Indiana Spirit Quest #233: Yankee Snipers Traditional Cache

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In just a year and a half, the quest has grown to over two hundred thirty caches hidden in twenty-three Indiana counties, and two Ohio counties, and the hiders have grown to nine cacher teams, six of which are comprised of A Man and His Dog... One who is a man and his Cat, and one who is a Dog and her Woman. Over 400 cacher teams have logged over 4,700 finds. One cache machine found 102 ISQ caches in a single day!

Sharpshooter's Grave (Cemetery Photos by THE SHADOW)

Can you see THE SHADOW? No? Well, then, Listen carefully to what he has to say:

Welcome to DYGERT Cemetery, York Twp., Steuben County.

This site is mid-sized and active. It's near the speedway, but I'm sure it's quiet most of the time. Parking is available. The cemetery is well maintained and the markers are being kept in nice condition, repaired and straightened as needed. There were even a couple of newer replacement markers for Civil War veterans.

A couple of interesting Civil War markers are here. One is for a soldier that perished in Andersonville, Ga. as a P.O.W., and a couple of others suggesting that five brothers had served in the same war, At least one of which perished in the war as well.

I located only one each WWI & WWII veterans graves. I'm sure there are more I didn't see. –SHADOW

Here at Dygert, you may sight an unusual government Civil War marker, that reads:

Joseph, 21, and his brother William, 19, from Hillsdale, were both members of the 2nd Company of Sharpshooters, 27th Michigan Infantry.

The 2nd Company of Sharpshooters of the 27th Michigan Infantry was also known as "Vosper's Sharpshooters"(Commanded by Capt. John Vosper, 46 of Saranec, Mich. ) and they operated in direct connection with the 27th Michigan Infantry from their inception in 1864 until the end of the war. They were armed with the most destructive Infantry arm of the war, the "Spencer repeating rifle". They were so effective in actions with the 27th that the entire Regiment voted to all be armed with them and the whole Regiment be redesignated as "Sharpshooters". This vote was never recognized by the War Department. The 27th saw action at Vicksburg, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.

Coincidently, another famous Civil War Michigan Sharpshooter Company was commanded by Capt. Kin Dygert (Remember, we’re at DYGERT Cemetery). His company was attached to the 16th Michigan.

Brady's Sharpshooters (officially Michigan's First Company of Sharpshooters), was directly authorized by the War Department in late summer 1861, and saw action right through to the end of the war, from Yorktown, through Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (where the men fought as skirmishers in defense of Little Round Top), Grant's drive on Richmond, to the surrender at Appomattox. In fact, with the exception of First Bull Run, the men of Brady's Sharpshooters were present for virtually every significant engagement of the Army of the Potomac, in addition to reinforcing General John Pope's Army of Virginia for the Second Battle of Bull Run.

The company was named in honor of frontier army general, Hugh Brady, whose Brady Guards militia included in the 1840s one KINISTON S. DYGERT. In 1861, Captain Dygert, considered one of the best marksmen in the state, was given the commission to organize an independent company of sharpshooters. Dygert's recruitment poster outlined the strict qualifications for members of the company:

" No man will be accepted or mustered into service who cannot, when firing at rest at a distance of 40 rods (220 yards), put ten consecutive shots in a target of an average space not to exceed five inches from the center of the bull's eye to the center of the ball."

Although issued standard military rifles, many of the volunteers brought with them their personal customized target rifles, often equipped with telescopic sights, which were used in local shooting competitions. The special mission and origin of these sharpshooters helps to explain the strong esprit de corps of the unit, and why, throughout its service, no draftees were ever included; all of the Brady's Sharpshooters were volunteers, and though casualty rates were high, there was only one desertion in the field.

The Target Rifle. Perhaps the weapon most commonly associated with Brady’s Sharpshooters would be the target rifle, carried by the men of the Company from 1861 through the spring of 1864. These were custom-made rifles, designed for accuracy in competition. Although there was significant variety in these arms, perhaps no two exactly alike, the most common target rifle brought by the men of Brady’s Sharpshooters into the Federal service was probably a version of what was sometimes called the American rifle, having some or all of the following characteristics:

—heavy, reinforced octagonal barrels;
—blued or browned metal, rather than shiny bright finish;
—shorter barrel length than a military musket (e.g. a Springfield or Enfield);
—smaller calibre bore than a military musket (the Springfield, for example, was .58 calibre), some being as small as .45 calibre, or even smaller;
—double-set triggers;
—sharp drop to the gunstock;
—half stocks instead of full stocks;
—scopes, often as long as the barrel itself.

Also memorialized here is a civil war P.O.W. -- David B. Allen “died at Andersonville Ga., Sept. 23, 1864, Aged 28 y 8 m 2d, Sargent(sic) of Co. A, 29th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.” He was buried at the national cemetery there.

One of Allen’s comrades in Co. A, 29th Indiana, Joshua E. Taylor is buried here. Joshua’s four brothers, Warren, Ozias, William and Orren, are buried here too. Ozias was too young to fight in the Civil War, but the other three were all members of Co. B, 100th Indiana. And Warren “died in the discharge of duty March 20, 1864, Aged 18 years…”

So it goes.

The cache container is a camo'd match safe. BYOP.Park with CareThe cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground or a veteran's flagholder. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out. !

"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: The SixDogTeam, Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, Cache Commando and bbsurveyors. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email SixDogTeam with your bona fides.

*Grand Exalted Order of the Indiana Spirit Quest

** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE**