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CLASS OF 1865
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Appointed to West Point from Maine, Tolman arrived just after the Civil War began and graduated just after it ended. Assigned
to frontier duty with the 6th Cavalry in Texas, he rose to the rank of captain before reaching Sulphur Springs in April 1869.
Bands of proslavery outlaws within the small town and surrounding Hopkins County fiercely contested federal authority during
Reconstruction. Federal troops were unwelcome, and violence escalated. Tolman responded by forming a special thirty-man unit,
“Tolman’s Thirty,” to enforce federal law and suppress disorder.
Their stern measures provoked complaints and may have skirted the law. Before the end of the year, Tolman was suspended from
command, charged with mistreating a prisoner. After a year’s confinement within Fort Jefferson, he returned to active
duty and left Texas.
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