View source for William B. Crisfield

William Crisfield was baptised on 1 March 1840 by the Rev. Walter A Vaughan in the 14th century parish church of St. Michael, Chart Sutton, a village with around 800 inhabitants, situated five miles southeast of Maidstone in the county of Kent. The entry in the Register of Baptisms states he was son of Richard Crisfield, a Blacksmith, and his wife, Sarah, but contains neither a date of birth nor a specific dwelling within the village. However, it was common practice in England during this period for a child to be baptised as soon after birth as possible and therefore it is most likely that the future cavalryman was born in January or February 1840, a supposition which is supported by the information in the census taken in June of the following year and his age on arrival in America.

It is assumed that Richard Crisfield  left England for the United States soon after the birth of his youngest child,* as Sarah (age 31); William (age 11); and Lucy (age 8) – all listed as ‘Chrisfield’ in the manifest – are among  the 52 passengers  on board the 899-ton sailing ship Margaret Evans (Captain Isaiah Pratt [1814-79], Essex, Middlesex County, Connecticut), which arrived off Ramsgate, Kent, from Gravesend (Port of London) on 22 January 1851, and docked in New York thirty-eight days later on 1 March 1851.

William Crisfield, first enlisted at Boston, Massachusetts on 10 June 1859, was assigned to the 1st Cavalry (redesignated 4th Cavalry in August 1861) at Fort Riley, Kansas, and discharged on expiry of service at Maysville, Alabama on  21 October 1863. During the period of his first enlistment the 1st Cavalry was in action at the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862, the engagement at Kelly’s Ford in 1863, Stoneman’s Raid (29 April-8 May 1863) and the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863).

On 23 August 1864, having worked as a teamster since leaving the 4th Cavalry, Crisfield joined Company G, 41st Missouri Infantry, at St. Louis on a one-year enlistment for which he received a bounty of  $100. He was promoted directly to sergeant eight days after enlisting.  At that time the 41st Missouri was  organising at Benton Barracks, Missouri, and the presence of an experienced battle-hardened veteran would have been most welcome.  The regiment was mustered into active service in September 1864, and mostly engaged in garrison duties, having worked as a teamster since leaving the 4th Cavalry.

Between November 1864 and January 1865, Crisfield had been on detached service as Commissary Sergeant at the Myrtle Street prison in St Louis, a two-storey building (formerly Lynch’s slave market) used to hold Confederate prisoners of war, political prisoners (including females) and Union soldiers accused of major crimes.

Crisfield managed to ‘blot his copybook’ at the prison; which is evidenced by a special order dated 26 January 1865.  It shows that he was relieved of duty there for ‘conduct unbecoming’ and ordered to return to his regiment. By 14 February 1865 he was again on detached service, this time as a clerk, at Schofield Barracks, Missouri, until he was mustered out with his regiment in the July of that year.

On 5 April 1865, in St. Louis, Missouri, he had married Mary Pauline Blanchstone [originally Poline Blanchard or Blanchton], born in France ca. 1845, allegedly one of Custer’s cooks in the Civil War. The couple would ultimately have four children: Edward (b. 1868 – married Rosa Mayberry on 25 September 1889 in Carlinville, Illinois); Charlotte (b. 1870); Albert (b. 18 November 1872, North (?) Carolina, died 27 July 1952 in San Bernardino, California) and Paul (b. 1875, d. 1878).

Participants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn [Wagner] claims that Mary was Crisfield’s second wife. It would be interesting to learn the source of this information.

Crisfield re-enlisted in the regular army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 17 January 1870, giving his civilian occupation as a labourer, and assigned to Company C, 7th Cavalry. However on 10 December 1873 he was transferred to Company L “‘to benefit [his] family, being a married man and there being no laundresses in Company L while six women with Company C.”  He was with his company on the Black Hills Expedition (1874).

Enlisted by Lieutenant Thomas Custer at Fort Abraham Lincoln on 11 February 1875 Crisfield for a further five years with Company L when he was described as having grey eyes, black hair, a ruddy complexion, and being 5 feet 7 inches tall. He was killed in action with his company – part of Keogh’s battalion – on the first day of the battle. 

William B. Crisfield. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Collection

On hearing the news of her husband’s death while still at Fort Totten, Mary Crisfield “Sobbed and moaned loudly, doubled over the hymnal in her lap.” See Voices in Our Souls by Gene Erb and Ann DeWolf Erb, Sunstone Press, Sante Fe, New Mexico (2010), p.153.

Although written as a novel, Voices in Our Souls is based in part on a diary found on Acting Assistant Surgeon James M. DeWolf’s body and letters between him and his wife, Fannie. The story focuses on the relationship between the DeWolfs and uses their lives to call attention to the complex situations between whites and Native Americans as settlers and soldiers pushed west during the second half of the 19th century.

Whether Mary Crisfield reacted in the way that is told above is, of course, another matter.

Crisfield is listed as W. B. CRISFIELD on the battlefield monument. What his second initial ‘B’ stood for, if anything, is not  known to this writer.

Final Statement of William B. Crisfield [Captain Michael Sheridan's Company] signed by 1st Lieut. W. S. Edgerly, Commanding Company, at Fort Abraham Lincoln 31 January 1877.

     DUE SOLDIER
     For five years’ continuous service under sec. 2, act August 4, 1854 … $2.00 per mth
     For retained pay under act of May 15, 1872 … $16.84
     For clothing not drawn in kind … $66.23
     
    DUE UNITED STATES
    For tobacco … $1.14

 This statement does not take into account basic pay due for the period May 1 to June 25, 1876.

His widow married Private Martin Personeus (aka Michael Conlan), also in Company L, on 23 November 1876. Mary’s life was not an easy one. Not only did she give birth to no less than ten children, of which only four survived childhood her second husband was admitted to the Jacksonville Hospital for the Insane, near Carlinville, Illinois in 1887. He died there on Christmas Eve 1889. He was buried in an unmarked grave the following day.

Men With Custer [ed. Nichols] tells us that Mary “received a pension of $12 per month until her marriage to Martin Personeus.,” which is incorrect. Military Register of Custer’s Last Command [Williams] rightly gives the dates of application for pensions, both relating to William Crisfield,  25 May 1878 [minors] and 11 August 1879 [widow].  Wild Geese of the Greasy Grass [Norman] places Jacksonville Hospital  in Florida!

For details of Martin Personeus’ (aka Michael Conlan or Conlon) military service consult: (i) ‘Military Register of Custer’s Last Command,’ Roger L. Williams, The Arthur H. Clark Company, Norman, Oklahoma, 2009, p. 242.  (ii) ‘Men With Custer – Biographies of the 7th Cavalry,’ Edited by Ronald H. Nichols with Daniel I. Bird, CBHMA Inc., 2010, p. 74.
Mary Personeus (formerly Crisfield) applies for an army pension

House of Representatives Pension Claim by Mary Personeus 18 January 1889, which ultimately approved by the Senate on 13 May 1890.

Mary Personeus died in 1931, at a reputed age of 86, and is buried in Mayfield Memorial Park Cemetery, Carlinville, Illinois.