Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fiddler's Green: Adolphus Lapoint

Taking a much needed break from the 6th Cavalry, I thought I'd write a bit about one of the Canadian-born regular cavalrymen who fought during the war and after.

Adolphus Lapoint was born in Three Rivers, Canada in 1840. He moved to New York upon reaching adulthood, and was living in Granwich, New York and working as a shoemaker according to the 1850 census. Adolphus was working as a lumberman in New York at the outbreak of the Civil War, and enlisted in Company A, 93rd NY Infantry during the first week of September 1861.

By the fall of 1862, Adolphus had apparently reached the conclusion that infantry life wasn't for him. He was enlisted into Company E, 4th US Cavalry by 1st Lieutenant Joseph Hedges on October 21, 1862 at Pleasant Valley, Maryland. His enlistment documents describe him as 5'8" tall, with blue eyes, blond hair, and a dark complexion.

Cavalry life agreed better with Adolphus, and he was reenlisted into the same regiment and company by 1st Lieutenant Thomas W. Sullivan in Nashville, Tennessee on March 1, 1864. He remained with the regiment through the end of the war and its subsequent movement to Texas. He was again reenlisted into the regiment by 1st Lieutenant Justinian Alman at Brownsville, Texas on January 1, 1867.

Private Adolphus Lapoint drowned on January 4, 1868 after falling from a dam on the Ouachita River in Texas.

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