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Ordnance Sergeant Charles Mellon © 04/20/03; Rev. 05/03/06
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| “...while the law contemplates, in the appointment of these non-commissioned
officers, the better preservation of ordnance and ordnance stores in deposit
in the several forts, there is the further motive of offering a reward
to those faithful and well-tried sergeants who have long served their country,
and of thus giving encouragement to the soldier in the ranks to emulate
them in conduct, and thereby secure substantial promotion.”
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| An 1860’s model displays the 1858-1872 pattern ordnance sergeant’s uniform. | Top: Ordnance Department hat device, 1872-1924.
Bottom: ordnance sergeant’s sleeve insignia; three crimson chevrons under a five-pointed star. |
| In the 19th century each U.S. Army post was allowed to have one non-commissioned officer whose duty it was to maintain the weapons and ammunition stored there. This position, that of the ordnance sergeant, was in many ways the best duty an NCO could have in the army. Almost all other soldiers were attached to units that were frequently rotated around the country to enforce the reservation policy on Native Americans and respond to times of national crisis. The ordnance sergeant, however, was attached to his post and would remain even if all other troops left. From 1864 until 1885 Charles Mellon was Angel Island’s ordnance sergeant. Although only a few details of his life have survived, they give a rare glimpse into the career of a professional soldier in the U.S. Army from the 1850’s to 1880’s. |
| Little is known of Charles Mellon’s
early years other than that he was born in Ireland in late 1830 or early
1831. By 1853 he had emigrated to the United States and enlisted
in the U.S. Army. Joining the Third Artillery Regiment, Mellon would
have boarded a transport in New York harbor in late December of 1853 bound
for California. A few days out from New York a powerful storm hit
the ship and drowned 150 of the 500 soldiers carried aboard. Finally
arriving in California in early 1854, Mellon’s unit was posted to Benicia
Barracks. Shortly thereafter the troops found themselves headed for
the Pacific Northwest where they were needed to serve as infantry in the
struggle to quell uprisings by Native Americans and to make a stand against
the British Army in a dispute over the border between Canada and the United
States. For five years Mellon’s unit remained in Oregon and Washington
Territories. This demanding frontier service appears to have agreed
with him as he chose to re-enlist when his first five-year term was up
in 1858. By 1860 his dedication would have been further rewarded
with promotion to the grade of corporal. With the Civil War looming
in early 1861 Mellon’s time in the northwest frontier came to an abrupt
end when the Third Artillery was consolidated in San Francisco.
Mellon, along with Company B, was detailed to garrison the newly-completed Fort Point while the bulk of the Third Artillery went back to the East Coast to take part in some of the heaviest fighting of the Civil War. Meanwhile Company B, of which Mellon would have now been a sergeant, spent the entire war guarding the San Francisco Bay. The company stayed at Fort Point from March of 1861 until September of 1863. On September 9th of 1863 Company B was ordered to Angel Island in order to establish a post and artillery batteries there. Charles Mellon would have found this sudden move an unpleasant reminder of the transient nature of military life, especially as the army at that time made no allowances for soldiers’ wives and Mellon was evidently looking to start a family. By either luck or design, however, on September 29th of 1864 Mellon found himself detached from Company B and made the post ordnance sergeant of Camp Reynolds. Attached to the base on an ongoing basis, rather than to a unit that could be ordered to the field or another post at any time, Mellon rapidly settled in on Angel Island. The 1870 census reports that Charles was married to a woman named Bridget and that the couple had three children. To support his growing family Mellon supplemented his army pay by raising a herd of cattle that was valued at five hundred dollars-- quite a sum considering that an ordnance sergeant of the time made only twenty-two dollars a month. Over the next decade line units came and went from the post on Angel Island, and Mellon continued to look after their ever more modern weaponry. A report from 1880 mentions that Mellon was living in a cottage located across the perimeter road from the post hospital and singled him out as one of the island’s longest residents. Mellon continued on as Angel Island’s ordnance sergeant until 1885. That year the army began its first-ever retirement system, offering enlisted men with thirty or more years of service the opportunity to retire and receive three-quarters of their monthly pay and allowances for the rest of their lives. Charles Mellon, now fifty-four, jumped at the opportunity and his retirement was accepted on May 8th of 1885. Thus ended almost thirty-two years of service with the U.S. Army, twenty-one years of which were spent stationed on Angel Island. In retirement Mellon may have stayed in the Bay Area as an obituary for a Charles Mellon, age 62, appeared in the San Francisco Call newspaper in 1894. The inescapable conclusion is that Charles Mellon was a man of skill and intelligence, a verdict supported not only by the promotions he was awarded, but also in his ability to support a family while employed in an organization that officially discouraged married men from belonging in its ranks. Although he may never have been afforded the opportunity to distinguish himself in the eye-catching combat of the Civil War, in his career Charles Mellon displayed the best that the 19th century professional soldier could hope to achieve through continued attention to the difficult and often dangerous duties of frontier soldiering. Charles Mellon lived a uniquely military version of the American dream. |
| “Ordnance Sergeant Mellon is well instructed in his duty, is efficient,
industrious, of good character and a suitable person for Ordnance Sergeant”
-Lt. Col. E.R. Platt, Commanding Officer, Camp Reynolds,
March 14, 1866
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