White was not yet 22 when he mustered out of the 2nd Battalion MSM in early 1863. According to his records in Fold 3 he had lots of pull getting a U. S. commission, including letters of recommendation from most members of the MO legislature, congressmen elect Ben Loan and Joseph McClurg, generals Herron and Strong, and his father Judge James W. White of the NY superior court. Became Lt. Col of the 2nd U. S. Colored Cavalry and was breveted brigadier general in 1865. Born Binghamton, NY 1841 and died Oakland, CA 1875. He was certainly ambitious. Was he ruthless? To paraphrase the great Radical Ben Loan, leniency toward the disloyal is an unjust cruelty to the loyal.

Tom Jones