May Humphreys Stacey

In 1857-58 he was on the Beale Expedition surveying a wagon route between Alberquerque and the Colorado River ... with camels. He was in California a year then returned to Pennsylvania by way of India and the Cape of Good Hope. In 1859 he was appointed Master's Mate, US Navy and served aboard USS Crusader and later, Coast Survey steamer Corwin.

In 1860 he was 23 years old, living with his parents in Chester, PA, and in the US Navy. He was appointed First Lieutenant in the 12th United States Infantry on 14 May 1861 and was with the regiment at Fort Hamilton, NY to May 1862. He was wounded at Gaines' Mill, VA in June was assigned as Battalion Adjutant in August 1862.

He was the Battalion Adjutant at Antietam in September 1862.

He was at Fredericksburg in December, in Washington DC in January and February 1863, and served as 3rd Battalion Quartermaster to May. He was in New York for the draft riots in July and post Adjutant at Fort Hamilton to December. He rejoined the regiment in the field, was Quartermaster of the 1st Battalion, and was at the Wilderness in May 1864. He was promoted to Captain, Company H, on 19 August 1864 and was on the 2nd Army Corps staff to June 1865.

He was honored by brevets to Captain (Weldon Railroad), Major (to Appomattox), and Lieutenant Colonel for his war service.

He continued in the Regular Army, recruiting, to September 1866, then was on on staff duty in Washington, DC. By September 1867 he was assigned as aide to the Commanding General (then General Grant). By 1870 he was at Mohave City (Camp Mojave), AZ and in 1880, still a Captain, living back in Chester, PA.

In 1884, at Plattsburg Barracks, NY, he was court-martialed for conspiring with another officer in complaining to Army Headquarters about the fitness of his commanding officer, Lt. Col. La Motte, without going through the chain of command. Found guilty, he was confined to post and suspended in rank for a year. He was in command at Fort Oswego, NY at his death at age 47 in 1886.

His service from Heitman1 and Henry.2 His role at Antietam from Captain Blunt's after-action report. His Plattsburg court martial from the US Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of 7 June 1884. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, and his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer of 13 February 1886. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary Henrietta Banks (1846-1918) in 1866 and they had 3 children.

The GAR Post in Oswego, NY was named for him.

For more about Stacey on the Beale Expedition, see Bill Thayer's excellent online edition of Uncle Sam's Camels (1929).

He apparently recovered a ceremonial dagger on the battlefield at Antietam, now at the New York Historical Society museum.

11/03/1838; Chester, PA

02/12/1886; Fort Oswego, NY; burial in Chester Rural Cemetery, Chester, PA