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.  Dormis, like the other recruits in the post cemetery, would have died before he ever had a chance to join his unit.

Dormis was to have been assigned to the 2nd Artillery Regiment.  The 2nd Artillery had been organized in 1821 and saw service in campaigns against the Native Americans as well as in the Mexican War prior to the Civil War.  The 2nd saw heavy action during the Civil War and was dispatched to California in the summer of 1865.  The 2nd Artillery's batteries were rotated around the west (including service in Alaska) until 1876 when it was recalled to Washington.

In April 2004 the  US Department of Veteran's Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator listed Dormis' date of death as 12/09/1867.  Notes from the National Archives record his surname as "Dornis" and state that he was on Alcatraz when he died.