Background
Thomas Casimer Devin was born on December 10, 1822 in the city of New York, New York, United States, and except for five years spent in Missouri passed his entire early life there.
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Thomas Casimer Devin
Edit ProfileEducation
Devin was educated in the common schools, and became a painter by trade.
Career
Entering the New York militia, Devin rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel before the outbreak of the Civil War. Organizing a company of men selected from his militia regiment for the three months’ service, he was mustered in, July 19, 1861, as captain in the 16th New York Cavalry, which was stationed in the vicinity of Washington.
A month after this organization was mustered out, he returned to the army, November 18, 1861, as colonel of the 6th New Y ork Cavalry (called the 2nd Ira Harris Guards). After some months spent in camps in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the regiment joined the army at Washington, and during Pope’s Bull Run campaign of 1862 was employed in observing the country south of the Rapidan.
South Mountain was its first real battle, followed immediately by Antictam, and thereafter the regiment was actively employed until Lee’s surrender. After the battle of Fredericksburg, Devin succeeded to the command of a brigade, of which the 6th New York was a part, in Pleasanton’s cavalry division. Within the next few months Pleasanton repeatedly and unsuccessfully urged his appointment as brigadier-general. Devin’s brigade fought at Chancellorsville and Beverly Ford, and as a part of Buford’s command, fighting on foot, met the Confederate advance west of Gettysburg at daybreak on July 1, 1863, and helped to hold it back until the infantry arrived on the field. Still with the Army of the Potomac, it went through the Wilderness campaign of 1864, and took part in Sheridan’s great raid around Richmond. Early in August it moved to the Shenandoah Valley, for service in Sheridan’s campaign against Early. In the action at Crooked Run (August 16) Devin was slightly wounded; he continued in the saddle during the fight, but was absent from the army, recuperating, for the next month. He returned to duty in time to take part in the battles of Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek, and was at last appointed brigadier-general of volunteers (March 13, 1865, to date from October 19, 1864). He commanded a division of the Cavalry Corps at Five Forks, Sailor’s Creek, and Appomattox. After his muster out of the volunteer service he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 8th Cavalry, July 28, 1866, and became colonel of the 3rd Cavalry, June 25, 1877. Long service on the frontier, following the strenuous campaigning of the Civil War, undermined his health, and he was absent from his regiment, on account of sickness, for nearly a year in 1873-74. In 1878, following another breakdown in his health, he returned to his home in New York, where he died.
Much older than most of the cavalry leaders of the Civil War, many of whom were little more than boys, the “Old War Horse” was one of the best.
Achievements
References
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Born
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Died
April 4, 1878 (aged 56) -
Resting place
United States Military Academy Post Cemetery, West Point, New York, United States -
Nationality
American