Mentions of Alanson Randol in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion

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Military Services of Alanson Randol

The Military Services of Col. Alonson M. Randol

Source: Military Services Manuscript, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, MSS D 357, 550060

(Historical Context: Mary Clarita Randol, Alanson Randol’s niece, married Harper Carroll’s son Charles after her uncle’s death. Harper was fighting on the Confederate side in many of the battles listed below. When Randol moved into the cavalry arm of the Army of the Potomac and fought under Philip Sheridan and George Armstrong Custer, he was helping to destroy the economy of the Shenandoah Valley, home of the Thompson family into which three Carroll men married. His story makes an interesting counterpoint to the Confederate story.)

Alanson Merwin Randol of the First Artillery, U.S.A. died at New Almaden, Santa Clara County, Saturday May 7^th of Bright’s disease, which he had contracted by exposure in the Southern States during service in the late war. He was the brother of Mr. J. B. Randol, manager of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Company, and nephew of the late S. F. Butterworth of San Francisco. He leaves a widow and four children. Col. Randol’s death took place at the residence of his brother, whence he had removed from Fort Canby, mouth of the Columbia River, in the hope that a change of climate would be beneficial.

Col. Randol was born at Newburgh, N.Y., October 23, 1837. Entering the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1855, he graduated from that institution on July 1, 1860, ninth in a class of forty-one members. Upon graduation he was assigned as brevet second lieutenant of artillery, and on the 9^th of the following October was transferred to the ordnance corps serving at Benicia arsenal where he was appointed 2^nd Lieut., 1^st Artillery, November 22, 1860. But the duties incidental to an officer of ordnance were little suited to his tastes and disposition, and with a desire to partake actively of field service in the War of the Rebellion, he was, upon his own application, transferred to his regiment in the East, where on the 14^th of May, 1861 he was promoted First Lieutenant.

From the outbreak of the civil war until its close, he was almost constantly on active duty in the field. From August 1^st to December 20^th 1861, he served in General Fremont’s Missouri operations, organizing artillery and in command of a battery of the 1^st Missouri Light Artillery. January 1^st to March 10, 1862, commanding a battering in the defenses of Washington. March to December 1862 he commanded a battery of Reserve Artillery, Army of the Potomac, and was engaged at Yorktown, April to May 1862; Glendale June 30^th; Malvern Hill, July 1st; Harrison’s Landing, July 2^nd; Second Bull Run, August 29, 30; Antietam September 17; Shepherdstown, September 19-21; Snickers Gap, November 3^rd 1862.

He was promoted Captain 1^st Artillery, October 11^th, 1862 and in December was appointed Chief of Artillery of Humphrey’s Division 5^th Army Corps, participating in the battles of Fredericksburg December 13, 1862, and Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863, where he commanded the Artillery of the 5^th Army Corps.

During the Pennsylvania Campaign he commanded a battery of Horse Artillery with Gregg’s Cavalry Division, and was engaged at Aldie, June 17^th; Middleburg, June 20^th; Upperville, June 21^st; pursuit of Stuart’s Cavalry, June 1863; Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3; Shephardstown, July 16^th and pursuit of the enemy with many skirmishes to Warrenton, Va., during July 1863.

He commanded a brigade of Reserve Artillery from August to October, 1863, and a battery in the Mine Run operations, November 26^th to December 3^rd, 1863, and throughout the Wilderness Campaign being engaged in the battles of the Wilderness, May 5-8; Spotsylvania, May 10^th; Fredericksburg Road, May 19, 1864.

Being attached to Gregg’s Cavalry Division, he took part in engagements at Barker’s Mill and Cold Harbor, May 30^th; Bottom Bridge, June 1^st, Trevillian Station, June 11-12; White House, June 21^st, St. Mary’s Church, June 24^th; Malvern Hill, July 28th; Lee’s Mill; July 30, 1864.

He was on duty as instructor and assistant professor at the Military Academy from August 27^th to December 12^th, 1864, and was commissioned Colonel 2^nd New York Volunteer Cavalry, December 23rd, 1864, and commanded his regiment during Sheridan’s operations, February 27^th to April 9^th, 1865, being engaged at Waynesboro March 2^nd, Ashland March 15^th, Dinwiddie C.H., March 31^st; Five Forks, April 1^st; deep Creek, April 3^rd; Appomattox Station, April 8^th; and in pursuit of the rebel army, with numerous skirmishes, terminating with the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox C.H. April 9, 1865, and was mustered out of the Volunteer service July 21^st, 1865.

He received the following brevets:--

Captain U. S. Army, June 30^th, 1862, for gallant and meritorious services in action at New Market, Va.

Major, U.S. Army, July 3^rd, 1862, for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa.

Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Five Forks, Va.

Colonel, U.S. Army, March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the Rebellion.

At the close of the war he returned to his battery, and with very few and brief intervals he remained continuously on duty with it, serving successfully at various military posts in the states of Texas, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. November 18, 1881 he arrived a second time upon this Coast in command of his battery—L of the First Artillery and took station at the Presidio. He was promoted Major 3^rd Artillery, April 19, 1882, and transferred to the 1^st Artillery, May 5, 1882. He was for a time Inspector-General of the Department (p. 4) of California upon the staff of the late Major general McDowell and since the retirement of that officer, has been in command, successively of the post of Fort Winfield Scott and Alcatraz in this harbor, and of Fort Canby at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Col. Randol was a man of magnificent physique, of fine military bearing, of an active, energetic disposition, and untiring and persistent in the prosecution of all his duties to their legitimate and ultimate conclusion. The duties of a bureau officer were badly adapted to one so constituted, and so, in 1861, he threw aside all the advantages of a staff position, to enter, heart and soul, into the active defense of his country, and, still later, in order to follow out this tendency, secured the colonelcy, of the Second New York Cavalry, in command of which he did excellent service during the closing scenes of the war. He was one of the rising men at the close of the rebellion, and had found his proper theatre of action in the Cavalry under Sheridan and Custer.

But very few of the officers of the Army of his rank and age have a better record—a record showing more continuous field service and more of actual land and campaigning fighting. He was emphatically a duty officer and was rarely absent from his company and regiment.

After nearly twenty-six years of faithful and varied service, his health failed, and he was unwillingly compelled to take a sick leave and seek a milder climate; but his constitution, undermined by the hardships of four years active service, and weakened by exposure, was unable to recuperate, and after a long and painful illness he departed this life while in his fiftieth year.

He was a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States of which he was elected a companion of the first class (No. 144 September 4, 1882. Insignia No. 2535.

During the war his conduct won the special notice of the officers under whose command he served, and his soldierly behavior and conspicuous gallantry, earned for him letters of commendation from such men as Brennan, Weitzel, Gregg, Sykes, Porter, (Andrew W.) Humphreys, Hunt, Getty, (George) Meade, and (Philip) Sheridan.

In his official relations with his brother officers the deceased was a man of pronounced opinions, and, when empowered to do so, never halted in carrying them out. No one ever doubted the bent or intention of his will. But to those who knew him, there was ever beneath the apparent severity of his disposition at times displayed, a ceaseless fountain of encouragement and good will towards those disposed to do their whole duty.

A Charles Carroll Drowns

Source: The Washington Post, August 11, 1888, p. 2.

Doughoregan Tax Exemption

Philip Carroll, Hero

Source: The Washington Post, Feb. 16, 1911

Children of John Eager Howard

Source: Side-Lights on Maryland History, by Hester Dorsey Richardson (Baltimore: Genealogical Press, 1995, First Published in 1913), p. 149.

The children of John Eager Howard were: John Eager, who married Cornelia Read, daughter of General George Read, of Charleston, South Carolina; Governor George Howard, who married Prudence Ridgely; James Howard, who married Sophia Ridgely; Benjamin Chew Howard, who married Jane Gilmore; William Howard, who married Rebecca Key, and Sophia C. Howard, who married William George Read, of South Carolina.” (left out of this list is Charles Howard, who married Elizabeth Key.)

Carroll Marriages into Titled Nobility

Source: Sidelights on Maryland History by Hester Dorsey Richardson (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995; first published in 1913) pp. 59-61.

“There is no branch of the Carroll family in Maryland that has not been distinguished. The Carrolls of Carrollton—most notable among their representative men was the Signer; the Carrolls of the Caves had the Barrister, the Susquehanna Carrolls, Governor Thomas King Carroll; the Marlboroughs, the Archbishop. These are but the bright particular stars in a galaxy of notable men of the same name, all remotely drawing their origin from the same ancient chief. The descendants of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, have to a remarkable degree married titled foreigners.

Charles Carroll, of Homewood, the only son of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, married Harriet Chew, daughter of the notable Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, whose daughter Peggy became the wife of General John Eager Howard. Among the many foreign marriages were those of the beautiful Caton sisters, granddaughters of the Signer, who were call “the American Graces” at the English Court where they were the reigning belles and beauties.

Of these, Mary married for her second husband the (p. 60) Marquis of Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington; her sister, Louise, who had first been the wife of Sir Fulton Bathurst Hersey, married secondly Francis Osbourne Godolphin D’Arcy, Marquis Carmarthen, eldest son and heir to the Duke of Leeds, and upon his succession to the same, Louise Caton became the Duchess of Leeds. The third foreign marriage was that of Elizabeth Caton to Baron Stafford, of Costessy Hall.

Emily Caton married John Lovat Mactavish, a Scotch gentleman residing in Baltimore as British Consul. To this granddaughter Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, gave Folly Hall, also known as Folly Quarter. Catherine Carroll, one of the daughters of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, married Honorable Robert Goodloe Harper, one of the most eminent lawyers of his day and member of the United States Senate from Maryland.

Among the children of Charles Carroll, of Homewood, only son of the Signer, were Elizabeth Henrietta, who married Dr. Aaron Tucker; Mary Sophia, who married Honorable Richard H. Bayard; Harriet Juliana, who married Colonel John Lee of Needwood, and Louisa, who married Isaac Rand Jackson.

Among the lineal descendants of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who married in titled foreign families may be mentioned Louisa Carroll, who married George Cavendish Taylor, of England, nephew of Lord Waterpark, and Irish peer; Mary Louisa Carroll, who in 1886 became the bride of Comte Jean de Kergolay, of France; Anita Maria, the wife of Baron Louis de la Grange, also of France, both daughters of the Honorable John Lee Carroll, ex-Governor of Maryland.

Agnes Carroll, the daughter of Albert Henry Carroll (p. 61) and Mary Cornelia Read, is the Countess Heussenstam, of Austria, the marriage having taken place during the residence of Colonel and Mrs. James Fenner Lee at the Court of Vienna, while Colonel Lee was American Charge de Affaires."

Mass for Lady Stafford in Philadelphia

Source: The Catholic Mirror, December 27, 1862, p. 2

Solemn Requiem--On Monday morning last, Right Reverend Bishop Wood celebrated a Solemn Mass, at the Cathedral Chapel, for the peaceful repose of the soul of Lady Elizabeth Stafford, whose death, in England, we recorded in our number for December 6. . . . (Four priests officiated, and a number of Seminarians from both Maryland and Pennsylvania were present.) . . . . The altar was draped in black, and in front of it, in the central aisle, was erected a catafalque, flanked by burning tapers. At the conclusion of the service, the Right Rev. Bishop addressed a few words to the congregation on the character of the deceased, and on her liberality towards the Theological Seminary of the Diocese.
He said that the Scriptures enjoined us to pray for the dead. We do pray for the dead as a duty of charity, for it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for them, that they may be loosed from their sins. We may also pray as a duty of gratitude, and such it was in the present instance. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass had been offered up for the repose of the soul of Lady Elizabeth Stafford, a granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, one who stands in the first rank among American Catholics. While yet in health, with more than usual wisdom, she gave what she intended to give, not trusting to a will, that, after her death might be set aside or nullified. She gave it as a free girt, without any solicitation, inspired, no doubt, to do so by God, and piously corresponding with His inspiration. The gift consisted of a large tract of land in the southern part of the diocese of Pennsylvania. She dedicated it to the service of St. Charles' Theological Seminary, and from it, after the lapse of a few years, the Rt. Rev. Bishop hoped to derive many benefits.
He had the pleasure of seeing Lady Stafford when last in Europe. She was a perfect model of a good Christian lady; humble as a child, and full of respect and veneration for the Church and its ministers. Patient to the last degree under her sufferings from the debilitating chronic disease that terminated her life, she received him, although suffering from the effects of the disease, with a smiling welcome. She was glad to see one from the seat of her benefaction; she was glad to hear of the progress of the Faith in the country of her birth. As a benefactress, he thought it not just to her memory, but to her soul, that a Mass should be solemnized for her eternal repose.

Death of Lady Stafford (grandaughter of the Signer)

Source: The Catholic Mirror, November 22, 1862, p. 5, copied from the London Weekly Register.

Letters received by the English steamer of this week have brought intelligence of the death of Lady Stafford, at the summer residence of her sister, the Duchess of Leeds, at St. Leonard’s-on-the-Sea. She was the second daughter of the late Richard Caton, Esq., and granddaughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. She has lived abroad for nearly fifty years, holding a high position in English society, honored and beloved by all who knew her. What is best to say of her, she never forgot in the midst of the world the duties and obligations of her religion, and closed her long life of seventy years, strengthened and consoled by the holy sacraments she knew so well how to appreciate. Within the last few years she has not only contributed very largely to the foundation of charitable and religious establishments in England, but also made princely donations to similar works in her native country. One among the others we shall soon see in our own city--a charity hospital for the poor. My God reward her generosity in heaven!