Volunteers Called to Guard the Frontier
The War Department authorizes a new regiment of mounted volunteers to secure the Washington and Oregon territories as the Civil War escalates.
To-day an order goes out to Oregon from the War Department, to raise one regiment of 10 companies of mounted volunteers for service on the frontier of Oregon and Washington. Thos. Cornelius has been named Colonel, R. F. Maury, Lieutenant Colonel, and B. T. Harding, Quartermaster and Mustering officer.
“To-day an order goes out to Oregon from the War Department, to raise one regiment of 10 companies mounted volunteers for service on the frontier of Oregon and Washington.”
This mobilization effort highlights how even remote corners of the Pacific Northwest were pulled into the urgent national security apparatus of the Civil War. While the frontier is long gone, the legacy of this military presence persists in the history of local armories and state National Guard traditions in Washington.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.