28 Aug 1842 – 15 Feb 1898
Son of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
Tullidge’s Histories
Pages 159-161
Page 159
Thomas B. Cardon
Thomas Bartelemy Cardon, one of the principal business men of Cache County, who for many years
served the municipality of Logan, both as city recorder and alderman, is by birth an Italian. He is the son of Philippe Cardon and Martha Maria Tourn Cardon. He was born at Brae Prarustin, near Pignerolo, Piedmont, Italy, August 28th, 1842. His parents, like their ancestors for ages past were born and educated in the faith of the Vaudois, or Waldenese, whose religious tenets date back to apostolic days, independently of the church of Rome with which they claimed no affiliation, and to which they neither owed nor rendered any allegiance.
From the fourteenth century down to the final cessation of hostilities against them in the eighteenth century, their forefathers were persecuted for the firm adherence to their religious convictions. They willingly endured ostracism, exile, imprisonment, the numerous cruelties, the inhuman and unnameable barbarities which their foes, led on by fanatical priests, inflicted upon them, because they would not knowingly bow their knees to Baal and worship at a false shrine. They were unmoved. They remained true to their honest convictions and worshiped the Almighty God according to the best light and knowledge they possessed of Him.
The oppressions they had suffered, their earnest desire for and constant search after gospel
intelligence, and the general knowledge which they possessed of the scriptures prepared the minds of the parents of Thomas B. Cardon, to receive the greater light when it was brought to them by men delegated with authority to preach the gospel and administer its ordinances to all who would accept it. Hence it was with great joy that they welcomed Apostle Lorenzo Snow, Elders Jabez Woodward, George D. Keaton and others who first introduced the pure gospel of the Son of God to them in their own sunny climes of Italy. In 1852 his father and mother, his brothers John, Paul, Louis Philippe; and his sisters Catherine and Marie Magdeliene were baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The family continued to reside in their native land and to sustain, according to their ability, the
church whose doctrines they had espoused, until 1854, when being anxious to gather and associate with the body of their religionists, they emigrated to Utah.
Arriving in Liverpool (the great shipping place of the Saints from all parts of Europe) the family was organized with the company that sailed on board the ship John M. Woods, on the 12th day of March, 1854, and landed at New Orleans on the 1st of May, after a passage of fifty-one days. After resting a few days to recuperate from the prosecution of the long and arduous journey across the plains, they proceeded by steam-boat to St. Louis, and from there to Kansas City, Missouri. At Kansas City they procured their outfit for their overland journey across the western plains to Salt Lake City. While at Kansas City, young Cardon was attacked by the cholera, which was fatally prevalent at that place. The boy, as well as his parents, had strong faith in the efficacy of the
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ordinances of the Church to heal the sick, so he called upon the Elders to lay their hands upon him, and administer to him, and he was immediately healed.
In due time the outfit was completed, and the family started across the plains to make their home
with the saints in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. They arrived in Salt Lake City in October, 1854.
From Salt Lake City the family moved to Mound Fort, near Ogden City, where they went into winter quarters, and in the following spring they moved to Marriotts where they remained until 1858.
In this year occurred what is known as the “move South” and in this general exodus of the people
from the northern settlements the Cardon family participated.
After the “Utah War” was over and peace proclaimed, Thomas B. Cardon, who had been detailed as one of the home guard, assisted the family in their return to their home in Weber County.
In the fall of 1858, young Cardon visited Camp Floyd for the purpose of obtaining employment. Hitherto his opportunities for acquiring an education had been very meager, and one of his objects in
seeking employment at Camp Floyd was that he might devote his surplus earnings for his tuition. At the Camp he met a number of his countrymen, who had enlisted in Johnston’s army, and the soldiers, told him that if he would enlist he would have the privilege of attending the school in the camp, free. Thus induced, he enlisted as bugler in Company G, United States 10th Infantry. However, he did not attend school, but received his education in the English language from a comrade who came from New Orleans and who, like himself, spoke French. This man’s name was Eugene Le Roy. So anxious was young Cardon to store his mind with a fund of useful knowledge that he frequently pursued his studies all night until daylight. Thus from a natural love of intellectual and moral culture, pursued industriously through life, Mr. Cardon became a fairly-educated man.
A curious and somewhat embarrassing error occurred in his enlistment. In making out the
enlistment papers, he was enrolled as Thomas Gordon. The mistake was not discovered until it was too late to be corrected, in consequence of which he served four years and a half in the army under that name.
While at Camp Floyd the company to which Mr. Cardon belonged was detailed to go south to meet
the United States pay-master, who was en route under escort from California to Utah. They marched as far as Santa Clara River, where they met the pay officer and escorted him to Camp Floyd. Judge Cradlebaugh was with the escort going south. He went out to investigate the matters connected with the horrible massacre, which was perpetrated at Mountain Meadows in 1857.
In the spring of 1860, the company to which Mr. Cardon belonged was sent to Fort Bridger to relieve other companies who had been ordered elsewhere.
In the fall of that year, being tired of an inactive life, Bugler Cardon applied for his discharge, and
would have received it but it was delayed and had not arrived when, in 1861, the Civil war broke out; so Thomas withdrew his application and went with his company on a forced march to Fort Leavenworth, en route to Washington D. C. They wintered at the national capital.
On March 10th, 1862, they were called into active service. They crossed Long Bridge en route to the Battle of Manasseh, when a ghastly sight was witnessed by young Cardon and his comrades. The bodies of many of the victims who had
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fallen at the battle which had been recently fought had been recovered from the river and stacked up on either side of the bridge. That terrible scene had a very powerful effect on the mind of the youthful soldier. There he received his first impressions of the horrors of the fratricidal strife that was then raging. The impressions produced upon his mind by the horrid spectacle he then witnessed he has never forgotten.
He was with the head-quarters of General George B. McClellan from the opening of the campaign in 1862 in Virginia, until after the battle of Malvern Hill. He was in active engagements at the battles of Big Bethel, the capture of Yorktown, at Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, etc. He also participated in the memorable seven days fight before Richmond, which began June 26th in which the Federal losses were severe and very heavy. At the battle of Gaines Hill the brigade to which Cardon belonged was placed in a very critical position, being between the two hostile forces and exposed to the firing of both armies.
On the 27th of June Thomas fell by the bullets of the enemy. He was wounded in the left arm, and in the left side. He was picked up and taken by comrades to the temporary hospital. They had proceeded with him but a few yards when a leg of one of his supporters was severed from his body by the explosion of a bombshell; and they had only moved a few paces further forward when another of his comrades fell dead at his side. He was killed by a ball from the rifle of one of the enemy’s sharp-shooters. It was from a similar source that Thomas Cardon received his wounds. At the hospital the army surgeons had decided to amputate Cardon’s arm, and he was left among the others to await the convenience of the doctors to deprive him of that limb. Meanwhile the patient swooned. So lifeless did he seem that he was reported dead, and consequently left in the charnel house with the corpses of those who had died of their wounds. That night the Union army retreated across the Chickahominy. About daylight on the morning of the 28th Thomas Cardon revived. On looking around him he beheld a scene which almost paralyzed him. The mangled bodies of many of his comrades lay there rigid in death, far from home, friends and loved ones, no mother, sister or wife to close their eyes or hear them breathe their sad but fond farewell to earth and all it held most dear to them.
With heartfelt gratitude to God that his own life had been almost miraculously preserved, and that
he was still in possession of all the members of his body, Thomas arose to his feet. He was very weak from the effects of his wounds and the loss of blood; nevertheless glad to escape from the scene of horror he started out to find and join his brigade. He had not gone far before he was seen by the enemy’s pickets and pursued by them; but fortunately he escaped being captured and reached the Union army in safety. In time Thomas recovered. His wounds were healed, but he was rendered incapable for further actual service, and on February 2nd, 1863, he was honorably discharged. He receives a pension of ten dollars per month for the hazardous services which he rendered to his country in defense of the Union. His discharge was delivered to him about 4 P.M. at the convalescent camp near Alexander. Thirty minutes later he was on the railroad train wending his way to the seat of the National Government. He tarried at Washington one month. When he first enlisted in the army he was only 16 years of age, and in his 21st year when he was retired.