WILLIAM WHEELER -- 16th and 2nd PROVISIONAL CAVALRY A WANDERER - Like many people in the 1800s, the border between Canada and the United States was thought of as invisible. William Wheeler was born in Russeltown Flats, Quebec, and he and his family travelled back and forth across the border for the rest of their lives. Russeltown is about fifteen miles north of Mooers on the northern side of the border. William was living in Mooers at the time and was drafted. He went to Plattsburgh to enlist in the 16th Cavalry when he was thirty years old. He enlisted on New Year's Day in 1864 and was mustered in as a corporal in Company A on January 4th, for a town bounty of $300 and a county bounty of $200. The regiment had been in existence for only a few months when William joined them in Washington while they were in winter quarters. When the roads had dried, the 16th renewed their patrols in northern Virginia along the Potomac with the Cavalry Brigade of the XXII Corps of the Department of Washington DC -- in Mosby's Confederacy. In November, the regiment was transferred to the 1st Separate Brigade in the XXII Corps. Until April 8, 1865, when they had their last engagement, they had 11 men killed in action, 8 mortally wounded and 28 wounded, however, those captured by the enemy numbered 134. The 16th Cavalry mustered out on August 17, 1865, and, because he still hadn't fulfilled his 3-year commitment, he was transferred to the 3rd Provisional Cavalry with men from the 13th Cavalry. The new regiment continued to patrol the area for another month before they were mustered out a Camp Barry in the northeastern outskirts of the capital. William returned to Mooers Forks his wife, Ada Larrabee, and daughter Alice who was born in New York. Their second daughter, Luella, was born in Quebec. He started receiving an Invalid's Pension in 1866. The family lived in several places -- Quebec, western New York, Decatur, KS, and Stratford, ON, where he died in 1877 and was buried. Ada went to Illinois to live with relatives and applied for a Widow's Pension there in 1890. Later, she moved back to western New York. Their daughter, Luella, died in Portland, OR, in 1942.
