biography of james h. cardy 3rd michigan cavalry regt

7/28/2019 Biography of James H. Cardy 3rd Michigan Cavalry Regt.

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______________________________________________________________________________

CHRONOLOGY OF THE

LIFE AND CAREER

OF

JAMES HARRY CARDY

(1837 1888 CE)

by Donald J. Ivey

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________


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James Harry Cardy (1837-1888 CE). Photographic carte de visite as First Lieutenant of the

Third Michigan Cavalry, c. 1863. Signed Yours truly, J. Harry Cardy 1st Lieut, E. Co. 3d Mich

Calvary. (Detroit Public Library, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit, MI)


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page

I. Early Life(1837-1861 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. The Civil War

(1861-1865) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

III. Civilian Life & Demise

(1865-1888) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9


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CHRONOLOGY OF THE

LIFE AND CAREER

OF

JAMES HARRY CARDY

(1837 1888 CE)

Chapter I: Early Life

(1837-1861)

1837

June or July Born in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts, the eldest child of

David B. and Hannah T. Cardy.

1850August 7 United States census records for Bristol County, Massachusetts list Cardy as"attending school" in New Bedford while residing with his parents and his younger

sisters, Malvina P. and Helen B. Cardy in New Bedford.

c. 1853

Parents separate and divorce; possibly at this period in time, Cardy is taken to the State of

Michigan by his father, who settles in West Bay City, Bay County.

c. 1855-1861Cardy works as a sailor, probably serving aboard commercial merchant ships operating in

the Saginaw Bay - Lake Huron Great Lakes region.

1860

November 6 Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, a Republican, is elected as the Sixteenth

President of the United States.

December 20 In reaction to Lincoln's election, South Carolina becomes the first state

to secede from the Union. She is followed in rapid succession by Mississippi, Florida,Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana in January.

1861

February 4-8 Delegates from the first six seceding states assemble in convention in

Montgomery, Alabama. There they proclaim the organization of the Confederate Statesof America and they adopt a provisional constitution for the new government. Eventually,

a total of 11 Southern states would secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.


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March 4 Lincoln is inaugurated as President of the United States in Washington,

District of Columbia.


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Chapter II: The Civil War

(1861-1865)

1861

April 12-13 Confederate artillery batteries under the command of Brigadier GeneralPierre G.T. Beauregard fire on Federal troops in Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The next

day the fort surrenders.

April 15 In response to the incident at Fort Sumter President Lincoln proclaims that a

"state of insurrection" exists and calls for 75,000 militia volunteers to serve for a periodof three months in the U.S. Army. Later, on April 19th, Lincoln orders a naval blockade

of the Confederate States.

September 21 Cardy enlists as First Sergeant in Captain Thomas Saylor's Company inthe Third Regiment of Michigan Cavalry Volunteers at East Saginaw, in Saginaw County,

Michigan.

October 14 Mustered into United States service as First Sergeant of Company M of

the Third Michigan Cavalry at Camp Anderson near Grand Rapids, Michigan to serve for

a period of 3 years.

1861-1862

December 1- February 25 Cardy is stationed with his company and the rest of theregiment at Benton Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri.

1862March 13-14 The regiment first sees action at the capture of New Madrid, Missouri

while under Brigadier General John Pope, commander of the Military Division ofMissouri. The Confederate defenders of the town subsequently fled to Island No. 10 in

the channel of the Mississippi River.

March 14-April 8 The Third Michigan serves with the Army of General Pope duringthe siege of Confederate forces on Island No. 10 while stationed at New Madrid. When

the Confederates finally surrender the island on April 8, vast amounts of arms and

supplies are captured. The defeat is a major one for Confederate forces in the region, andgreatly weakens their control over the Lower Mississippi River.

May 10-31 The regiment again serves under General Pope at the siege of Corinth,Mississippi, where it is principally engaged on scouting and reconnaissance missions.

The regiment also served in an engagement with Confederate forces at Farmington,

Mississippi on May 5. Union troops occupy the town on May 30, only to find thatConfederate forces under General Beauregard have already been evacuated south to

Tupelo, Mississippi.


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May 12 Cardy is promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant and he is transferred to

Company L of the regiment for detached service at Rienza, Mississippi.

July 26 Third Michigan serves in another engagement with Confederate forces at

Spangler's Mills, Mississippi.

September-October Company records list Cardy as absent from the regiment on

detached service, probably at Rienza.

September 10 The regiment serves under Brigadier General William Rosecrans at an

engagement with Confederate forces at Bay Springs, Mississippi.

September 19 The Third Michigan again serves under General Rosecrans, at the Battle

of Iuka, Mississippi. The battle was a major victory for Union forces and the Third

Michigan was said to have particularly distinguished itself in action while under thecommand of Captain Lyman G. Wilcox.

October 3-4 The Third Michigan serves at the Battle of Corinth, where GeneralRosecrans defeated Confederate forces under Generals Earl Van Dorn and Sterling Price.

October 6-December 5 The regiment sees further action in various engagements withConfederate forces at Hatchie, Hudsonville, Holly Springs, Lumkin's Mills, Oxford and

Coffeeville, Mississippi.

October 30 Cardy receives and accepts a commission from Governor Austin Blair ofMichigan promoting him to the rank of First Lieutenant. He is transferred and mustered

into Company E of the regiment at Corinth and is ordered on detachment service by the

commander of the regiment, Colonel John K. Mizner. His commission as First Lieutenantis to take rank October 30, 1862 (and is later amended to date from July 13, 1862) .

1863

January Company records list Cardy as returning to the company from detached

service at this time.

May Company records again list Cardy as absent on detached service at Headquarters,

Cavalry Division.

June 18-19 A detachment of the regiment skirmished Confederate forces at Coldwater

Bridge near Panola. One man in the detachment is wounded, while 1 Confederate is

killed and 2 are captured. The detachment also destroys a railroad bridge across theYockeney Creek along with a flouring mill, a sawmill, a tannery mill with stock, 50,000

bushels of grain and 400 bales of cotton.

July 13 The Third Michigan fights in a heavy engagement with Confederate forces at

Jackson, Tennessee. A final, desperate charge by the regiment successfully broke


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the Confederate lines and forced them to retreat from the town with heavy losses.

August 13-14 A detachment of the Third Michigan leads the advance of Union forces

capturing the town of Grenada, Mississippi, where large amounts of Confederate

machinery and rolling stock were located. Over 60 enemy locomotives and more than

400 railroad cars are destroyed in the engagement, along with an immense amount ofrailroad stock, machinery, and commissary stores. Cardy saw action in this engagement

with his company.

October 12-13 The Third Michigan again sees action, this time engaging Confederate

forces at Byhalia and Wyatts' Ford, Mississippi.

November-December During this period, the regiment is engaged in constant scouting

and reconnaissance expeditions in Northern Mississippi and Western Tennessee, where it

encounters Confederate forces under Generals Forrest and Chalmers. The regimentparticipated in several skirmishes at Ripley, Orizaba and Ellistown, Mississippi and at

Purdy and Jack's Creek, Tennessee.

December 27 Cardy requests a leave of absence to visit his dying wife in Michigan.

He asks to be allowed to "visit here in her last moments." Apparently, however, the leave

was not granted.

1864

January 27 The Third Michigan is mustered into United States service as VeteranVolunteers while at winter quarters at La Grange, Tennessee, to serve for an additional

period of 3 years, or for the duration of the war.

February 8-March 9 Cardy is absent with leave on veteran's furlough with the regiment

in Michigan.

March 16-May 18 The regiment is transferred to St. Louis where it serves as

dismounted cavalry on provost duty in the city while awaiting the arrival of horses, arms

and equipment.

May 24 The Third Michigan is transferred to the Department of Arkansas, where it is

remounted and begins operations against Confederate forces under General Shelby. The

regiment succeeded in driving Shelby's army beyond the Arkansas River while dispersingvarious guerrilla bands that also operated in the region.

May & June Company records list Cardy as being on detached service at DeVall'sBluff, Arkansas as acting Post Ordnance Officer.

July 12 Requests a leave of absence for 30 days to return home to Michigan torecuperate from an unspecified illness or injury. The leave was subsequently granted to

August 20.


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August 20 Leave expires; reported as being "absent without leave" from the regiment.

September 28 Cardy returns to his post at DeVall's Bluff, where he is relieved of duty

as Ordance Officer there and is placed under arrest for being absent without leave.

October 27 Formally requests that "a Board may be appointed for the purpose ofexamining into, and reporting upon the circumstances of my case."

November The regiment establishes its headquarters at Brownsville Station, Arkansas

on the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad, where it garrisons the post there until February.

While stationed here the regiment was occupied in scouting expeditions along therailroad line while securing large supplies of beef for the Union army.

November 1 A military commission convenes at Brownsville to investigate the cause

of Cardy's overstayed absence without leave. The commission finds that Cardy "isculpable for failing to procure the necessary documentary evidence relieving him from

duty and for not applying to [the] proper authority for an extension of his leave ofabsence, but consider[s] that he was justifiable in overstaying his leave of absence."Cardy is not court-martialed for the offense, and no subsequent punishment is recorded

in the case.

1865

January 24 Cardy receives and accepts a commission from Governor Blair of Michigan

promoting him to the rank of Captain of Company E of the regiment. His commission asCaptain is to take rank as of January 24, 1865.

March 14 The Third Michigan is transferred to the Military Division of WestMississippi to serve under Major General E.R.S. Canby in the impending campaign

against Confederate forces at Mobile, Alabama.

April 9 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia

to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

April 12 Mobile, the only major city still in Confederate hands, is taken without a fightby General Canby. The Third Michigan is employed there on outpost duty until May,

when it is selected to serve as General Canby's escort party on the occasion of the formal

surrender of General Taylor's Confederate forces east of the Mississippi River to Canbyat Citronelle, Alabama on May 4 .

April 14-15 President Lincoln is shot by actor John Wilkes Booth while attending thecomedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. He dies the next day

and is succeeded in office by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

April 26 The Confederate Army of the Tennessee under General Johnston surrenders to

General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. Johnston's army is the


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second major Confederate force to surrender to Union troops.

May 17 General Philip H. Sheridan is given command of the Military Division of the

Southwest, where scattered units under Confederate General Kirby Smith continue to

resist. The Third Michigan is transferred to this Division for duty as part of an expedition

which is to be sent into Texas.

June 2 General Kirby Smith finally surrenders the Trans-Mississippi Department Armyto Union forces at Galveston, Texas. He is the last Confederate general to surrender, and

except for minor skirmishes and some guerrilla activity in the West, the war is at an end.

July 10-August 2 The Regiment marches from Shreveport, Louisiana across Texas,

where it arrives in San Antonio on August 2. Here the regiment established its

headquarters and as part of the First Brigade, First Cavalry Division, Military Division of

the Gulf, it performed garrison duty, furnished escorts for supply trains and wasemployed in scouting for the protection of the frontier as far as the Rio Grande.

July 10-September 6 Company records list Cardy as absent from the regiment ondetached service at New Orleans, Louisiana in command of a unit of dismounted cavalry

there.

September 6 Cardy rejoins the regiment at San Antonio.

After October 8 Cardy is charged by his several of fellow officers with "Drunkeness

on Duty," "Conduct unbecoming an Officer and Gentleman" and "Conduct to theprejudice of good order and military discipline" while serving as Brigade Officer of the

Day at the regiment's Camp in San Antonio.

October l8 Tenders resignation as Captain of Company E, 3rd Michigan Cavalry,

possibly as part of a "deal" worked out in order to have the court-martial charges against

him dropped, as there are no records extant attesting to a general court-martial.

October 22 Requests that he may be ordered to return to New Orleans to await the

acceptance of his resignation because "The dangerous illness of a widowed sister, who is

alone in New Orleans, makes it a matter of necessity as well as duty that I shouldimmediately attend to her wants and comfort."

October 24 Leaves the regiment on leave of absence to await the acceptance of hisresignation at New Orleans. His sister eventually died of the unknown illness that

afflicted her.

November 8 Cardy again tenders his resignation, which is accepted; he is honorably

discharged from United States service with the rank of Captain at New Orleans.


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Chapter III: The Civil War

(1865-1888)

1865

late November Cardy probably returns to West Bay City, Michigan. Here he would beemployed by James Davidson and (at times) by Spencer O. Fisher as a clerk-bookkeeper

and time keeper. By now he was also suffering from an "inflammation of the stomach"and "inflammatory rheumatism" contracted while serving in the Southwest in 1865.

Cardy may have been an alcoholic by this time also.

1880

June 3-11 Seriously ill with renal colic.

1888February 9-21 Treated for Bright's Disease and acute lobar pneumonia together withvalvular disease of the heart.

February 21 Dies of chronic inflammation of the stomach and inflammatoryrheumatisim at his residence on the corner of 9th & Adams Streets, 4 th Ward, West Bay

City, aged 50 years. He was survived by his father, his (apparently second) wife and a

stepson, Charles Lessig.

February 26 Buried in West Bay City. His funeral was well-attended by the members

of the Henry S. Burnett post of the Union veterans' organization The Grand Army of the

Republic.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, George H. Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-

1865. Volume 33. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Ihling Bros, and Everard Printers, 1905.

"Cardy, James H." Military service and pension records as Sergeant-Captain, Companies

M, L and E of the Third Michigan Cavalry Regiment. Filed with the National Archivesand Records Service, Washington, D.C.

"Death of James H. Cardy." The Evening Press, Bay City, Michigan, February 24, 1888,page 4.

Gillet, Orville. "Diary of Lieutenant Orville Gillet, U.S.A., 1864-1865," The Arkansas

Historical Quarterly. Ted R. Worley, editor. Volume XVII, pages 164-204 , Summer1958

"Laid to Rest." The Evening Press, Bay City, Michigan, February 27, 1888, page 4.

Linton, Calvin D., Ph.D., editor. The Bicentennial Almanac. Nashville, Tennessee:

Thomas Nelson Inc., 1975.

Loescher, Maida H. Military Service Branch, Military Archives Division, National

Archives and Records Service, reply to letter requesting information regarding the

military service of James H. Cardy, Washington, D.C, August 9, 1984.

Pakula, Marvin H., William J. Ryan and David K. Rothstein. Centennial Album of the

Civil War. New York: New York: Castle Books, 1960.

Robertson, John. Michigan in the War. Lansing, Michigan: W.S. George & Co., State

Printers and Binders, 1882.

Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Microfilm copy. Filed in the Michigan State

Library, Lansing, Michigan.

Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. Microfilm copy. Filed in the Michigan State

Library, Lansing, Michigan.

Wilcox, Lyman G. At the Front with the Third Michigan Cavalry. Chicago, Illinois:

Samuel Harris & Co., 1918.

"The South in Civil War Times,"Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S. Volume

II, pages 12-38, April 5, 1894.

Wood, W. Birkbeck, and William B. Hesseltine. "American Civil War," EncyclopaediaBritannica. Volume 1. Chicago, Illinois, William Benton, 1972, pages 730-742.

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