Private Watkins
2nd Lieutenant
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2014
- Location
- Oklahoma
Capt. Laurence Lambchops O'Connor:
(Ok, his middle name is not really Lambchops, it's Lewis. Also, his name is variously spelled in different sources as Laurence O'Connor, Lawrence O'Conner, or combinations thereof, etc. I chose to use the spelling on his tombstone... which whether right or wrong, I've taken as the final authority on the matter
)
O'Connor enlisted with Co. K of the 5th Cavalry as a 2nd Lt. at the end of October, 1861. He was promoted to 1st Lt. in December of 1862 and then to Captain in '63.
He was serving as Provost Marshall at Fairfax Court House in March of 1863 when Mosby made his famous raid behind Union lines and captured General Stoughton. Although O'Connor escaped capture, he got tangled up in the Antonia J. Ford affair, accusing her of complicity with Mosby, and he also got some of the blame for the raid's success:
http://www.historicfairfax.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HFCI1001-2013.pdf
Would love to see your favorite ACW "Lamb-chop" soldier...
(Ok, his middle name is not really Lambchops, it's Lewis. Also, his name is variously spelled in different sources as Laurence O'Connor, Lawrence O'Conner, or combinations thereof, etc. I chose to use the spelling on his tombstone... which whether right or wrong, I've taken as the final authority on the matter
)O'Connor enlisted with Co. K of the 5th Cavalry as a 2nd Lt. at the end of October, 1861. He was promoted to 1st Lt. in December of 1862 and then to Captain in '63.
He was serving as Provost Marshall at Fairfax Court House in March of 1863 when Mosby made his famous raid behind Union lines and captured General Stoughton. Although O'Connor escaped capture, he got tangled up in the Antonia J. Ford affair, accusing her of complicity with Mosby, and he also got some of the blame for the raid's success:
On the same date several other residents of Fairfax County were also arrested. Provost Marshal O'Conner seemed intent on making an example of Antonia and the other prisoners by forcing them to walk the entire 14 or so miles to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Moses Sweetser, a well known Union Army Sutler, intervened. Sweetser had maintained a residence and storehouse in Fairfax Court House for nearly two years and consequently knew the Ford family well. He offered to provide one of his own wagons to transport Antonia and the other prisoners to Washington. This offer O'Conner flatly refused. Sweetser, who was a skilled negotiator and had a made a small fortune selling all manner of goods to hungry, homesick Union soldiers, simply reminded O'Conner that his authority as Provost Marshal of Fairfax Court House extended only a mile beyond the limits of the village. Therefore, he could compel the prisoners to walk that far but no further. O'Conner relented and permitted Antonia and the other civilian prisoners to be transported to Old Capitol in one of Moses Sweetser's wagons. After her arrest, Sweestser also wrote to the Evening Star newspaper in Washington, DC refuting the allegations against Antonia and defending her character...
Provost Marshal Capt. Lawrence L. O'Connor, who was not captured and was allegedly not even present during the raid, was assigned some culpability. At least one of his fellow officers accused him of being a drunk. The unidentified officer wrote a scathing letter to a newspaper stating: "in the little hole of Fairfax…the Provost Marshal…is always full of bad whisky. So things go, and it is all right. No wonder we don't get along faster." Later testimony, contained in the pension application of Capt. O'Conner, seems to support the officer's contention. In 1871, O'Conner's pension application was rejected because a medical examination revealed that his medical condition consisting of "debility, insomnia and hemeralopia …, can only be ascribed to the applicants 'vicious habits.'" Captain O'Connor "died in a fit, epileptic in nature" at his home in Keokuk, Iowa, September 20, 1874. "The most probable cause of the soldier's death was alcoholism." He is interred at Oakland Cemetery, Keokuk, Iowa.
The above excerpts are from an excellent article on Mosby's raid in the Fair Facs Gazette, The Newsletter of Historic Fairfax County in the following link:Provost Marshal Capt. Lawrence L. O'Connor, who was not captured and was allegedly not even present during the raid, was assigned some culpability. At least one of his fellow officers accused him of being a drunk. The unidentified officer wrote a scathing letter to a newspaper stating: "in the little hole of Fairfax…the Provost Marshal…is always full of bad whisky. So things go, and it is all right. No wonder we don't get along faster." Later testimony, contained in the pension application of Capt. O'Conner, seems to support the officer's contention. In 1871, O'Conner's pension application was rejected because a medical examination revealed that his medical condition consisting of "debility, insomnia and hemeralopia …, can only be ascribed to the applicants 'vicious habits.'" Captain O'Connor "died in a fit, epileptic in nature" at his home in Keokuk, Iowa, September 20, 1874. "The most probable cause of the soldier's death was alcoholism." He is interred at Oakland Cemetery, Keokuk, Iowa.
http://www.historicfairfax.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/HFCI1001-2013.pdf
Would love to see your favorite ACW "Lamb-chop" soldier...
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