1865 Fort Benton Civil War Muster Out Roll Signed Explorer Benjamin Bonneville

Description

Muster-Out Roll for Corporal Deroy Brown, Company A, 21st Missouri Infantry, who was "captured at Memphis, Tenn. Aug. the 24th 1864, confined at Cahaba, Ala. Paroled at Vicksburg, Miss. April 23, 1865," after which he reported to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, where he was mustered out on June 12th, 1865.
The document is signed by W.D. Hubbard and countersigned by Benjamin Bonneville, who served as Commander of Benton Barracks from 1862-1865.
The son of a prominent French radical, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville (1796-1878)  moved with his family to the United States in 1803. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1815, and was assigned to Fort Smith (Arkansas) in 1821. After serving as escort to the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825 and his aide in France in 1826, Bonneville returned to the area to command Fort Gibson. In 1832, he was granted leave from the Army to explore the west and attempt a career as a fur trader. He is credited with being the first person to take a wagon train through the South Pass of the Rockies. During his (relatively unsuccessful) time as a fur trader, the Army dropped him from its rolls. While attempting to get reinstated, Bonneville wrote an account of his western experiences entitled The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, which brought him fame after he sold the manuscript to Washington Irving, who published an edited version in 1837.
Document measures 10 x 38 inches and is in very good condition.