![]() By Civil War standards, the 125th USCT had a very unusual experience. Instead of campaigning through the fields and meandering rivers of the South, the 125th was shipped down the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Fort Leavenworth, and then marched out to New Mexico. Panic began to spread through the regiment during the river trip as word got out that the men were being sent to the Wild West. After a near mutiny in St. Louis, the troops finally got on their way to New Mexico. They covered the 700 miles from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union in 2 months. ![]() Most members of the 125th USCT were assigned a variety of duties such as escort duty, various fatigue duties and herding of Army livestock. Private Vaughn stayed behind at the Fort Union hospital, sick with pneumonia. He never recovered, dying from pneumonia about a month later. Sadly, Vaughn never returned to Kentucky to see his family, set free by an act of Congress about a year before he died--and two months after he enlisted in the Union Army. Vaughn and other burials at the Fort Union Cemetery were re-interred at Fort Leavenworth when Fort Union closed in 1891. |
Last updated: January 16, 2021