See post of April 27, 2026, for letter written by Raymond L. Ford in 1861 while he was in service with the 3d New York Cavalry.
Times Herald, Washington, DC, October 24, 1914
Ford Funeral Tomorrow, Interment in Arlington
The funeral of Capt. R.L. Ford, a civil war hero and a pension office employee, who died at his residence, 608 Massachusetts avenue southeast on Thursday, will be from Lee's chapel tomorrow at 3 p.m. The interment will be at Arlington on Tuesday.
Captain Ford was born in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1836. He enlisted with the Twenty-third [sic was actually the 3d] New York Cavalry and remained with his regiment for three years. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for distinguished gallantry at Ream's Station, Va. General Wilson sent Captain Ford and eighteen men through the enemy's lines to General Meade's Camp, after encounters with cavalry outposts, infantry reserves and picket lines carrying the request for re-enforcements. Captain Ford entered Government service in 1877 and entered Government service in 1877 and entered the Pension office. He is survived by his wife and four children, three of whom are living in Washington and one in New Mexico.
Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, NY, October 24, 1914
Former Well Known Oneontan, Raymond L. Ford Died Thursday in Washington
Oneonta relatives of Raymond L. Ford, the eldest surviving son of the late Eliakim R. Ford of this city [Oneonta, Otsego Co. NY], received notice yesterday morning of his death, which occurred on Thursday, October 22, at his home in Washington, D.C. His brother, E.R. Ford, departed yesterday for the latter city, where the funeral will be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow with interment in the family plot in a Washington cemetery. Though for 36 years a resident of the national capital, he was a not infrequent visitor to his native town. To the last, he retained his voting residence in Schoharie County and not until 1912 had he failed to vote in a presidential election. His last visit to this city was in 1910, when, stopping with his sister, Mrs. Timothy D. Watkins, since deceased, he spent some time with his brothers and sisters and the friends of long ago. By all who knew him, he will be most pleasantly remembered and general sympathy in their loss will be extended to the family of the deceased. The immediate cause of Mr. Ford's death was heart disease, and he had been ill since July of the present year.
Mr. Ford was born in Oneonta June 14, 1836, and was the fifth of the ten children of the late Eliakim R. and Harriet (Emmons) Ford who attained to man or womanhood. Practically all his earlier life was spent in Oneonta, where on October 2, 1859, he married Julia DeEtte Hopkins, who was a daughter of the late Robert Hopkins, all of this place. Mrs. Ford died in 1865 and on March 2, 1877, he married Celynda Werner of Wernerville, Schoharie County [NY] who with one child of his first and four of his second marriage, survives him.
At the outbreak of the rebellion, Mr. Ford enlisted as a private in Company D of the Third New York Cavalry, and on June 2, 1863, was promoted to be second lieutenant of Company G in the same regiment. He served with valor and distinction, taking part in many battles. He participated in the celebrated Wilson raid in Virginia, in which Wilson's and Kauta's Cavalry division, after ten days of constant marching and fighting, were completely surrounded by the enemy. With supplies and ammunition gone, it became necessary to acquaint the Union forces with their perilous position. Volunteers were called for and Lieut. Ford at once offered his services and asked for a force willing to undertake the hazardous task of making a way back to the Union lines. Volunteers flocked to his side and after many narrow escapes and much hardship the little detachment, having lost 14 men killed and captured, reached General Meade's headquarters. Reinforcements were at once sent to the two cavalry brigades and both were saved after it seemed that surrender was inevitable. Lieut. Ford resigned in 1864, returning to Oneonta where for some time he was a partner of the late Newton I. Ford in the drug business. Later he resided at Howe Cave and still later in Philadelphia, where he was in the lumber business.
In 1878, Mr. Ford, having received an appointment to a position in the pension bureau, removed to Washington, which thereafter was his home. He performed the duties of his office with such conspicuous fidelity, being for many years prior to his death a member of the review board that he was continued through all changes of parties and administrations until death cut short his useful and honorable life.
Mr. Ford is survived by his second wife and by five children - Mrs. Harriet A. Kenyon of Washington, Mary Annette, Celynda, Edgar Werner and Raymond L. Ford Jr.; the three last also of Washington. He leaves also three brothers -- Sylvester, Clinton E. and Eliakim Reed Ford, all of Oneonta.
Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, NY, October 30, 1914
The funeral of the late Raymond L. Ford, whose death was announced in the Star of Saturday, was held at 3 P.M. on Sunday last in the chapel of the Lee Undertaking Establishment in the city of Washington, D.C. The services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Condon, the blind chaplain of the House of Representatives, who is himself a veteran and lost both eyes in battle in 1863. He was assisted by Rev Dr. VanSchaick, a former resident of Cobleskill, who is now pastor of a leading Universalist church of Washington.
On Monday the remains, in accordance with the wish of the deceased, were cremated, and the ashes were interred Tuesday afternoon in the Arlington National Cemetery, where rest so many of the gallant soldiers of the Rebellion. The services were conducted by the Washington Post of the Grand Army of which Mr. Ford was long a member, Dr. Couden also assisting. A squad from the regular troops stationed at Fort Meyer fired a salute and "Taps" by the regimental bugler concluded the impressive service.
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