EDWIN B. ARNOLD -- 2nd VETERANCAVALRYPATROLLED THE MISSISSIPPI - Edwin B. Arnold was the grandson of one ofPeru's original settlers, Joseph Arnold and his wife, Rachel Irish. Hewas living in Peru when he enlisted in the 2nd Veteran Cavalry as aprivate.The newly-formed regiment, also known as the Empire Light Cavalry, wasorganized in Saratoga Springs and Edwin was mustered into Company H withother men from Plattsburgh, also a few from Hoosick Falls and Malone.About a third of the men who enlisted were already veterans of 2-yearregiments.The first eight companies left for Washington in October and patrolledthe with the Department of Washington DC, until May 1864 when the fullregiment was sent to Louisiana to participate in the Red River Campaign.Between March 10th and May 18th, they were in seventeen engagementson the campaign and suffered sixty-seven casualties. For the rest of theyear, they stayed in Louisiana and Mississippi engaged along the riverwith the Department of the Gulf.After winter quarters, the 2nd Veteran Cavalry was transferred to theCavalry Corps of the Military Division of West Mississippi and spent therest of the war in Mississippi and Alabama. Their last engagement was atWhistler's Station, AL, on April 12, 1965.When Edwin was mustered out as a sergeant on November 8th, atTalladega, AL, he returned to Clinton County. By 1880, he was married toMelvina Monroe and his 1-year-old daughter and working as a teamster inPlattsburgh. He moved to Cadyville and when he died in 1893, he wasburied in the Cadyville Protestant Cemetery there.Melvina started receiving her Widow's Pension in 1893, and received ituntil she died, almost thirty years later in 1924.
