An excellent condition reunion ribbon for the 1884 reunion of veterans of the 3^rd NY Cavalry held at Rochester, NY. The ribbon is printed in black on white silk with a charging light dragoon with sword pointing ahead as the central motif and reading above and below,  “1861  1864 / FOURTH ANNUAL  RE-UNION / OF THE / 3d / N.Y. /. VETERAN / CAVALRY / AT ROCHESTER, N.Y. / June 14, / 1884” in large and small block letters. The condition is excellent, with no holes or tears, and strong color. Please see our photos.

The regiment was extremely active, starting with a posting at Washington in 1861, then transfer to the Department of North Carolina and the 18^th Corps in April 1862 and lastly service in Kautz’s cavalry division in the Army of the James in the Petersburg and Richmond Campaign from Spring 1864. Phisterer lists more than 100 actions to their credit. Their losses were 3 officers and 29 men killed, another 19 men mortally wounded, and 138 officers and men wounded, who recovered to some degree. In July 1865 the regiment was consolidated into 8 companies and then into 5 that were then transferred into the 1^st NY Mounted Rifles. In September 1865 that regiment was redesignated the 4^th NY Provisional Cavalry, which in turn was discharged and mustered out of service Nov. 29, 1865, at Norfolk, Va.

This ribbon comes from the estate of Maurice Leyden, which came out about 1998 and most of which ended up in the Texas Civil War Museum, with this ribbon, Leyden’s vest, and his gauntlets going elsewhere and now offered with the possibility of re-uniting them with his other material. Born in New York in 1836, Leyden was a dentist before the war and continued in that profession afterward, along with the manufacture of dental instruments and other pursuits, including acting as County Clerk for a time. He was active in the G.A.R. and the regimental veterans’ association. He died in 1906. According to Phisterer, he enlisted in the 3^rd NY Cavalry at age 24, enrolling June 13, 1861, at Syracuse to serve three years and mustered in as 2^nd Lieutenant, Company B, on July 19, but did not receive his commission until December 4, 1861, which gave him rank from July 30, 1861. Some sources refer to him as initially a 3^rd Lieutenant to resolve the problem. In any case he was acting Adjutant of the regiment’s 3d Battalion in March 1863, then commissioned as 1^st Lieutenant Co. C on June 29, 1863, with rank from June 12, his official date of muster. He was captured in action Oct. 7, 1864, at Darbytown Road, near Richmond and spent five months in Confederate prisons, before been released on parole Feb. 22, 1865. The exact date of his exchange and return to duty is unclear, but according to a secondary source was April 1, 1865, which would correspond to official the date of his muster as Captain, Co. B, though his commission had come through on Dec. 22, 1864, and gave him rank from October 10. He mustered out with the remainder of the 3^rd NY Cavalry as part of the 4^th NY Provisional Cavalry on Nov. 29, 1865. He commanded Company B in the consolidated 3^rd NY Cavalry both under their 1^st NY Mounted Rifles and 4^th NY Provisional Cavalry designationFor his wartime service he received a postwar brevet to Major, with an effective date of March 13, 1865.

Some of Leyden’s letters are available online and make interesting reading. He was not one to easily forgive and forget, witnessing wartime and postwar suffering, and expressing a willingness to shoot Lee if he ever got the chance.

Please see our other offerings from the estate of this interesting cavalry officer.  [sr][ph:L]

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