ALFRED FISHER – 3rd CAVALRYMUSTERED OUT UNDER GENERAL ORDER No. 83 - For a county bounty of $600, Alfred Fisher, who was 38 years old, enlisted to serve for one year in the 3rd Cavalry on September 3, 1864. He was the oldest of the nine men who enlisted in Plattsburgh that September. They were divided between Companies H and K and all of them managed to muster out in 1865.Between May and September of 1864, the 3rd Cavalry had had more than 160 casualties – over half the casualties were men who had been captured while patrolling and skirmishing in the Petersburg/Richmond area.Alfred and his comrades were enlisted to help fill out the ranks and their first battle was at Darbytown Road on October 7th where they had 4 men killed in action, 15 men wounded, and 33 men captured by the enemy - none of them were the new recruits .The regiment stayed in the general area until mid-December fighting in five more battles and then went into winter quarters at Suffolk, VA. They had three more engagements in 1865, their last being on March 18th.Alfred and about half the regiment mustered out in June at Norfolk, VA, under General Order No. 83 from the War Department which said that all men whose terms of service would be over before October 1, 1865, would be mustered out – the rest remained in Virginia until September.You can read the General Order at: https://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/12/archives/army-reduction-order-for-reducing-the-volunteer-cavalry-forces-of.htmlHe returned home after nine months and nine days in the military and took up farming again. By 1870, he and his wife, Rachel, were living in Altona with five of their children. In1887, Alfred was awarded his Invalid’s Pension. When he died in Plattsburgh in 1896, he was a member of the Walter H. Benedict G. A. R. Post.Alfred’s final resting place was the Old Roman Catholic Cemetery in Plattsburgh on U. S. Avenue by the Military Barracks. He died of April 24, 1896 and, next year, a military headstone from the Vermont Marble Company was placed on his grave. Two years later, Rachel, applied for and was granted a Widow’s Pension.Sadly, when the cemetery was bulldozed in 1983, under the direction of Monsignor Morris Dwyer, many of the tombstones, including Alfred’s were destroyed.
