1st New York Cavalry Roster
DYCHER, MATTHEW D.—Age, 29 years. Enlisted June 17, 1861, at New York ; mustered in as sergeant, Company M, June 17, 1861, to serve three years; appears on rolls of April 1863, as first sergeant; reduced to ranks, October 1863; reappointed sergeant, November 15 1863; killed by being shot through the head by the provost guard, April 1 1864 at Frederick, Md.
Matthew was shot because of a misunderstanding. On Jan 24 1868 a Bill was approved by Congress granting his widow Anne Dycher a pension of 8 dollars a month. The report on the Bill (S281) reads:
‘The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Anne Dycher, having had the same under consideration report: That the petitioner is the widow of Matthew D. Dycher, who was a sergeant of company M, first New York cavalry, and who was killed while in confinement in Frederick city, Maryland, through a misunderstanding of orders to the sentry placed over him. The circumstances are as follows: The deceased, while in pursuit of a rebel soldier, and in apparent self-defense, fired upon and wounded said rebel, which so aroused the ill-feeling of the citizens of Frederick, Maryland, most of whom were sympathizers with the South, that they secured the arrest and confinement of said Dycher, and while in arrest with other prisoners, “a brick was kicked out of the window of the guard-house by other parties and not by the deceased,” which came near striking the provost marshal then on duty there, who, enraged thereat, hastily exclaimed that the offender (supposing it to be Dycher) “ought to be shot,” when the guard mistaking the expression for n order, fired upon Dycher and instantly killed him. The committee, from an examination of the papers in the case, are satisfied that Dycher’s death resulted from a prompt discharge of his duty, and report a bill to grant a pension to his widow, in the same manner as if he had been killed in battle.’
DYCHER, MATTHEW D.—Age, 29 years. Enlisted June 17, 1861, at New York ; mustered in as sergeant, Company M, June 17, 1861, to serve three years; appears on rolls of April 1863, as first sergeant; reduced to ranks, October 1863; reappointed sergeant, November 15 1863; killed by being shot through the head by the provost guard, April 1 1864 at Frederick, Md.
Matthew was shot because of a misunderstanding. On Jan 24 1868 a Bill was approved by Congress granting his widow Anne Dycher a pension of 8 dollars a month. The report on the Bill (S281) reads:
‘The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Anne Dycher, having had the same under consideration report: That the petitioner is the widow of Matthew D. Dycher, who was a sergeant of company M, first New York cavalry, and who was killed while in confinement in Frederick city, Maryland, through a misunderstanding of orders to the sentry placed over him. The circumstances are as follows: The deceased, while in pursuit of a rebel soldier, and in apparent self-defense, fired upon and wounded said rebel, which so aroused the ill-feeling of the citizens of Frederick, Maryland, most of whom were sympathizers with the South, that they secured the arrest and confinement of said Dycher, and while in arrest with other prisoners, “a brick was kicked out of the window of the guard-house by other parties and not by the deceased,” which came near striking the provost marshal then on duty there, who, enraged thereat, hastily exclaimed that the offender (supposing it to be Dycher) “ought to be shot,” when the guard mistaking the expression for n order, fired upon Dycher and instantly killed him. The committee, from an examination of the papers in the case, are satisfied that Dycher’s death resulted from a prompt discharge of his duty, and report a bill to grant a pension to his widow, in the same manner as if he had been killed in battle.’
