Edward Francis Cashel

A 20 year old miller living in Georgetown, DC, he enlisted as Private, Battery G, 2nd US Artillery on 8 May 1861 in Washington, DC. He was described as blue eyed, brown haired, with ruddy complexion, at 5' 10 1/2" tall. He was at First Manassas in July 1861, and at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale, and Malvern Hill on the Peninsula of Virginia in 1862.

He was with his Battery on South Mountain and at Antietam.

He was at Fredericksburg in December 1862, then Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Culpeper, before ending his enlistment at the Wilderness, VA on 8 May 1864. He returned to Washington, DC briefly, but reenlisted in the Battery on 27 July 1864 at Fort Cass, Arlington, VA.

The 2nd Artillery was sent to San Fransisco, CA in August 1865, and Battery G garrisoned Alcatraz Island in San Fransisco Bay in September. He was promoted to Corporal in January 1867, and reenlisted at Alcatraz on 27 July 1867. He was again promoted, to Sergeant, in September 1867. The Battery was ordered to Kodiak, Alaska, then a new US Territory, in 1868. He mustered out at the end of his enlistment on 27 July 1870 at Kodiak. He remained in Alaska, living in Kodiak and on Unga Island, marrying a woman of Russian parents, and having children. He was an agent and storekeeper for the Western Fur and Trading Company, later the Alaska Commercial Company. He was living on an Army pension in Unga by 1907.

Service from the Registers.1 Many details from genealogist Mark Humphreys, including an 1864 letter to his father that lists his participation in various engagements.

See a considerable collection of research about him from genealogist and descendent Mark Humphreys.

06/1840; County Tipperary, IRELAND

12/1909; Simeonof Island, AK