of te same soldierly qualities that characterized the Kansas troops under all circumstances of danger and peril.
The regiment contained many veterans, whose discipline did not fail to give it the character of experience, and whose honorable scars infused into its ranks a spirit of praiseworthy and patriotic emulation.
A part of the regiment was sent to the Plains in pursuit of hostile Indians during the summer of the year of its organization, and with this, and the exception before mentioned, the regiment was performing post and escort duty during most of its term of service.
The 16th was made up of men whose ardent attachment to the principles of freedom and the perpetuity of our institutions of justice and liberty peculiarly qualified them for the trust confided to them - guarding the defenceless homes of the citizens of Kansas on and near the border from the incursions of the numerous bands of bloodthirsty and unprincipled bushwhackers which at that time threatened that portion of our State.
This duty, although onerous and fatiguing, and requiring the greatest vigilance, watchfulness and care, they performed well and faithfully, and the self-sacrificing exertions of the 16th, although called into the field at a late day, to protect their homes from the torch and themselves from the knife of brutal assassins, should ever be held in grateful remembrance by the people of Kansas.
Transcribed by Carolyn Ward Mar. 31, 2001
Transcribed from Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1861-1865. Vol. 1. (Reprinted by Authority) Topeka, Kansas: The Kansas State Printing Company. 1896.
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Tom & Carolyn Ward Columbus, KS |
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