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.