LAWRENCE ASHLINE (ASSELIN) -- 9th CAVALRYWhen the 9th Cavalry was created, it was a 3-year regiment. LawrenceAsselin (Ashline) took them at their word and was mustered out 3 yearsand 3 days after his enlistment on October 28, 1861. He and 42 othersfrom the Rouses Point area enlisted in the fall of 1861. Three of themdied in the service one was shot, one died of starvation in a prisoncamp and the third died of disease.The colonel of their regiment, John Beardsley, was a West Point graduateand George S. Nichols who later replaced him was a member of the statesenate. They left Westfield, in Chautauqua County, NY, where theorganized in December and served in the capital for the next threemonths. In March 1862, four companies, including Lawrence's Company M,were detached to several batteries of the Reserve Artillery for twomonths. The other companies served as train guard with the Army of thePotomac. They were engaged in 30 battles and skirmishes in Virginia in1862 including Berryville in the Shenandoah Valley about 70 miles westof Washington, where 200 men of the 9th Cavalry charged through theprincipal streets of the town driving a superior force before them. Theregiment next attacked the Seventh Virginia Cavalry and routed them.In 1863, they continued patrolling Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.They were at Gettysburg in July in Major General Alfred Pleasanton'sCavalry Corps with about 395 men. During 1864, the 9th's most bloodybattle of their more than fifty engagements was during GeneralSheridan's Trevilian Raid. On June 12th, the cavalry forces clashed tothe northwest of Trevilian Station, where seven assaults by Brig.Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert\'s Union Division were repulsed with heavylosses, including 50 in the 9th Cavalry. After the battle, Sheridanwithdrew his force to rejoin Grant\'s army.Lawrence was still fighting in the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 1864when he decided not to re-enlist after his three promised years were up.He was mustered out at Middletown, VA, in the northern Valley onNovember 1st, and returned to Coopersville where he was living when heenlisted.Soon after the war, Lawrence left for Illinois and married ArtemisePelletier in Kankakee. He supported their family by working in theconstruction business and died in Kankakee in 1892. He was buried in theSt. Anne Township Cemetery. Artemise was buried beside her husband morethan 60 years later, when she died at 98 years old in 1953.
