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Class of 1842

Vol. II
p147 1159

(Born Pa.)

Thomas C. Hammond

(Ap'd Pa.)

Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 1, 1837, to July 1, 1842, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to

Bvt. Second Lieut., 2d Dragoons, July 1, 1842.

Served: at the Cavalry School for Practice, Carlisle, Pa., 1842; on frontier duty at Ft. Washita, I. T., 1843, — Expedition from Ft. Leavenworth,

(Transferred to 1st Dragoons, Mar. 6, 1843)

Kan., to Arkansas River, 1843, — Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1843‑44, — Pawnee Villages, 1844, — Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1844‑45, — Expedition

(Second Lieut., 1st Dragoons, Mar. 4, 1845)

to the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, 1845, — Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., 1845‑46, — and Ft. Crawford, Wis., 1846; and in the War with p148 Mexico, 1846, being engaged in the Combat of San Pasqual, Cal., where, while gallantly leading a charge against Mexican Lancers,a he was

Killed, Dec. 6, 1846: Aged 25.

Burial place: see note below.

Thayer's Notes:

a For Lt. Hammond's actions and death at San Pasqual, see the battle narrative at the San Pasqual Battlefield website (in which, however, his first name is given as Theodore).

b The two prominent online sources disagree, and neither of them at any rate is very clear, as to exactly where Lt. Hammond is buried.

A page at Find-a‑Grave suggests, both ambiguously and diffidently, that he may be buried, or have a cenotaph, in Platte City Cemetery, Platte City, MO; but that page disagrees with Cullum as to his birthplace: and in that, it is almost certainly in error since it gives a different state, something which Cullum, based on Army records, would have got right.

More likely on target was the more careful San Pasqual Battlefield website, where in a page focusing on the burial place of another combatant, Sgt. John Cox, the author stated that Lt. Hammond was buried a first time near the battlefield, then in 1874 exhumed to "Hill 80", a site near Mission Bay; and subsequently, at some point before 1940, reburied at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, CA, apparently in his own separate grave. With the continued shrinkage of the Web, however, the page has been removed. The burial records for that cemetery as given at Interment.Net, however, list no Thomas (or Theodore) Hammond; against which, unfortunately, I can say that I've found many mistakes in that database, so that the omission is inconclusive.

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