Gallery: Faces of the Dartmouth Cavalry

Sanford S. Burr, captain of the
Dartmouth Cavalry. After the war
Burr quit the law to be a furniture
designer. He invented and patented
a folding bed, but he did not always
prosper. He died in 1901.

They were square-jawed and nattily dressed. They were college men with grand futures opening before them. And for three months in the middle of 1862, they went off to war as the Dartmouth Cavalry.

In time, as lawyers, judges, educators and businessmen, some of them would participate in politics and all would take pride in their status as veterans. My last post gave a brief history of their service, and I've posted pictures of several of them below.

Typical was Isaac Walker, a farmer's son from Fryeburg, Maine. He studied Greek and Latin as a boy, entered Dartmouth at 16 in 1859 and later served as principal of Pembroke (N.H.) Academy for decades. He was also chairman of the school board in Pembroke and New Hampshire editor of the New England Journal of Education. As a veteran of the Dartmouth Cavalry, he joined the George Washington Gordon post of the Grand Army of the Republic. (You can read about Gordon here.)

Another cavalryman was Nathaniel H. Clement. He was born in Tilton, N.H., the son of Zenas Clement, the state treasurer and a close friend of Franklin Pierce's. After Pierce appointed Zenas to a lucrative customs job in Portsmouth, N.H., Nathaniel entered the high school there at the age of 11. At Dartmouth, he was the youngest member of the class of '63. He was short and wore a short coat known as a "spencer."

Clement was the top scholar in his class the first three years and finished second his final year, maybe because he took off time off to serve with the Dartmouth Cavalry. After the war he came a prominent lawyer and later a judge in Brooklyn. He died in 1899 at age 55.

Private William Gage  of Concord  was captured during a Dartmouth
Cavalry mission. He was paroled after just  few weeks in prison
and returned home at about the same time as the rest of the company. 

Cpl. Charles Caldwell of
Byfield, Mass..

Pvt. William Greene of
Westborough, Mass.

Pvt. Edwin M. Ambrose of Ossipee, N.H.

After graduation Pvt. Isaac Walker of Fryeburg, Maine, became
principal of Pembroke Academy. 

Cpl. Nathaniel H. Clement
of Concord, N.H.

Nelson Wilbur of Unadilla, N.Y., was
captured, then paroled in September.