Gold Presentation Cane of General David Hammond Vinton

Gold Presentation Cane of General David Hammond Vinton - Inventory Number: IDE 228

"DAVID H. VINTON - Graduated the United States Military Academy, at West Point, New York, No. 299 - Class of 1822. Died Feb. 21, 1873, at Stamford, Conn., aged 70.                                                                   

General David H. Vinton, of the U. S. Army, died at his residence, in Stamford, Connecticut, of pneumonia, after a brief illness. He was a native of Providence, R. I., where he was born on the 4th of May, 1803. He was an elder brother of the Rev. Dr. Vinton, whose death is noticed in this necrology, and also of Alexander Vinton, of Boston, an elder brother John Rogers Vinton, of the Third Artillery, was killed during the siege of Vera Cruz.                                                                                                                              

In the summer of 1822, he was graduated fourteenth in his class, at the Military Academy at West Point, and then entered the Fourth Artillery. In that service he remained until the next year, when he was transferred to the infantry. He was ordnance officer at Fort Atkinson, in Iowa, until 1825, when he joined the Artillery-practice School at Fortress Monroe and remained there about three years.

Subsequently, whilst on duty in Florida, Lieutenant Vinton acted as Quartermaster, and so satisfactory were his services, that he was made Quarter-master General of Florida, in 1837. He was employed in similar duty the next year, on the northern frontier of New York, and during the Canadian disturbances. In the same service he was employed at different points, until the winter of 1846, when he became Chief Quartermaster on the Staff of General Wool, with the rank of Major, and served with that officer in Mexico. In 1848, he was sent to the Pacific coast, and in 1851, he was Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the West, the headquarters of which were at St. Louis. With the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he engaged in the same duties in Texas, in 1856, and was surrendered to the Confederates in 1861, by General Twiggs. He was then Deputy Quartermaster General.                                                      

Very soon after he was exchanged, Lieutenant-Colonel Vinton was brevetted Colonel, and during the Civil War, he was Chief Quartermaster at New York, where his services were of the greatest value to the nation. He was brevetted Brigadier-General in 1865, having already received the full commission of Colonel in 1864. In 1866 he became Assistant Quartermaster General, and the same year was placed upon the retired list, being over the age of 62 years. He was one of the most valued and justly trusted officers in the Army.

His long services in the Quartermaster's Department, wherein he always and conspicuously evinced the highest characteristics of a spotless soldier and gentleman, are well known to the Army, and is a fitting remembrance of a most worthy graduate of the Military Academy.

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Inventory Number: IDE 228