Rank: First Lieutenant
Unit: H Co, 2d Cavalry
Reenlisted: January 13, 1860 in Camp Floyd, Utah Territory. It was his third enlistment.
Commissioned: Discharged September 23, 1862 holding the rank of Sergeant and by appointed as a Second Lieutenant at a camp near Shanksburgh, Maryland.
Date of birth: 1828
Hometown: Waterford, Ireland
Campaign: Civil War
Died: 11 June 1864
Age at death: 35 or 36
Cause of death: Killed in action
Location of fatality: Trevilian Station, Virginia
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Place of interment: Culpeper National Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia
Click to open a new window to view Soldier’s grave site on the Find A Grave website.
Notes: Original enlistment December 4, 1849 in Boston, Massachusetts into the 2nd US Dragoons.
Second enlistment March 13, 1855 in St Louis, Missouri to serve for five years.
He served in the west prior to the Civil War in 2d Dragoons as a Private. He held the rank of Private, Corporal, Sergeant, and 1st Sergeant. He was the 1st Seargent of H Co, 2d Dragoons.
2nd Dragoon history notes in 1854 cites he rode 70 miles in 8 hours to obtain additional help for his unit which was surrounded in Fort Union area of New Mexico.
Promoted First Lieutenant on 9 June 1863.
During the Civil War, he participated in campaigns of Army of Potomac, Stoneman Raid in 1863; Battle of Beverly Ford, Upperville, Aldie, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Boonsborough, Manassas Gap and Sheridan’s Raids on Richmond in May/June 1864.
General Wesley Merritt wrote in his book “From Everglade to Canon: History of 2d Dragoons.,” that “Lawless was a fearless, honest and eminently trustworthy soldier, God’s truth being the standard by which he measured all his actions”
First Lieutenant Lawless’s death is cited in the book:
Also killed at in the same battle was Sergeant Fisher and Privates Ardle, Corbett, Chapin, Ferris, Gorman, and Leran. Captain T. F. Rodenbough, Lieutenant T. W. Horrigan were wounded along with 34 other Soldiers. Captain Charles McKnight Leoser and another Soldier were missing. A total of 47 causalities in this battle occurred.
Captain Leoser was captured and later released in 1865 after spending time in the infamous Libby Prison.
First Lieutenant Lawless career is noted in the book US, Heitman’s Register and Dictionary of the US Army, 1789-1903.