I confess to still feeling a bit of a thrill when I find what I believe to be an unpublished Custer document. Such was the case earlier this year when I found a December 1863 letter from Custer to Alfred Pleasonton’s Chief of Staff, Col. C. Ross Smith. Pleasonton had apparently ordered Custer to send his orderly and bugler, Joseph Fought back to his regiment. Exactly what prompted Pleasonton’s order is unknown, but Custer responded as follows:

“I have just received an order from the Maj. Gen. Comd’g to order Bugler Joseph [D.] Fought of the 5^th US Cavalry to his regiment, which order I, of course, shall obey, unless otherwise directed by the same authority. I wish to make a statement with reference to Bugler Fought and the circumstances under which he joined me and hope you will submit my statement to the Maj. Gen’l Comd’g the Corps for his consideration and action.

When I was serving upon the staff of the Maj. Gen. Comd’g the Corps, Bugler Fought was on duty at those Headquarters, having been detailed there previous to my appointment on the staff. When the assignment of orderlies was made to the members of the staff, Bugler Fought at my request was assigned to me by the Adjt. Gen’l, Lt. Col. [Andrew] Alexander. When I received my promotion to the rank of Brig. Gen’l, Bugler Fought accompanied me to my command and has remained with me ever since. [He] has been with me in every engagement I have had with the enemy and in every action has distinguished himself. If it was optional with me I would prefer to lose the most efficient platoon in my command rather than him. I wish to state a fact of which the Maj. Gen’l Comd’g was not aware. The company to which Bugler Fought belongs (Co. D) is not on duty with this army nor has it been for a considerable period, it is stationed at Point Lookout, MD. The Comd’g officer of that company has never to my knowledge applied for the services of this bugler. For the above reasons, I respectfully request that Bugler Fought may be allowed to remain with me.”

Pleasonton acquiesced and the young bugler remained with Custer. In September 1864, Custer wrote to Libbie, telling her of his promotion to division command, explaining, “I had to leave my old brigade [the Michigan Brigade] and staff [behind], all but two aides. Fought and Eliza come with me.” Eliza Brown was an escaped slave who Custer retained as a servant.

Custer’s letter is helpful, as little is known of Joseph Fought and how he came to be Custer’s orderly. In a post-war memoir (which I have not seen), Fought admits, “I do not know how I came to attach myself to him.” He then appears to suggest that he had been in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the battle of 1^st Bull Run, when he saw Lieutenant Custer looking for a horse. “Then,” Fought wrote, “later, in the city I was holding his horse for him.”

Joseph Fought is well known to Custer students as being responsible to some degree for providing either Custer’s famous uniform just days after his promotion, or simply the stars that designated Custer’s new rank of brigadier. Otherwise, I knew little about Fought but I had found one other item in the Archives years ago.

In May 1861, Maj. Lawrence Pike Graham, 2^nd Dragoons and stationed at Carlisle Barracks, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, sent the following letter to the War Department. “I would respectfully request that Bugler John Adams … at this depot be transferred to Company D, 2^nd Cavalry at Washington City, and that Bugler Joseph Fought of Company D, 2^nd Cavalry be transferred to this depot for the following reasons. Bugler Fought is a small boy and has two brothers at this depot, and Adams has a brother in Company D, 2^nd Cavalry…”

Major Graham’s description of Fought as “a small boy” had always caught my eye, and indeed a war time image shows a very slight young man, but does Graham’s wording suggest anything else?

Fought’s pension file includes several standard examination forms filled out by doctors on a routine basis. The forms show Fought’s height as 5-8 and 5-9, all of which would have made him a little taller than average for his era. I could not find his date of birth, however, and wondered if he had signed on as a very young man who added several inches in the years following his enlistment.

His headstone shows only the year of his birth – 1846, but documents in his pension file also show 1843 as the year of his birth. Obituaries list his date of birth as April 4, 1846, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and confirm he enlisted at but 14 years of age. One paper describes him as “being the smallest and youngest man ever enlisted in the United States Army.” A nice story, but impossible, I would think, to prove. However, his age at enlistment may explain Major Graham’s description of him.

With my immediate questions answered, I had thought to leave the story here and post a very short story based around Custer’s request to retain Fought as his orderly and bugler. But the magic of digital archives led me down several rabbit holes and expanded my knowledge of Fought’s life.

In his pension account, Fought mentions one wound, a gunshot to the left side of his head incurred at 3^rd Winchester on September 19, 1864. He offers no details, beyond explaining that the wound hampered his vision. But the final grand charge of the Union cavalry that day may have been the largest cavalry charge ever seen in North America, and Fought, now just 18 years old, would, almost certainly have been riding near Custer’s side. However, a newspaper account of his career described him as having been wounded three times.

Three wounds riding at Custer’s side during two years in which they saw considerable fighting, and, at times, near daily combat should not be dismissed. In my experience, not every soldier claimed a pension for all wounds received and some did not mention any of their wounds. Fought may have received two very minor wounds, for which he sought no treatment at a medical facility, or which left no visible scaring to substantiate a claim. Most of his pension deals with rather routine, though uncomfortable medical maladies common among soldiers of the era. But, at times his story borders on the hard to believe, much like his long-accepted but now questioned account regarding Custer’s uniform.

A news account published several years before his passing, notes that Fought had served as one of General Winfield Scott’s bodyguards in November 1860, and participated in President Lincoln’s inauguration the following year. Though most of the regiment spent the years immediately preceding the war out west, Major Graham’s letter confirms Fought’s being on duty in the capital and thus the claims seem plausible. Another story is more questionable, however.

Several accounts speak of Fought’s name appearing on a granite shaft erected in Carlisle to honor the city’s war dead. As one correspondent wrote, “His name was carved on that shaft as one of the most loyal and brave who went out from Carlisle to fight for his country and who at the close of the war was missing and reported by his commanding officer, General Custer, as being among the missing and probably dead.” According to the story, at the time of his disappearance, Fought was acting as a “Union scout and spy, and when inquiry was made by those erecting the Carlisle monument General Custer stated that he had sent him within the enemy’s lines just before the close of the war and not having heard from him up to that time he thought he must be dead.”

In another version, Custer is said to have expressed his belief that Fought had been “captured and shot as an enemy, for he was sent out as a Union spy.” The writer also credits Custer with terming Fought as “the best orderly and the best spy he ever had.”

The accounts offer no certain dates, beyond the ambiguous “just before the close of the war,” but Fought’s pension records and other news accounts state that he mustered out of the army on March 19, 1865, just after Custer rejoined the Army of the Potomac, following a long tour in the Shenandoah Valley. Four days earlier, Custer had avoided serious if not fatal injuries when his horse tripped and turned a complete somersault before pinning Custer face down to the ground. So, Custer might be forgiven if he mis-remembered the story of Fought’s disappearance, but employing Fought as a spy?

Fought quickly re-enlisted, however, and served another stint in the cavalry before being discharged on June 20, 1868, in Charleston, South Carolina. He returned to Washington, D.C., and accepted a position as a government clerk in 1869. He married Adelia Faulkner on October 26, 1871.

On June 9, 1893, while working as a clerk for the government in the old Ford’s Theater, Fought was at his desk on the first floor, when the upper floors of the building collapsed. Hundreds of men had been in the building at the time. Twenty died and many more had been injured. The story dominated the news in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, and again when several men deemed responsible for the precarious state of the building stood trial. Fought’s life may have been saved by several posts supporting the ceiling near his desk. Crawling along the floor, Fought and other men made their way to the windows on the north side of the building, broke the glass and escaped.

The victim’s families and the press immediately demanded justice, accusing the government of knowingly ignoring the unsafe condition of the building. Some saw the building as cursed, having already been the scene of President Lincoln’s assassination and they demanded the structure be torn down.

During a tumultuous coroner’s inquest a few days later, the jury focused on several men, including Col. Frederick C. Ainsworth, the head of the Pension and Record Section of the Adjutant General’s Office. When Ainsworth’s attorney began to speak, one of the clerks in the crowd demanded he sit down, terming him an “outsider and have no right here.” Soon other clerks took up the cry. Emboldened, the agitator accused Ainsworth of murder. As court officials sought to gain control of the crowd, “the tempest broke in its full fury.” Several men began shouting, “Hang him!” Others followed, and the room soon rang with angry men chanting, “Hang him! Hang Him!” before order could be restored.

Fought testified against Ainsworth, stating he had noticed cracks in the foundation three days before the collapse and had moved his desk closer to the windows, a decision that may have saved his life. In time, a grand jury indicted four men, including Ainsworth, for manslaughter. The original indictments were quashed, and new indictments issued, only to be quashed again the following spring. In the end, the court dismissed all charges against the four men. Shortly thereafter, Congress appointed Ainsworth to oversee the publication of what we know as the Official Records of the American Civil War.

But prior to assuming his new duties, Ainsworth fired Joseph Fought, alleging insubordination. Fought took his case to the papers and presented several letters from Custer, confirming his outstanding military record and good character.

In May 1868, while serving his suspension from the army, and staying at General Sheridan’s house at Fort Leavenworth, Custer wrote the following letter to Fought, one month before Fought’s second enlistment expired.

“My Dear Fought,

Your letter dated the 11^th came to hand this morning, and I assure you we were most glad to hear from you. I wish I had some good position for you when your time is out in the Fifth Cavalry. I would like to see you commissioned in the army; your services during the war certainly entitle you to be so. I shall never forget your courage and devotion as exhibited under me during the war, nor shall I ever hesitate to render you a service when in my power. I would only be too glad to advance your interests in any way provided I have the power, and you suggest the manner of doing it. I shall never forget you or cease to remember your deserving conduct with me throughout the war. You must always no matter what your condition or wants may be, count upon me as your best friend. I hope this letter may reach you. If so, write to me at once and tell me whether you think you could pass the examination or not. Mrs. C. desires to be remembered to you. Write soon.”

On April 11, 1876, while embroiled in the Clymer-Belknap hearings, Custer wrote to the Judge Advocate General in Washington on Fought’s behalf.

“Permit me to call your attention to Mr. Joseph Fought, now employed in your office as clerk or messenger. Mr. Fought served under my immediate command during the most important part of the war, and in all the great battle and campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. Fought was on active duty at my headquarters and took active part in the operations of my command. Although serving as an enlisted man, he frequently – particularly in times of battle – performed the responsible duties of staff officer, always with intelligence and ability. He distinguished himself in almost every battle by his gallantry; and if I were called upon to designate the enlisted man who, under my observation rendered the most gallant and efficient service during the war I would name Joseph Fought.” The papers also cited, without presenting in full, Custer’s letter of December 13, 1863, copied above.

In 1903, 13 years after being fired by Ainsworth, the old soldier found himself a party to an age-discrimination case against the government. With the help of President Theodore Roosevelt, he received a job as a watchman with the Treasury Department.

Joseph Fought passed away at his home near Falls Church, Virginia, on December 2, 1907.

Sources:

Unpublished documents at the National Archives

Carlisle Evening Standard

Carlisle Herald

Carlisle Sentinel

Pittsburgh Press

Washington Bee

Washington Evening Star

Washington Post

Washington Times

Aimone, Alan C, and Barbara A., A User’s Guide to the Official Records of the American Civil War

Merington, Marguerite, The Custer Story

Stiles, T. J., Custer’s Trials