| 16th New York Cavalry Regiment | |
|---|---|
.svg) New York flag | |
| Active | June 19, 1863, to August 17, 1865 |
| Country | United States |
| Allegiance | Union |
| Branch | Cavalry |
| Nickname | Sprague Light Cavalry |
| Engagements | |
| New York U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiments 1861-1865 | ||||
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The 16th New York Cavalry Regiment was acavalryregiment that served in theUnion Army during theAmerican Civil War. A detachment of the 16th New York had the distinction of killingLincoln assassinJohn Wilkes Booth and apprehending accompliceDavid Herold.
The regiment was organized inPlattsburgh, New York, and mustered into service from June 19 to September 15, 1863. Consisting of eleven companies of cavalry, Companies A, B, C, and D of the 16th New York took part in theGettysburg campaign. The regiment was then dispatched to the defense ofWashington, D.C., and assigned to the Cavalry Brigade of theXXII Corps of the Department of Washington.
Until the end of the Civil War, the 16th New York was repeatedly in action in Northern Virginia and fought a number of engagements against Confederate cavalry commanded byJohn Singleton Mosby. On August 8, 1864, Capt. James H. Fleming of Company M was killed in action nearFairfax, Virginia. Fleming was the only officer of the 16th New York Cavalry to die in the Civil War.[1]
Before dawn on April 26, 1865, a detachment of the 16th New York Cavalry under the command of Lt.Edward P. Doherty cornered Lincoln assassins Booth and Herold in a tobacco barn nearPort Royal, Virginia.[2] Herold surrendered but Booth refused and was shot by Sgt.Boston Corbett. Each of the 26 enlisted men of the 16th Cavalry that participated in the capture received $1,658.58 in reward money.[3]
On August 17, 1865, the 16th New York Cavalry was consolidated with the13th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry; the new organization receiving the designation,3rd Regiment New York Provisional Cavalry.[4]
In the fall of 1864,Orville Wood, a merchant fromClinton County and supporter ofAbraham Lincoln in the1864 presidential election, was tasked to visit hometown troops and "look after the local ticket." After seeing evidence of mail-in ballot fraud in another regiment and a hospital, Wood gained the trust ofMoses Ferry, representative ofDemocratic governorHoratio Seymour inBaltimore, and set out to expose the fraud. At Ferry's direction, Wood forged signatures of the 16th New York Cavalry while a clerk sat across from him signing ballots with names from a roster Wood brought from home. Wood reported this and other such operations he discovered to authorities, and less than two weeks before the election on October 27, 1864, Ferry and another political operative namedEdward Donahue Jr. were tried before a military commission. Ferry confessed and offered up names of other conspirators, while Donahue continued to trial and was convicted, partly on Wood's testimony. Both were sentenced to life in prison, with Lincoln's approval.[5]
The regiment suffered 1 officer and 20 enlisted men who were killed in action or mortally wounded and 119 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 140 fatalities.[6]
