WILLIAM SEWARD VANTINE -- 9th CAVALRYDIED AT 39 YEARS 9 MONTHS AND 11 DAYS - William Seward Vantine was 21 years old when he enlisted in the 9th Cavalry on October 11, 1861, in Rouses Point. He was mustered in as a sergeant as W. Seward Vantyne. He was the youngest of the nine children of David Vantine and Polly Houghton who lived on Grand Isle, VT, before moving to Chazy.William and Samuel Underhill, who also enlisted in Rouses Point, were assigned to Company M under Captain Joseph Kennedy. The company was made up of men from Geneva, Troy, New York City as well as men from the Rouses Point area. It was unusual for a regiment to have 12 companies, usually they had only ten. This company was equipped with six sergeants including an ordnance sergeant and a quartermaster sergeant as well as four other men of the same rank. There were two buglers, a blacksmith a farrier and a waggoner. In all there were 88 men in the company.The regiment completed their organization Albany and left the State on November 26, 1861. They served in Washington, DC., from December 1861. In March 1862, Companies C, F, K and M were detached and distributed in detachments among the batteries of the Reserve Artillery, with which they served until May 22, 1862. The remaining eight companies performed as train-guard in the Army of the Potomac.In June 1862, after returning from the Peninsula, the regiment was mounted at Washington, DC, and assigned to the Cavalry Brigade, 1st Corps, of the Army of Virginia. In September they were transferred to the Army of the Potomac with whom they stayed until August of 1864, when they went to the Shenandoah Valley with the Army of the Shenandoah.During the time William patrolled with the 9th Cavalry, he was in over 100 battles and skirmishes. He mustered out on October 19, 1864, at Harper's Ferry, before they went into the Shenandoah Valley. His career had its ups and downs. He was demoted and then restored to his sergeant's rank a year later in August 1863 but fulfilled the three-year term he promised.William returned to Chazy and his parents. In 1866, he married Hannah Hoag and they had five children, all born on Grand Isle. He died on December 4, 1879, a few months before his 40th birthday and was buried in Grand Isle Cemetery with two of his children. Pensions were granted for his wife and remaining minor children. Hannah died in 1912 and his son, also named William Seward Vantine, lived until 1955.
