Captain: Inasmuch as the term of enlistment of the Third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia is about to expire, I cannot permit you to go to your home and its endearment without some slight recognition of your valuable services as a commanding officer, and it is with pleasure that I call the attention of your friends at home and abroad to your splendid company, for there is the proof of your ability as an officer.
With kind regards for your future happiness, believe me to be,
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. JOURDAN,
Colonel Commanding Brigade.
Before the war Captain Hurlburt pursued the business of a ship carpenter in New Bedford, was for some time deputy sheriff of Bristol County, in which latter position he remained four years. After being mustered out he raised a company of cavalry and was captain of the same. After the war he was manager of a hotel in Hartford for seventeen years. Failing health caused him to seek the quiet of a home at the Vineyard, where he died in 1900, at the age of eighty-two years.
First Lieut. William H. Allen was in the harness making business for years, and later was known in New Bedford as the popular “piano tuner and repairer.” He died in New Bedford in 1892, and was buried with military honors.
Second Lieut. Jonathan W. Davis was detailed for signal corps service during his nine months’ campaign. He returned with his company and for many years was bookkeeper at the Parker House, New Bedford. He died in New Bedford, in 1898, and was buried in the family cemetery.
Sergt. PATRICK CANNAVAN.
But few, if any company in the Third Regiment, could boast of so proficient an orderly sergeant as Sergeant Cannavan, of Company F. From 1855 to 1860 he was in her Majesty Queen Victoria’s army; he saw much hard fighting in the Crimean War and was honored with two medals for his bravery at that time. After his return from his nine months’ service for Uncle Sam, like a true soldier he engaged in such business as he could command. He recruited for the army and drilled both men and officers. At one time it looked as though he would receive a commission in the heavy artillery with Captain James L. Wilber, with whom he had spent several weeks of recruiting, but Captain Wilber was ordered to consolidate his company with a portion of a company near Boston. Sergeant Cannavan was offered the sergeancy in the company but declined. Being determined to see more active service, he went with his former captain, George R. Hurlburt in Company B, Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry. This time he enlisted as a private, all the sergeants’ places being filled. Soon he was made sergeant and sent with a company to Hilton Head, Florida, where he was ordered to drill officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned. On the morning following Sergeant Cannavan’s promotion, First Sergeant Ashley went to the hospital, and, as he never returned to the company, Sergeant Cannavan performed the duties of that officer.
Sergeant Cannavan distinguished himself during an engagement at Gainesville, Florida, on the 17th of August, 1864. In the absence of his superior officer he led his company in a desperate sabre charge, thus saving his comrades in the rear from capture by the rebel cavalry, who outnumbered his cavalry two to one. For this act of bravery he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in Company A, Fourth Cavalry. In this engagement he was unhorsed, his carbine shot away by a rebel bullet which destroyed the hook holding the carbine to the belt, and he received a slight wound. Seven days later Sergeant Cannavan with a few of his men reached the main command, and when they rode into camp the company thought these men must have come from the dead. Two months after this battle he was promoted to First Lieutenant Fourth Cavalry, Company B. After the surrender of Lee Lieutenant Cannavan was detailed to flag all trains going from Richmond to see if there were any deserters on board. He also had the supervision of families going from Richmond to their old plantations, sometimes going as many as forty miles into the interior.