After combing the Registry of Trials by General Court Martial 1881-1882, I concluded that the culprit was not in the NARA index there. In searching the Wyoming State archives for mentions of Cavanaugh and various spellings of the names, I hit paydirt. The Cheyenne Weekley Leader on Oct. 6, 1881, published an account. “The shackled private who passed south from this city Sunday [Oct 2] and excited considerable curiosity, was Carpenter, of Company L, 3d cavalry, at White River, who killed another private in his company, named Cavanaugh.” In the same issue, military news column, “Wm. Cavanaugh, late a private of Company L, 3d cavalry, was killed at White River recently by Private Carpenter, same company. The weapon was a big butcher knife.” This gave me three clues: the last name of the killer, his unit, and that he was taken south from Cheyenne as a prisoner. The next closest place for a military trial was East, in Nebraska. However, if he was to be tried in Federal Court, Denver, to the south, would have jurisdiction over a crime committed in Colorado. My next search was in the Denver newspapers of October and November of 1881. Again, a direct hit. The Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 4, 1881 issue: “Gerald J. Carpenter, a private in company L, Third calvary, stationed at White River, Colorado, was brought to Denver Sunday Evening [Oct 2] by Deputy United States Marshal, S.P. Golden, charged with having killed another private named Kavanagh [SIC], on the 24th of August last. He was locked up in the county jail and will probably have his trial at the next term of the United States court.” A search of the Colorado Archive came up short. There does not seem to be any surviving record of the trial. The military records do show a Gerald Carpenter listed later as a deserter. This may or may not be our murderer. We may never know the whole story but it has been fun to add to the mystery of our gravestone here.
Sources: RBC Historical Society file containing Record of Interments at Camp on the White River, Colo and letters of correspondence from the Quartermasters Office, Dept. of the Platte; Registry of Enlistments 25 Feb 1878 record of Private William Cavanaugh, recruited Boston, MA, born Kilkenny, Ireland, which includes a notation “Killed September 24, 1881 wound knife thrust, Camp on the White River Colo” both courtesy Familysearch.org; Page from the 1880 Federal Census Laramie county, WY, Ft. Russell; US Registers of Deaths in the Regular Army 1860-1889 page 20,21; two articles courtesy Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection dated 6 Oct 1881 Cheyenne Weekly Leader; Colorado Historical Newspaper Collection, Rocky Mountain News dated 4 Oct, 1881; US Returns from Military Posts, Oct/Nov 1881 Camp on the White River.
By Ed Peck | Special to the Herald Times
Great investigative work!