in his report. But some of his private letters written twenty years after the close of the war are touching expressions of his disappointment. That he performed his duty well, and not only he, but the whole regiment, with few exceptions, should not be forgotten by the passing, nor unknown to the rising generations.
There was this peculiar feature about the cavalry regiment that distinguishes it from other military organizations. Besides being the voluntary offering of the best homes of the state to the service of the country, the men who composed it pledged themselves at the beginning to temperance and pure living. If any violated their pledge it was never reported.
Among those whom I have personally known is Hon. James A. Waymire, son of that worthy pioneer, Fred Waymire, of Polk County, known as the "apostle of democracy' and "watch dog of the treasury" in territorial times. James was a smooth-faced, rosy-cheeked lad, having scarcely attained his majority when he entered the service as a private in Company B, in December, 1861. He was mustered in as second lieutenant April 13, 1863, and assigned to duty with Company D, in which capacity he served until the disbandment of the regiment in the autumn of 1864.
Lieutenant Waymire in his report to Adj. Gen. Cyrus A. Reed has this passage: "I will say here that from my personal knowledge I know that a great majority of the men who composed the First Oregon Cavalry were young men acting from a conviction of patriotic duty. They left pleasant homes and profitable occupations to take up arms, not only in defense of our frontiers against the Indians, but also to assist in preventing or countenancing any movement on-the Pacific Coast in favor of the attempt to dissolve the Union; they also hoped that should the war prove a long one, and should there be no serious
