History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

THIRTIETH INFANTRY AND "MECHANICS AND ENGINEERS"
The citizen soldiery of Oakland county was slightly represented in
the Thirtieth Infantry, a home regiment which was stationed at different points in Michigan during the last year of the war, and the "Mechanics
and Engineers," who so distinguished themselves in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina both as fighters and bridge builders.
CUSTER'S MICHIGAN CAVALRY BRIGADE
Of the cavalry regiments, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth,
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth, all received considerable accessions from Oakland county. The First Cavalry was organized during the
summer of I86I by Colonel T. F. Brodhead, of Detroit (formerly of
Pontiac), and left that city for Washington, December 29th. It participated in the campaigns on the upper Potomac, in the Shenandoah valley
and on the slopes of the Blue Ridge in I862, Colonel Brodhead being
killed at the second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862. He was an educated lawyer, a member of the Oakland county bar, and after moving to
Detroit served for some years as postmaster of that city.
The First Michigan Cavalry was in the Gettysburg campaign of I863.
With the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh regiments of cavalry, it was incorporated into what became widely known as the Michigan Cavalry Brigade in
command of the lamented Custer. After the death of Colonel Brodhead
the First Cavalry was commanded by Colonel Charles H. Town, and at
Gettysburg his command successfully resisted a full infantry brigade of
the enemy, putting them to route with drawn sabers. It was also at
this terrific battle that the Fifth went to the relief of the Seventh Michigan Cavalry.
The history of the four brigades composing the command which Custer led forms a bright chapter in the Union operations of this branch of
the service in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from Winchester to Appomattox. Colonel John T. Copeland of the First cavalry
organized the Fifth, but in November, I862, being promoted to the rank
of a brigadier, he was succeeded in the command of the regiment by Colonel Freeman Norvell. Major R. A. Alger, of the Second Cavalry, was
commissioned colonel of the Fifth on the 28th of the same month, and
served in that capacity until September 20, I864, when ill health compelled him to resign.
The sixty or seventy men from Oakland county who joined the Sixth
and Seventh Cavalry regiments were generally transferred to the First;
so that the record of the Fifth and First virtually covers all of interest
to the readers of this history.
THE EIGHTI CAVALRY
More than two hundred men from Oakland county enlisted in the
Eighth Michigan Cavalry, under command of Lieutenant Colonel G. S.
Wormer. It formed part of the Union forces who pursued Morgan on
his raid through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in 1863, and whose sixteen