The Shadow of Dishonor: A Blot on Captain Jerome Dane’s Service Record

Jerome Dane: 1828-1908 (Maternal Second Great-Grandfather)

Jerome Dane had a long military career, serving in the war against the Sioux tribes in Minnesota, and then leading an Infantry regiment as a Captain in the Civil War. However, his first military experience came as a raw recruit in the Mexican American War in the 1840s. I had very little data on this first period of service—only Jerome’s claims in newspaper interviews and in biographies in various Minnesota history books. So when I read a brief article in my genealogy group’s newsletter about a new website established by the National Park Service listing all the men who served in the Mexican-American War, I was excited. I could finally verify that Jerome Dane served in the Mexican War.

Captain Jerome Dane

I quickly found Jerome Dane’s record on the US Mexican War Soldiers & Sailors Database. While his listing verified his service, it also stated that he had not been discharged---he had deserted. I was stunned. This didn’t seem to match what I knew about Jerome. He seemed proud of his military record. And why would the army have allowed him to enlist again in the 1860s if he had a record as a deserter? He not only served again in the Infantry, he was made an officer, mustering as a second lieutenant in 1862 and getting promoted to captain before 1865. I needed more information.

Jerome Dane was born March 3, 1828 in Morganville, Genesee County, New York to parents David Dane and Sally Randall. According to a brief biography in Neill’s History of the Minnesota Valley, “At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the Mexican War; served three years.”

This matches the record on the National Park Service website, which lists his enlistment date as December 25, 1845—quite a Christmas gift! He would have been 17 on that date, but the enlistment form, seen below, states that he was 21 years old. Did he lie or did the enlistment officer change his age on the forms because he was too young to serve?

The record provides some fascinating details about Jerome. He was 5 feet 9 inches tall, had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was working as a cooper—a maker of barrels—at the time of his army enlistment.

Jerome enlisted in Buffalo, New York, nearly fifty miles from his home. I wonder what led him to travel so far for such a purpose. A Lt. Canby signed him up, and assigned him to the Infantry’s 2^nd Regiment, Company E. According to the New York State Military Museum, the 2^nd regiment of New York State Volunteers was under the command of West Point grad Ward Burnett. According to a Wikipedia entry on the regiment,

“When war broke out with Mexico in 1846, the 2nd Infantry Regiment was sent to Camargo, Mexico and joined General David E. Twiggs' Brigade. From September 1846 to December 1847 the regiment campaigned from the Rio Grande to Mexico City, fighting in battles at Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Moline del Rey and Chapultepec.”

The New York State Military Museum provided further detail:

The Second Regiment New York Volunteers “joined General Winfield Scott’s invasion force and landed at Vera Cruz in March 1847 and participated in the siege of that city. The 2nd Regiment moved westward with Scott’s army, fighting in the Battle of Cerro Gordo, where it was in the vanguard in pursuing and capturing Mexican General Santa Anna, and the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco which resulted in the fall of Mexico City.

Second Regiment--Infantry Coat of Arms

Obviously Jerome saw considerable action in Mexico. How did it affect him? I also wonder how he reacted to the southern climate and Spanish-speaking population. It must have been a total culture shock for a teen from upstate New York. He probably suffered in the heat. According to the Military Museum article, the regiment began with 1000 soldiers, and suffered 400 casualties, with 199 men dying of wounds and disease.

Mexican American War illustration, courtesy Library of Congress

The Mexican war ended February 2, 1848. The New York Volunteers had been told their service would be for the “duration” of the war, although Jerome’s enlistment record shows he signed up for a five-year term of duty. According to records, “The rate of desertion during this war was 8.3%. Some deserted to avoid the horrendous conditions of the camps.” I doubt Jerome deserted due to camp conditions, as he remained with his unit for over six months following the end of the war. His desertion date is listed as August 18, 1848.

So what might have prompted him to desert his unit in August? I have a hypothesis. According to the Wikipedia article on the Second Regiment,

“In September 1848 because of conflicts with the Indians in Oregon and California the regiment was sent west. The regiment sailed via Rio de Janeiro, Cape Horn and Santiago, Chile, to California. Between 1849 and 1853 the regiment was in California occupying stations from Goose Lake on the north to Fort Yuma on the south and the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the east, scouting, providing protection for the '49ers and fighting throughout the entire area. The regiment returned to New York in 1853.”

Imagine being a young 20 year old who has spent three long years at war, far from his home, family and friends. He had enlisted assuming his service would be over when the war was over, but instead his unit was being sent to the West Coast for more years of conflict. I suspect that he decided that his service was done, whether or not the Army agreed, and he headed home rather than get sent to some other far off place. I’m sure he wasn’t the only deserter from his regiment—he probably joined a group of soldiers heading north as traveling alone would have been hazardous. Did he even understand he was committing desertion and the potential ramifications if he was caught? I checked the records on Fold 3 of the other men from his area on the same page as Jerome’s entry. The two men from his area of New York died in battle. Perhaps this influenced his decision as well. I wonder how long it took him to make his way home, and what he told his family and friends about his separation from the army.

Did the Army also have questions about whether Jerome’s return home in 1848 was truly desertion? Instead of throwing him in the brig when he signed up with the Ninth Regiment in Minnesota, the Army made him an officer. I suppose it is possible that record-keeping was so primitive at that point that the enlistment officers in 1862 had no way to check his 1848 record.

Despite the shadow of desertion on Jerome’s service record, he seems to have redeemed himself as an infantry officer from 1862 till the end of the Civil War. It appears he was both a deserter and a hero—a man of many sides.

Sources:

US Mexican War Soldiers & Sailors Database. https://www.nps.gov/paal/learn/historyculture/search-usmexwar.htm#sort=Title%20asc

History of the Minnesota Valley Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota. By Edward Duffield Neill · 1882. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jerome+dane&pg=PA1004&printsec=frontcover&q=inpublisher:%22North+Star+Publishing+Company%22&tbm=bks&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi159DV5a76AhWGLkQIHeVTAS0QmxMoAHoECB8QAg&sxsrf=ALiCzsZ4kMVVpj-ACObFbJ67oMn4llT7Ig:1664069421041

Army Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914. Accessed Sept 26, 2022 https://www.fold3.com/image/310827952?rec=299679172&terms=dane,jerome

2nd Infantry Regiment (United States). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

List of United States military and volunteer units in the Mexican–American War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_and_volunteer_units_in_the_Mexican%E2%80%93American_War#New_York

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center. 2nd Regiment New York State Volunteers. https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/unit-history/conflict/mexican-war-1846-1848/2nd-regiment-new-york-state-volunteers