USA > New York > Yates County > The military history of Yates County, N.Y. : comprising a record of the services rendered by citizens of this county in the army and navy, from the foundation of the government to the present time > Part 1
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F 127 . Y3W8 copy 2
4 0 THE . . MILITARY HISTORY
YATES COUNTY, NEW YORK BY WALTER WOLCOTT
1900
Class F127
Book
Y3W8
Copyright N.ยบ.
Copy 2
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
THE
MILITARY HISTORY
OF
YATES COUNTY, N. Y.,
COMPRISING A RECORD OF THE SERVICES RENDERED BY CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTY IN THE ARMY AND NAVY, FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY
WALTER WOLCOTT,
A MEMBER OF THE YATES COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ARY OF CONGRES COPYRIGHT DEC 30 1895 58153 YOF WASHINGTON
02
PENN YAN, N. Y. EXPRESS BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE, 1895.
127
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY WALTER WOLCOTT.
TO THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF THE LATE WAR NOW RESIDING IN YATES COUNTY, TIHIS TESTIMONY TO THE GREAT SERVICE THEY RENDERED THE NATION IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
T HE following pages contain facts which are a part of the annals of Yates County, and, as such, are of interest to all intelligent residents, particularly to those who are veter- ans of the Civil War. To the young and rising generation, also, the facts herein related will be found valuable, both for instruction and for reference.
It has been the object of the writer to produce a con- densed history of certain military events in which citizens of Yates County have been concerned. This county has, in a military sense, a record alike grand and creditable. Many of the early settlers were soldiers of the Revolution, and not a few of the inhabitants of the region now included in our county took an active part in the War of 1812. Among the volunteers of the Mexican War, Yates County was to some extent represented, and to a large extent among the soldiers who fought in the War of 1861-'65 for the preservation of the Union.
The enemy, to whom our soldiers in the last war were op- posed, have been designated in contemporary histories and newspapers as "rebels"-and so they were. Public opinion, however, at the present day, seems to favor the designation of "Federals" and "Confederates" as proper names for the respective forces of the North and South. Such are they called in American histories that have in late years appeared, and as "Confederates" are the Southern troops mentioned in this volume.
vi
PREFACE.
In the preparation of this work various authorities have been consulted, and it will be observed that quotations have been made from a number of publications, to which, in most instances, credit has been given. It is not claimed that the work is entirely exempt from those imperfections to which works of this kind are liable. But the reading public will, it is hoped, make some allowances for any shortcomings that may appear in this the writer's first effort, in book form, in historical composition.
Penn Yan, November, 1895.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PART FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
The Senecas, a war-like tribe of the Six Nations-Red Jacket-Sir William Jolinson-Massacres at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley- Invasion by the American Forces under General John Sullivan- The Battle of Newtown-Destruction of an Indian Village within the present limits of the town of Benton-Effects of the Invasion on the Indians-Jemima Wilkinson, the "Universal Friend "-The Friend's House in the town of Jerusalem used at the close of the Civil War as a Soldiers' Home-James Parker and General William Wall-Soldiers of the Revolution who settled in Yates County .
I
CHAPTER II.
Close of the Revolution-The Phelps and Gorham Purchase-Captain Charles Williamson-The Genesee Country One Hundred Years Ago-British Insolence-The War of 1812-Citizens of Yates County Who Fought in this War-Organization of Yates County-The War with Mexico-Soldiers of the War from Yates County-Re- sults of the Mexican War .
9
PART SECOND.
CHAPTER I.
Sentiment in Yates County before and during the War for the Union
16
CHAPTER II.
The Thirty-third Regiment of Infantry
CHAPTER III. 35
The First Regiment United States Sharpshooters-The Third, Twenty- third, and Thirty-fourth Regiments, Infantry . 47
CHAPTER IV.
The Forty-fourth Regiment of Infantry .
51
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
The Seventy-sixth, Eighty-fifth, Ninety-seventh, One Hundred and Second, and One Hundred and Fifth Regiments, Infantry . . .. 57
CHAPTER VI.
The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment of Infantry 63
CHAPTER VII.
The Eighth, Twentieth, and Twenty-second Regiments, Cavalry-The Norfolk Brigade Band-The Fifteenth and Fiftieth Regiments, En- gineers 78
CHAPTER VIII.
The One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment of Infantry 88
CHAPTER IX.
The First Independent Battery -Battery B (Third Light Artillery)- The Fourteenth and Sixteenth Heavy Artillery 97
CHAPTER X.
The One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Regiment of Infantry . 105
CHAPTER XI.
The One Hundred and Eighty-eighth and One Hundred and Ninety- fourth Regiments, Infantry-Grand Review at Washington at the end of the War
I14
CHAPTER XIL
Citizens of Yates County in Other Commands-Colored Soldiers-The Confederate Service-The United States Navy 121
CHAPTER XIII.
Posts of the Grand Army of the Republic in Yates County-J. Barnet Sloan Post, No. 93, at Penn Yan-Decoration Day Observances at Penn Yan in 1869 and 1870-Memorial Volume Presentation-Wil- liam H. Long Post, No. 486, at Penn Yan-Edwin and Foster P. Cook Post, No. 71, at Dundee-Hays Post, No. 115, at Potter- Scott Post, No. 319, at Rushville-The Woman's Relief Corps-The Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic I26
CHAPTER XIV.
Militia Organizations-The First Separate Company, N. G. S. N. Y. 142
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY, N. Y.
PART FIRST.
The Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War.
CHAPTER I.
The Senecas, a war-like tribe of the Six Nations-Red Jacket-Sir William Johnson-Massacres at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley-Invasion by the American Forces under General John Sullivan-The Battle of New- town-Destruction of an Indian Village within the present limits of the town of Benton-Effects of the Invasion on the Indians-Jemima Wilkinson, the "Universal Friend"-The Friend's House in the town of Jerusalem used at the close of the Civil War as a Soldiers' Home- James Parker and General William Wall-Soldiers of the Revolution who settled in Yates County.
W HEN the Thirteen Colonies became in 1776 free and independent States, the extent of land now included in Yates County was as yet a wilderness, occupied as a part of their hunting ground by the Senecas, a war-like tribe belonging to the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, other- wise known as the Six Nations, from the number of tribes or nations of which it was composed. The tribes that with the Senecas united in forming this league of Red Men were the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Mohawks, the Cayugas, and the Tuscaroras.
The Iroquois exceeded in war-like prowess all neighbor- ing Indian nations. In the years that they held sway, op-
.
2
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
posing tribes were brought under subjection, and the French, during the Old Regime in Canada, having on several occa- sions experienced their potency as warriors, learned to re- gard them with respect as a formidable foe. The extensive domain occupied by the Six Nations was called by them the Long House, of which the Mohawks kept the eastern door and the Senecas the western.
Concerning the Senecas there exist certain facts which are of a local interest. The members of this tribe elaimed to have originated at Bare Hill in the north-western part of the town of Middlesex, and the Big Elm of Italy Hollow was used by them as a eouneil-tree. Within the present county of Yates also was born the celebrated chief, Sagoye- watha, or, as he is commonly known, Red Jacket .* Great and important changes have been brought about by the long era of civilized settlement which succeeded the occupancy of our county by what has been considered the most blood- thirsty and ferocious of the Six Nations. The feelings of terror and hatred which they once excited have long since vanished with the objeets which gave them rise. A few yearly decreasing mounds, some traces of nearly obliterated trails, an occasionally found implement of hunting or war-
* Red Jacket, the distinguished native orator, who figured as a chief of the Senecas during the later and more disastrous years of the Indian oc- cupation, was born on the shores of the west branch of Lake Keuka, and probably within the boundaries of Jerusalem. For this statement we have the authority of Red Jacket himself. On a journey with other chiefs to Washington, not far from the period of General Jackson's first inauguration to the Presidency, Red Jacket addressed a public meeting called to give him a reception at Geneva. In that speech he stated that his birthplace was near the west arm of the Keuka, so called from its re- semblance to a bended elbow. He further stated that he lived there with his parents till he was about twelve years old, when they removed to the Old Castle near Kanadasaga, and several years later to Conewagus. A sketch of that speech was reported by Roderick N. Morrison, for the Penn Yan Democrat, and Alfred Reed, then an apprentice in that office, was the printer who put it in type. These corroborating facts are given because it is alleged by Colonel William L. Stone, in his Life of Red Jack- et, that his birthplace was Canoga, on the west bank of Cayuga Lake; a statement rendered improbable, not only by the facts already stated, but by the further fact that Canoga was on the territory of the Cayugas .- Cleveland's History of Yates County, Vol. I.
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THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
fare, or for domestic use, and a few half-remembered names of hill and lake and river, are all that is tangibly left us of the primeval lords of the forest and the plain. Even these are vanishing before the onward march of cultivation, and the echoes of his speech are lost in the tramp of coming gen- erations .*
For a number of years previous to the Revolution, the In- dian agent for the Crown among the Six Nations was Sir William Johnson, an Irishman possessed of remarkable shrewdness. He resided at Johnson Hall, (in the present county of Fulton,) and dying a few months before the com- mencement of hostilities with the Mother Country, left his authority and estates to his son, Sir John Johnson, and to his son-in-law, Colonel Guy Johnson. The two Johnsons, his suc- cessors, being allied to the Crown both by interest and edu- cation, and having personal wrongs of their own to resent, took advantage of their influence with the Iroquois to insti- gate them to take up arms in behalf of the cause of the King of England against the American colonists. During the greater part of the struggle for independence, while the pa- triots were contending, often with varied snecess, against the armed hosts of Britain, the warriors of the Six Nations, (with the exception of the Oneidas and a part of the Tusca- roras) carried on a most distressing predatory warfare against the border settlements. Honses were burned, stock destroyed, and the inhabitants either driven from their homes, murdered, or carried into captivity. At Wyoming and at Cherry Valley in 1778 massacres were perpetrated under circumstances of great cruelty.
General Washington, in retaliation for these outrages, dis- patched an invading force into the Indian country in the summer of 1779. The command of this army was given to General John Sullivan, an officer whose armed resistance to British authority antedated the battle of Lexington. Sulli- van's army marched through the Wyoming Valley to Tioga Point, and was there joined by a detachment under General James Clinton, which had advanced from Albany by way of
* Address delivered by the Hon. John L. Lewis before the Yates County Historical Society, February 4, 1860.
4
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
the Mohawk and Susquehanna rivers. The forces now united amounted to five thousand men. In subordinate command were several officers of tried ability, notably Gen- erals Poor, Maxwell, and Hand, and Colonels Gansevoort, Butler, and Durbin.
The Iroquois, with their Tory allies, in expectation of an attack, had strongly fortified themselves at Newtown, (near the site of the present city of Elmira.) They were com- manded by Joseph Brant, the famous Indian chieftain; also in command were Sir John Johnson, Colonel Guy Johnson, Colonel John Butler, (a Connecticut Tory,) and his son, Ma- jor Walter Butler. On the 29th of August was fought the Battle of Newtown, which resulted in the total defeat of the Indians. General Sullivan began to engage them by firing his field-pieces at their breastworks, which he continued while he detached General Poor to the right, around the mountain, to fall upon their left flank. Poor had to march a mile and a half in full view of the Indians and their asso- ciates, who penetrated his design. They waited, however, for his approach, but observing (that when his firing an- nounced his being engaged) other movements were made to- wards them, they quitted their works and betook themselves to a sudden and precipitate flight .*
The loss of the Continentals in this action amounted to seven killed and fourteen wounded; that of the enemy was never ascertained. The second day after the battle General Sullivan advanced to Catharine's Town. This place stood on the site of Havana, t and was so called from being then the residence of the noted Indian queen, Catharine Montour. Catharine's Town was set on fire by the troops and reduced to ashes. The Indians were so dispirited by their defeat at Newtown that they made no further effective resistance to the progress of the army, under Sullivan, which destroyed the Indian villages and corn-fields and cut down the fruit trees along the line of march.
* Gordon's History of the American Revolution, Vol. 3, New York, 1794.
t The name of this village has been lately changed from Havana to Montour Falls.
5
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
From Kanadesaga, (on the site of Geneva,) which the army reached by marching northward along the east side of Sene- ca Lake, General Sullivan sent detachments in various direc- tions, which burned all the Indian towns to which they came, and laid waste the country. One of these detachments con- sisting of four hundred riflemen, advanced on the 9th of September to Kashong ereek, within the present boundaries of Yates County, and there destroyed a large Indian village with extensive fields of corn and great numbers of apple trees. The wigwams and all means of subsistence on the part of the Indians were completely annihilated. A portion of the apple trees only remained .* General Sullivan, in his official report, mentions this village as "Gotheseunquean," while in a diary of the expedition kept by one of his officers (Captain Fowler) the village is referred to as " Kashanvu- sah." W. L. Stone, in his "Life of Brant," says : " A detacli- ment of 400 men was sent down on the west side of the lake to destroy 'Gotheseunquean,' and the plantations in the neighborhood." The site of the village destroyed is well un- derstood to be near the north line of the town of Benton and on a farm recently owned by W. W. Coc. As in previous instances, the inhabitants had fled before the approach of the troops, so that when the riflemen arrived at the village they found it abandoned.
The objects of the campaign having been accomplished, General Sullivan returned to Easton in Pennsylvania, which he reached October 15th, on his return to join the main ar- my. The expedition was more disastrous to the Indians than at first might appear. They returned to their black- ened homes and wasted corn-fields and looked with despair upon the waste and ruin before them. They now began to feel the iron they had so ruthlessly thrust into the bosom of others. Mary Jemison (the White Woman) says there was nothing left, not enough to keep a child. Again they wended their way to Niagara, where huts were built for them around the fort. The winter following was the coldest ever known and prevented the Indians going on their winter hunt. Cooped up in their little huts and obliged to subsist
* Cleveland's History of Yates County, Vol. I.
6
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
on salted provisions, the scurvy broke out among them and hundreds of them died. Those the sword had spared, the pestilence destroyed .*
The year that witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence is memorable for another, though less import- ant, event. In that year, Jemima Wilkinson, a young wom- an residing in Cumberland, Rhode Island, experienced, dur- ing a fit of sickness, an apparent suspension of life. After her recovery she professed to have been raised from the dead and to have been invested with divine attributes and authority to instruct mankind in religion. She called her- self the Public Universal Friend, and during her ministry succeeded in gaining many adherents, not only in her native State, but also in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and in Penn- sylvania, particularly in the vicinity of Philadelphia. She settled with her followers in 1790 on the west side of Seneca Lake at City Hill, (in the now town of Torrey.) The resi- dence which she first occupied yet stands and is about two miles from Dresden. Subsequently she moved within the present limits of the town of Jerusalem, where she died July 1, 1819. Her final residence is yet standing on an elevation about three miles from Branchport.
It is here proper to state that the final residence of the Friend (as she called herself) has also the distinction of hav- ing been used at the close of the Civil War as a Soldiers' Home. The domicile was purchased at that time by John Alcooke, who claimed to be an English Quaker. He col- lected a considerable number of disabled soldiers and made them a comfortable abode in the old residence of the Friend. By appeals to the charity of the people, aid from the Sani- tary Commission, and other contributions, he was supporting his crippled veterans and paying for their home when he suddenly died June 29, 1866.+ His remains were first de- posited in the vault on the place, but were subsequently re- moved to the Lake View Cemetery at Penn Yan, where a fine monument stands to his memory. Alcooke was a man of
* Historical Address of the Rev. David Craft, delivered on the comple- tion of the Battle Monument near Elmira, August 29, 1879.
+ Cleveland's History of Yates County, Vol. I.
7
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
imposing presence, and the Friend's place while under his control was a model of neatness and order .*
One of the most prominent among the followers of the Friend, and one of the first to join her society, was James Parker, a native of South Kingston, Rhode Island. His pa- rents were from England. His younger brother was Sir Peter Parker, of the British Navy, and with the rank of Ad- miral commanded the fleet which attacked Charleston with- out success early in the Revolutionary War. While he was earning his advancement among the English nobility in the service of the Crown, his brother, James Parker, was Captain of a military company in Rhode Island, employed in the cause of Colonial Independence. Although James Parker was among the first of the Friend's followers, he afterward became one of her bitterest opponents. Another of her dis- ciples at an early date was General William Wall, who at- tempted to found a village at the foot of Crooked Lake, which village was to be known as Summersite. The personal history of General Wall is not known to any extent, but he was probably a militia officer during the Revolution.
Among those who first settled in what is now Yates Coun- ty were the following Revolutionary soldiers: Samuel Ab- bey, Alexander Anderson, Isaac Andrews, (who was private secretary and aid-de-camp to General Washington,) Elisha Benedict, Elnathan Botsford, Elisha Brown, Daniel Brown, Samuel Buell and his son Cyrus Buell, Augustus Chidsey, John Cole, Achilles Comstock, William Corn well, Sr., Stephen Corwin, Ephraim Dains, Castle Dains, Joseph Fintou, Captain Henry Green, John Greenman, James Harrington, Griffin B. Hazard, Richard Henderson, Rev. William Ho- bart, (who was a chaplain in the army,) Eliphalet Hull, (who assisted in placing the great chain across the Hudson below West Point,) his brother Seth Hull, (who was a soldier un- der General Montgomery at the siege of Quebec,) Samuel
* Charles St. John Nichols, who lost a leg at the taking of the Welden Railroad and. who died in Washington in 1884, was for a time an inmate of this Home. He is remembered as having for a number of years kept a news stand in Penn Yan.
t Cleveland's History of Yates County, Vol. I.
8
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
Jayne, Sr., Stephen Kinney, James Knapp, (who took part in Sullivan's invasion,) William Lamport, Captain Thomas Lee, John Purdy, Bryan Remer, John Remer, Nathaniel Rusco, Jacob Shuman, (who was at first a Hessian soldier, but afterwards served in the American army,) Captain Tru- man Spencer, Tewalt Swarts, James Taylor, Captain Nathan Teall, Captain William Thrall, Captain Lawrence Townsend, (who was at the surrender of Burgoyne,) Enos Tubbs, Major, (afterwards General) Moses Van Campen, Captain Amos C. West. Many citizens in our county can claim the distinction of being descended from the sturdy patriots who effectually aided the cause of Independence on the battle-fields of the Revolution, from Lexington to Yorktown.
CHAPTER II.
Close of the Revolution-The Phelps and Gorham Purchase-Captain Charles Williamson-The Genesee Country One Hundred Years Ago- British Insolence-The War of 1812-Citizens of Yates County Who Fought in this War-Organization of Yates County-The War With Mexico-Soldiers of the War From Yates County-Results of the Mex- ican War.
T HE War of the Revolution closed in 1783, the indepen- dence of the United States of America being that year reluctantly acknowledged by their ancient parent and recent enemy, England. Yielding only to force of circumstances, the British Government chose, for several years afterward, to consider the treaty of peace as hardly more than an ar- mistice, and only waited a more favorable opportunity to bring the revolted colonies again under subjection.
Peace having been proclaimed, the new States speedily settled their respective boundaries. Satisfactory treaties were also made with the Indian tribes. The State of Mas- sachusetts at that time claimed, however, under the grant made in her colonial charter, all the territory embraced within her boundaries, north and south, and extending west to the Pacific Ocean. The charter, which had been granted to the colony (afterward State) of New York, conflicted and interfered with these claims, and they were finally adjusted by commissioners assembled at Hartford, Conn., December 16, 1786. Here it was agreed that Massachusetts, in return for the right of preemption of the soil from the Indians, should cede to New York the sovereignty of all that tract of land in the latter State lying west of what is now known as the Old Preemption Line. The following year the State of Massachusetts sold to a land company, of which Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham were the principal members, the whole of this traet, which has since been known as the "Phelps and Gorham Purchase." The south part of this tract was subsequently sold by Phelps and Gorham to Robert Morris (one of the signers of the Declaration of
10
THE MILITARY HISTORY OF YATES COUNTY.
Independence), who, through his agent, William Temple Franklin, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin, re-sold this part to three capitalists in London, namely: Sir William Pulte- ney, John Hornby, and Patrick Colquhoun. In 1792 Cap- tain Charles Williamson came over as agent for these capi- talists, and became a naturalized citizen for the purpose of holding a title to that traet of land in which they were in- terested. This enterprising man gave a new impetus to the development of the region, and under his direction and en- couragement many new settlements were established. A eir- cumstance, which occurred in 1794, may be mentioned in this connection. The British agents on the frontier still dreamed of repossessing the country, and, in defiance of the treaty, had kept possession of the Western posts. General John G. Simcoe, the Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario), sent, in the summer of that year, Lieutenant (afterwards General) Roger H. Sheaffe (a renegade American), bearing a protest to Captain Williamson against the establishment of a settle- ment at Sodns, on Lake Ontario. It was claimed in this protest that the settlement named was on lands belonging to certain Indians, who were yet under the protection of the Crown. The protest, however, was treated by Captain Williamson with the contempt it deserved .*
That part of the State in which our county is now in- cluded was known one hundred years ago as "The Genesee Country," and the work of transforming a wilderness into a prosperous and productive section had then only com- meneed. At Geneva (then called Kanadesaga) there was a cluster of buildings occupied by Indian-traders and a few settlers. Jemima Wilkinson, with her small colony, was, upon her first location, upon the west bank of Seneca Lake, upon the Indian trail through the valley of the Susque- hanna, and across Western New York to Upper Canada, the primitive highway of all this region. One or two white families had settled at Catharine's Town, at the head of Seneca Lake. A wide region of wilderness separated the most northern and western settlements of Pennsylvania from all this region. Within the Genesee Country, other than the
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