Author Douglas M. Casamer has been interested in the Civil War from the onset of his teens, when his father gave him background on his own family line in the American Civil War. His great grandfather and his four brothers all served honorably in the American Civil War. Silas and George Casamer, both of whom served in Company D of the Michigan Twenty-Second Infantry, are the subjects of this book. Two other brothers, Frederick and Theodore Casamer, served with Company C of the Michigan Tenth Infantry and returned home. Last was the eldest brother, Samuel Casamer, who served as a Lieutenant in Company K of the 30th Wisconsin. All five brothers returned home to talk about adventures, but not without some major disabilities.
Douglas has also researched his family line back to the Mayflower voyage with Edward Doty, whose fifth generation grandchild was Miss Mercy Doty who married Frederick Buchner, a decorated Colonel in the War of 1812. Frederick’s father was a militiaman in the American Revolutionary War. The Buchner family line married into the Casamer line when Isaac Casamer and Prudence Buchner married in the spring, 1830, in Sussex County, New Jersey.
Isaac was a Stoneman by trade, and in great demand. Prudence (Buchner) Casamer was known as a dressmaker. Together they were blessed with nine children: Catherine, Samuel, Silas, George, Mark, Theodore, Frederick, Elizabeth, and Hanna. The Casamer name was found spelled as Cazemore, Cassimore, and Casimer, having originated from the northern section of the Netherlands. The Buchner family, also called Boughner and Bookner, was from Germany and arrived here in the mid-1700s when Johann Boughner, aka Buchner, arrived and was a soldier in the New Jersey Militia during the American Revolutionary War. Later, when Frederick B. Casamer married into the Cynthia Cook family, another member of her family was found to have been under the employee of the Revolutionary Continental Army as a covert spy, who was immense importance to the American cause.
Mr. Casamer’s family have all served in the United States Armed Forces, the most recent being the author’s service with the United States Air Force during the first presidentially activated “Desert Storm.” He had also served during the Vietnam War period overseas in Europe in Crash Rescue and as an Alarm Room Communications Operator. Later in life, he joined the Michigan Air National Guard as an Education and Training NCO. In 1980, he entered into the United States Air Force Reserves and became an Aeromedical Evacuation Flight Crew member, instructor, examiner, and the unit’s career advisor.
During Mr. Casamer’s various combinations of military service of over fifteen years, he was awarded fifteen medals and ribbons and the senior Air Crew Wings, and Senior Medical Badge, including a Combat Readiness Badge. Douglas’ father, Donald M. Casamer, also volunteered for military service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, serving in the South Pacific, and saw a great deal of combat.
Douglas M. Casamer’s education was in public schools up to and including College and University studies, which eventually led to his Bachelors in Human Resource Development, and his minor in Communications. He attended the United States Air Force Firefighter School, the Career Advisor School, the Non-Commissioned Officers Academy, and the Medical Aeromedical Schools, with many other accredited courses of education with the USAF. He holds an Accreditation as a United States Government Contact Representative from the State of Michigan’s Department of Education. He also took courses in a Combat Medical School, survival schools, and Veterans’ Service Officers schools where he was nationally accredited as a Veterans’ Service Officer.
His formal field of employment has been in public service, when, in 1978, he was offered a position with the Macomb County Community Services Agency, as the Help through Industry Retraining Program Employment Representative. In only one year, he secured employment for 292 veterans in over 191 job positions. He was then advanced and promoted to Counselor for the Macomb County Department of Veterans Affairs, and again promoted to the Department’s Assistant Director Position. Two years later, he was recommended to and voted by the Macomb County Board of Commissioners as the Department’s Director. Additionally, Mr. Casamer had the distinction of being the only person in the office’s history to be hired in at an entry level Counselor and to be promoted to the senior role.
He was also the Michigan Veteran’s Trust Fund Agent for the County of Macomb. In addition to serving in this civilian capacity, he was with the USAFR for twelve years of his twenty-five years of public service. Prior to his career employment in Government Service, he held a position as a Fire Fighter, Crash Rescue-man, Alarm Room Communications Operator, Industrial Photographer, and Military Genealogical Researcher and speaker, having given over 100 public presentations.
Mr. Casamer currently holds a General Class Federal Communications’ Commission (FCC) License in Amateur Radio Communications, with a call sign of W8DMC. He admits that his hobby has transitioned into computers and photo editing during the course of this first challenging book on the Michigan Twenty-Second Infantry, along with digital photography that has always been a love of his.
To his credit, he has also produced a formal publication of “Military Genealogy for the Genealogical Researcher” and has been summarizing a classic family history book about his family’s heritage. He is a member of the Masons with the Macomb/Utica Blue Lodge No. 64 in Davis, Michigan as an F.&A.M.M., having obtained his Thirty-Second degree via the Scottish Rites.
Douglas is retired and lives in Allenton, Michigan with his enjoying his many hobbies and continuing to write articles for local papers and doing what he can to work with his son on his education and pursuit of his dreams. When asked about his first fifty plus years of life and about what he feels honored, he states “I no longer judge my fellow man by what position or material goods he may hold as his possessions, but by what honorable cause he represents, and I can think of no richer rewards than to have represented the men and women who have served this nation.”
The public will look forward to his continued efforts in supporting the men and women who have served this great country and feel his latest work is a solid testament to his allegiance and dedication as a true American Patriot.