Comments:

After the Civil War Angel Island became a major recruit-processing center for the army.   Not until 1881 did the army have anything like modern day boot camps, and soldiers were expected to learn their duties on the job.   All recruits of the period could expect from a depot like Angel Island was to be issued uniforms and be taught a few basic parade-ground formations.  As the units Angel Island supplied with reinforcements were scattered across the western states, recruits would sometimes wait for weeks before transport could be arranged for them to join their regiments.  Gordon was assigned to the 14th Infantry, but died before he ever had a chance to join his unit.

The 14th Infantry Regiment was created at the outbreak of the Civil War (there had previously been 14th Infantry Regiments in the War of 1812 and Mexican War, but neither lasted much past the conflicts for which they were formed).  After serving in the eastern theater throughout the Civil War, the 14th Infantry sailed to California in the summer of 1865 and saw duty on the Pacific Coast and far west until 1869 when the regiment was transferred to Nashville, Tennessee.