William McCaskey's correspondence.
He started out in the Civil War as a Private, but his performance was so excellent that he kept getting promoted. At the end of the Civil War he was a Brevet Captain, Company Commander of Company B. After the war ended he secured a regular commission as a second lieutenant, and served out west. By 1876 he was regular Captain, and was in command of an Army Post at Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory, when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry out to the Little Big Horn.
Captain McCaskey went on to a superb Army career. In 1898 he was by then a Colonel posted to the recently established Capital in Manila Philippine Islands. Later he was promoted again and again to Major General McCaskey. He retired to the Presidio in the San Francisco area living there until his death in August of 1914. The news of his death arrived only hours after the outbreak of hostilities that commenced World War 1, and was swept from the font of the local newspapers.
General McCaskey advanced father than any other person who served in the Civil War. He was the last serving member of the Armed Forces of the United States to have carried a musket in combat.
I found a number of letters of General McCaskey (when he was a Colonel).
Stampmaster
Posted 09/04/2017 4:47 pm
