A record listing the details of Allen Morse's enlistment

Allen Morse was 28 when he joined the Michigan Volunteer Cavalry as a private in August of 1862. Like the majority of soldiers and officers in his regiment, he didn’t have any prior military experience. He was initially enlisted in the 5th Regiment, being enrolled on 11 August in Grand Rapids and mustered in on the 28th in Detroit. But as it turned out, there were too many companies in that regiment, so his entire company was moved to the 6th Regiment and was called Company A. Company A was initially the envy of the regiment, since it had been formed for about two months and the men already had their uniforms and were well-disciplined. Each company in the regiment had horses of a single color, and Morse’s company had bays.

In December of ’62, the regiment set off for Washington DC, where they formed a brigade along with the 1st, 5th, and 7th regiments. That winter, they participated in a couple raids into Virginia but didn’t see any fighting. In January, Morse transferred to Company M within the same regiment, and in February his new company, along with another, was detached from its regiment and temporarily attached to Jewett’s Corps of Observation. Morse and his fellow soldiers were stationed on the Potomac River to perform guard duty and stop any blockade running. Things were relatively quiet, and up until they joined in the Gettysburg Campaign in June and July, they had only seen one or two minor skirmishes.

Colonel George Gray, initial commanding officer of Morse's regiment

On 4 July 1863, they fought Robert E. Lee’s bridge guards on the Potomac and successfully destroyed the bridge and their trains. Shortly after that, the two companies were attached to Well’s Brigade, of West Virginia, and from their base at Harpers Ferry they went on numerous raids and participated in many skirmishes in the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area. This continued for ten months or so, until they were ordered to rejoin their original Michigan regiment in May 1864.

Now reattached to the 6th regiment, Morse’s company continued to fight. Many were smaller conflicts, but others are better known, like the Battle of the Wilderness (5–7 May) and the Battle of Yellow Tavern (11 May). All apparently went well for Morse during these conflicts until the Battle of Trevilian Station (11–12 June), when he was taken prisoner of war and contracted scurvy, from which he later died on 1 October.

After Morse’s capture, his regiment continued on, participating in major battles like the Battle of Cedar Creek, Battle of Five Forks, and Appomattox. After the war ended, the 6th Regiment was mustered out on 24 November 1865.

Read more about Morse’s regiment here or here. Or read a first-hand account of life in the 6th Regiment here. You can also find documents pertaining to Morse’s military service on Fold3 or explore the service of other regiments and soldiers in Fold3’s Civil War collection.

Allen Morse at War