USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 60
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GENERAL JACOB H. LANSING.
General Jacob H. Lansing was born in Albany, New York, March 9, 1824. Upon his father's side his ancestors came from Holland, with the Van Rensselaers and other prominent Dutch fam- ilies, about 1625. Both his great grandfathers were officers in the War for Independence, and his grandfather, Jacob Lansing, was a captain in the state militia in the War of 1812. At one time his father was a merchant in Albany. Jacob, the subject of this sketch, was apprenticed to learn the watchmaking trade at the age of fifteen years, for a term of six years, which he faithfully served. Afterward he worked for two years as a journeyman in Syracuse and Rochester. In March, 1848, he settled in Corning and estab- lished and carried on business for himself until the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861. In August of that year he volunteered as a private in Company C, of the Eighty-sixth Regiment, New York Volunteers, Colonel Bailey commanding. Lansing was elected captain of his company in August, 1861, from which his commission is dated.
During and after the battle of Manassas his regiment was a part of the Second Army Corps and later of the Third Corps of the Army of the Potomac. It remained with this corps until the close of the war.
After the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1865, Captain Lansing was promoted to major of his regiment for his strict atten- tion to duty, and after the battle of Gettysburg for gallant and meritorious service he was advanced to the lieutenant colonelcy, with his commission dated June 12, 1863. In April, 1864, at Brundy Station, he was promoted to the rank of colonel; this com- mission bears date of June 24, 1864.
Colonel Lansing remained in the service until November, 1864, and on the thirteenth of that month, on account of wounds and disabilities received in front of Petersburg, he was discharged on his own application. Except for a short term of service as provost marshal of Alexandria, Virginia, he was not, therefore, connected with the military service of the United States during the Rebellion. He was made brigadier general in 1866. On his return to Corning, he again started the jewelry business; was elected county clerk of
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Steuben county in 1883, and re-elected in 1886. He died at his home in that city during his second term. In 1847 General Lans- ing married Sarah A. Oliver, of Argyle, Washington county, New York, and they had one child, Mrs. Ewing, of Elmira, New York.
COLONEL JOHN W. DININNY.
Colonel John W. Dininny was born on the twenty-third day of June, 1820, in Milford, now Oneonta, Otsego county, New York. In 1832, with his parents, he emigrated to the town of Addison, now Tuscarora, Steuben county, New York, then a rough wilder- ness. For the first few years thereafter he was engaged in clearing land, lumbering and doing such other labor as was necessary to subdue that wild, uncultivated town. He was educated at the Oneida Institute at Whilesboro, New York, and at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, that state, graduating in 1842. For several years after he was engaged in teaching school. The last was a most excellent select school in the village of Addison, which he closed in 1845. He then became a law student in the office of Hon. Andrew G. Chatfield, of Addison, and in January, 1849, was admitted to practice in the courts of this state. In 1859 he was ad- mitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States, and was a law partner with his brother, Hon. Ferral C. Dininny. This firm did a large and lucrative business and was well known in all sections of the state.
When the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment of New York Volunteers was organized he was offered the position of major, which he accepted. In September, 1862, he was mustered into the United States service and left immediately with the regi- ment for the front.
He continued in active service as major, most of the time in command of the regiment, until February, 1863, when, on the resignation of Col. S. G. Hathaway, he was promoted and com- missioned colonel. He was an active, prompt and efficient officer, some of the time performing the duties of a general officer. He participated in all of the battles and marches in which his regiment was engaged and continued in active service at the front until a painful disease of his eyes compelled him to resign his commission, upon the recommendation of an examining board. He returned home and resumed his law practice, in which he had been engaged for years before. He was an industrious, faithful and painstaking lawyer. His business relations brought him associations with many eminent lawyers of this state and Pennsylvania, and he had the reputation among his brothers of the bar of an able, careful and conscientious counselor.
Colonel Dininny always took a deep interest in the cause of education. It was largely through his efforts that the Union Free School, with an academic department, was established. He was annually elected a member of the board of education and served as president twenty-four years. During this time the school took high rank. Colonel Dininny died at his home in Addison within the last decade.
GENERAL NEROM M. CRANE.
General Nerom M. Crane was born in Penn Yan, Yates county, New York, December 13, 1828. The paternal branch of his family
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is of English origin; the ancestor of the family, Henry Crane, born in 1635, came to America about the year 1664. He was a son of Captain John Crane, who commanded a company in an expedition again Canada in 1718 and died in New York from disease con- tracted during that campaign. His grandfather, Daniel Crane, was born in 1756; was a soldier in the American service during the Revolutionary war. He was at church when the news came of the battle at Concord Bridge, where the shot was first fired that was heard around the world. With others, he then and there enlisted in the military service of his country. About 1806, with his family, he removed from Connecticut and settled in the future town of Benton, Yates county, New York, that section being then a wilder- ness. He was of the early pioneer farmers of that county and died at the age of seventy years.
General Crane's father, Nerom Crane, one of nine children, born in 1784, was a volunteer in a rifle company and served as sec- ond lieutenant on the Niagara frontier in the War of 1812. After such service he led a quiet life of a farmer and died in 1845 at the age of sixty-one years, leaving seven children, of whom General Crane was the youngest. At the age of fifteen years the boy became a clerk in a general country store at Wayne, Steuben county ; con- tinued to be thus employed in Wayne and Penn Yan until he attained his majority. In 1849 he became established in business as a country merchant at Wayne, which he conducted successfully for three years, when he removed to Hornellsville, where he con- tinued that business until 1856. He was chosen vice-president of the Bank of Hornellsville, the first bank established there, and was connected with the business of that institution until it closed in 1859. After coming to Hornellsville he became a member of a militia company and took great interest in its complete organ- ization, drills and soldierly appearance. He was elected captain in 1860. After the close of the above named bank, he organized and successfully conducted a private institution until the out- break of the Civil war. Business of all kinds was greatly im- paired and many embarrassments existed. In April, 1861, he raised a company of volunteers, largely from the militia com- pany. This became a part of the Twenty-third Regiment, New York Volunteers, known as Southern Tier Rifles, of which he was made lieutenant colonel. (General Crane's career until the close of the Civil war has been related in detail in the chapter on "Banks.")
In the fall of 1865, he opened, at Hornellsville, a private bank under the name of N. M. Crane & Company, which was carried on continuously until the disastrons panie of 1893, when it closed its doors and made a general assignment for the benefit of creditors, without preference. In 1869 he was chosen county clerk of his county and in the year 1879 was appointed one of the trustees and . the treasurer of the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Home at Bath.
In 1852 General Crane married Marie Louise, daughter of Mathew MacDowell, of Wayne, and three children were born of this alliance. After the failure of his bank the General moved to Wayne, to the farm of Mrs. Crane, and there he passed the re- mainder of his life as an agriculturist, dying September 21, 1901.
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GENERAL ABEL D. STREIGHT.
General Streight was a native of the town of Wheeler, Steuben county, and in early life was employed as a farm laborer on his father's farm. He attended school at Franklin Academy in Prattsburg and after graduation he went to Indianapolis, where he became prominent in business, politics and public affairs. He largely possessed the confidence and esteem. of Indiana's war gov- ernor, Oliver P. Morton. The Fifty-first Indiana Regiment was made up of men from the Wabash and White River valleys, who declared they were going to the war to fight and wanted officers of the Streight type. At the request of Governor Morton, he was commissioned as its colonel, and within sixty days from the first enlistment the regiment was on its way to join General Buell. It got what it was organized for-fight. Its campaigning was prin- cipally in southwestern Virginia. General Streight's wife, Mrs. Levina Streight, accompanied the regiment on its perilous marches and ministered, nursed and cared for the soldiers. She was idolized by the men and was called the "Daughter and Angel of the Regi- ment." No duty was too arduous for her to undertake, and she was usually successful.
Pursued by Confederate cavalry under General Forrest, in a night attack Colonel Streight, with a part of his men, was taken prisoner and confined in Libby Prison in Richmond. With two others he worked nearly a month in digging a tunnel under and outside of the famous prison and yard. Taking advantage of a heavy, cold rain, they crawled through the tunnel, soon reached the Federal lines and in two days were in Washington, where the colonel was commissioned a brigadier general for gallant and dar- ing service. His health was much impaired by exposure and he returned home on leave of absence, and died a few years after the close of the war.
But what of his noble, courageous and devoted wife? This dispatch tells :
CIVIL WAR HEROINE DEAD.
MRS. LEVINA STREIGHT, "ANGEL OF THE FIFTY-FIRST INDIANA," PASSES AWAY. INDIANAPOLIS, June 5, 1910 .- Mrs. Levina Streight, known in the Civil war as the "Angel of the Fifty-first Indiana Regiment," and widow of Gen. A. D. Streight, died here today at the age of eighty years.
General Streight was appointed colonel of the Fifty-first Regiment when it was organized, and Mrs. Streight accompanied it throughout the war as a nurse. Carrying messages from General Buell to General Boyle in Tennes- see, she was captured by the enemy. She escaped by forcing a teamster, at the muzzle of a revolver, to take her in his wagon out of the lines.
General Streight, who died several years ago, was one of the Union soldiers who escaped from Libby Frison through a tunnel.
CAPTAIN BENJAMIN BENNITT.
The name of Benjamin Bennitt, both as a lawyer and soldier, will long have a place in the history of the town of Urbana. He was born in this town on the home farm of his father, Daniel Bennitt, about three and a half miles northwest of Hammonds- port, March 23, 1827. His father moved with his family by wagon to Orland, Steuben county, Indiana, while Benjamin was yet a lad, but after a short residence there he died after a day of un- usually hard work in the harvest field. Upon his death the family became scattered, Benjamin returning to the town of Urbana to
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live with his sister Mary, wife of Nathan Hutches, of Mt. Wash- ington. Daniel Bennitt was a native of Orange county, New York, a devout Baptist, and reared his family in that faith. Rebecca Norris Bennitt, mother of Benjamin Bennitt, was a daughter of Shadrach Norris, of Orange county, a member of Col. John Hathorn's regiment serving in the Revolutionary war. The Norris family came originally from the Mohawk valley, being of Dutch descent. Benjamin Bennitt was fourteen years of age when he returned to Urbana to live with his sister and attended the Mt. Washington district school to complete his education. He studied law with Judge Jacob Larrowe, of Hammondsport, father of Eu- gene B. Larrowe, and with Judge Harlow Comstock, late of Canandaigua, New York. The certificate admitting Benjamin Ben- nitt to the practice of law as attorney, solicitor and counselor is dated March 6, 1850, and is signed by Justices Henry Wells, Thomas A. Johnson and Samuel L. Selden, sitting at a general term of the supreme court in Rochester.
Benjamin Bennitt was thirty-four years of age when the long- threatened war between the states broke out. He was a Demo- erat in politics and the war issues had long been discussed by the citizens with much bitterness. Though opposing the policies of the men in power, he said he would be among the first to enlist upon the coming of the war and the call for troops, and making good that promise he was the first man to enlist from the town of Urbana. The bombardment of Fort Sumter began on April 12, 1861, and the call for troops was made by President Lincoln on the 15th. The announcement of the call did not reach Hammonds- port till the 17th. On that morning Benjamin Bennitt was driving to Bath and on the way heard from John W. Taggart, of Cold Spring, that the call had been made and an enlistment roll had been opened at Bath. He at once sought the place of enrollment and his name was number 8 on the roll.
When organized the company was designated as Company A and was assigned to the Twenty-third Regiment of New York Vol- unteers. Theodore Schlick, of Dansville, who had had a previous military experience, was commissioned captain of Company A, April 30, 1861.
Following is the original roll of Company A: Theodore Schlick, captain, Dansville; Cornelius Mowers, first lieutenant; George E. Biles, second lieutenant; Benjamin Bennitt, first ser- geant, appointed first lieutenant November 28, 1861, Hammonds- port ; Frederick Arnd, second sergeant, Bath; John S. Tennicliff, third sergeant, Bath; Joseph Futherer, fourth sergeant, Bath; Luke N. Beagle, first corporal; Henry F. Crants, second corporal ; Wm. B. Kinsey, third corporal; John March, fourth corporal; 'T'im- othy Terrell, drummer; Orrin Andrews, Samuel O. Allen, Bath; James R. Braden, Penn Yan; William H. Brooks, Hornellsville; John W. Boileau, Bath; Daniel B. Boileau, Bath ; John W. Baker; William P. A. Brown, Bath; Ornatus D. Bump, Addison; Israel A. Beagle; Jeremiah V. Bogart: David D. Chapin, Bath ; Willian Caslin ; Charles C. Campbell, Bath ; James F. Dutton; Eli Decker ; Columbus Dudley; Francis A. Dickinson, Bath; David H. Dick- inson, Bath; Augustus S. Fosbury ; David Farron; Henry S. Gus- tin; William Greek; William A. Hopkins, Bath; Elisha P. Harr;
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Samuel B. Hotchkiss; Charles Hush, Adrian; Augustus W. Hyer; James H. Hammond, Avoca; William Jump; Augustus Kellogg; Henry C. Leigh; Ebenezer E. Loglay; William March; Gilbert H. May; Henry Mora, Wayland; John M. Mowers; William Martin ; Helman Neaf; Albert W. Orser; Edward E. Ostrander, Kanova; William Pratt, Southport; John J. P. Potter, Hammondsport ; Mortimer W. Reed, Wheeler Center; George B. Stanford; Charles W. Smith, Savona ; John R. Schlick, Dansville; Alpha S. Stanton ; Herkimer Shults; Whitman Freet; Frank Van Wormer; Martin L. White, Hornellsville; William Wales; John Wilhelm; Seabury Williams; Ira B. Van Gilder; James P. Topping.
The following named recruits were added : Abram S. Mastin, Woodhull; John McChesney; Alexander C. McChesney; William M. Terrill ; William A. Lowell ; Truman Head; Albert H. Halsey, Whiteville, Pa .; Frederick Auch; James Baty ; Horace Ellse, Bath; Jonathan Davidson; James McIntyre; William M. Erway; Abram S. Gould, Harrison Valley, Pennsylvania; Peter Ryan; William Rutherford, Hammonton, New Jersey, and Henry C. Flanders.
The Twenty-third Regiment was organized at Elmira, with Harry C. Hoffman as commander. It was made up of the first en- listments of the Southern tier of counties of New York, and its record proved to be one of the most creditable. On the field of Antietam General Howard pointed to it as an example to restore the courage of his own flying men. General Doubleday said of it: "The Twenty-third is decidedly the coolest regiment on the field that I have."
Benjamin Bennitt's appointment as first lieutenant bears the signature of Governor D. E. Morgan, November 28, 1861. He was a man of deep sympathies and of unmeasured patriotism and fearlessness. An incident occurred early in the war which brought forward strongly his personality and his attitude as a soldier. The pay of the soldiers was small and provisions and comforts at times scanty. Under these hardships the mutinous spirit became so ram- pant that serious trouble threatened. At this juncture Bennitt called the disaffected soldiers together and delivered then a stir- ring speech on loyalty, in which he said that if their patriotism was to be measured by the amount of pay they received their serv- ices would be of little value to their country. The speech helped to quell the trouble and to put new spirit into the men.
The welfare of his comrades and the comfort of the mothers, wives and sisters at home were subjects uppermost in his mind and he wrote a weekly letter to the Steuben Farmers' Advocate, pub- lished at Bath, which was looked for regularly by all who had friends at the front. These letters form a very interesting history of the participation of the Twenty-third in the war.
Bennitt's first enlistment was for two years and at the expira- tion of that period he applied for a commission to raise a company of cavalry. He began enrolling men at once without waiting for authority and by the fall of 1863 he had a long list of volunteers ready for service. The company was mustered in at Rochester, February 2, 1864, by Henry C. Cook, first lieutenant of the Six- teenth Infantry, United States army.
The roll bore the following names: Benjamin Bennitt, cap- tain, Urbana; Daniel Layton, first lieutenant, Urbana; George M.
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Newman, second lieutenant, Rochester; Frederick Arnd, first ser- geant, Bath; Henry T. Crants, second sergeant, Bath; Alson W. Davis, commissary sergeant, Avoca; James C. Harrington, ser- geant, Urbana; Daniel B. Boileau, sergeant, Bath; John March, sergeant, Avoca; Edward E. Ostrander, sergeant, Bath; Oran Em- mett, sergeant, Urbana; Alexander M. Smith, corporal, Urbana; Wellington Wheaton, corporal, Bath; Henry L. Moore, corporal, Bath; James Donnelly, corporal, Urbana; John D. Covell, cor- poral, Pulteney; William Greek, corporal, Wheeler; William M. Pratt, corporal, Bath; Cornelius Crants, corporal, Bath; Thomas J. Clicknor, farrier, Bath; Warren A. Royk, bugler, Urbana; Lib- bens D. Lockwood, bugler, Wheeler; Frederick W. Collier, sad- dler, Avoca, and Alexander Stewart, wagoner, Bath.
Privates : John B. Anthony, Avoca ; Eliphalet D. Armstrong, Avoca; Frank H. Benham, Urbana; Addison Brundage, Urbana; Lewis Bardau, Urbana; George Barrett, Urbana; Isaac H. Bea- man, Avoca; Warren Borden, Avoca; Dwight Baker, Bath; James Bartlett, Bath; Amasa E. Church, Urbana; Henry Carr, Urbana; Avery Carregin, Urbana ; Philander M. Coates, Urbana; Robert B. Campbell, Bath; Lorenzo D. Corwin, Prattsburgh; Dewitt C. Plumb, Prattsburgh; George K. Clark, Rochester; Peter Crane, Rochester; Zachariah Dildine, Bath; David H. Dickinson, Bath; Harris Edgerton, Urbana; Luke Evans, Prattsburgh; Daniel M. Ellas, Bath; Richard Evans, Rochester; James Frenk, Urbana; Henry N. Fairchild, Urbana; Charles H. Fostock, Rochester; William H. Goff, Urbana; Gilbert Green, Urbana; George M. Green, Jasper; Wm. A. Hopkins, Bath; John Huston, Avoca; James Hood, Rochester; Dwight W. Hazelton, Smithfield; John Jordan, Wheeler; Alonzo Joncs, Prattsburgh; Morris B. Loucks, Avoca; Garrett C. Morse, Wheeler; Andrew J. Monroe, Jasper ; Thomas Mitchell, Wayne; Clinton N. Ostrander, Bath; Joseph S. Overhiser, Wheeler; William A. Rice, Urbana; William Raymond, Wheeler; Hiram Roberts, Cohocton; George W. Sweezey, Ur- bana; Henry Slover, Lysander; Michael Sullivan, Rochester; Har- rison A. Shattuck, Prattsburgh; Elias Shaver, Avoca; Isaac Strat- ton, Urbana; Lewis E. Shaw, Bath; Thomas Stewart, Bath; William F. Sedore, Prattsburgh; William M. Terrill, Bath; Luther Townsend, Prattsburgh; James Turner, Rochester; Tobias F. Van Gelder, Bath; Samuel Woodruff, Urbana; Caleb M. Wallace, Wheeler; Jolin Whalen, Rochester; Christopher Young, Urbana ; Samuel Gallivan and Henry Jones, York.
Benjamin Bennitt's commission as captain is signed by Gov- ernor Horatio Seymour and the adjutant general, John T. Sprague. Governor Reuben E. Fenton promoted Captain Bennitt to the rank of major of the Twenty-second New York cavalry, Jan- uary 24, 1865; and on March 25th of the same year President An- drew Johnson, by consent of the United States senate, conferred upon him the rank of lieutenant colonel by brevet "for meritorious services." He also was commissioned by Governor Fenton after the close of the war to serve as inspector-general of the Twentieth Brigade of the National Guard of New York, his commission dating February 15, 1866.
To follow Benjamin Bennitt's career during his four years' service as a soldier would make many thrilling chapters. He was
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an active man who understood other men and their limitations as few men learn to do. He proved himself an excellent commander, a good disciplinarian, yet an officer always in sympathy with his men and having their trust, confidence and respect.
The work of a cavalry troop in war is the most trying and perilous. The adventures of his command are among the most thrilling of the Civil war.
In a "Roll of Honor" of the town of Urbana, published in 1887 by W. H. Brady and E. T. Hollis, Major Bennitt is credited with having participated in more than thirty battles and having been a prisoner of war in fourteen Confederate prisons. The un- usual prison experience is accounted for by his several escapes and the frequent transfers upon being recaptured. Among his battles under his first enlistment were Hall's Hill, Gainesville-Groveton, Rappahannock Crossing, the Second Battle of Bull Run under Gen- eral McDowell, the battles of South Mountain and Antietam under McClellan, at Fredericksburg under Burnside and Chancellorsville under Hooker. Upon his return to the service with a company of cavalry he entered upon a year of the severest hardship and most thrilling adventure. The internecine struggle already had con- tinued so long that the whole nation seemed to have settled down to the business of war. The fighting on both sides had become desperate. The civil authorities of the north demanded almost im- possible things of the commanders at the front and every move was met by savage resistance on the part of the south.
Such was the condition of the war when Captain Bennitt's company was mustered into the service. Winter had brought only a lull in the struggle and it was resumed early in 1864. Captain Bennitt's command passed through the twenty-seven day Battle of the Wilderness in which the fighting continued over a distance of eighty miles, from Spottsylvania Court House to Cold Harbor. Following this trying experience the Twenty-second Cavalry joined General Wilson in his famous raid in Virginia. In this historic exploit General Wilson separated with his cavalry division from the forces of General Grant and went south of Richmond to sever the railway communication on which Lee's army depended for supplies. The raid was marked by frequent battles, including those of Ream's Station, Dinwiddie Court House, Sutherland Sta- tion, Roanoke River, Christianville and Stony Creek Bridge. It was at Stony Creek Bridge that a retreat was ordered, the Con- federates having proved too strong for the Union forces. A de- tachment of cavalry under Captain Bennitt was detailed to remain behind to burn the baggage wagons and destroy the ammunition. This was done by piling rubbish around the wagons and setting fire to it. While engaged in this work the command was sur- prised by the unexpected appearance of Hampton's cavalry in numbers too strong to be resisted. Nearly all the command es- caped, but thirty-one men, including Captain Bennitt, mistaking the topography of the region, found themselves cornered in a bend of Stony Creek and were made prisoners. Of the thirty-one only twelve ever returned from their captivity. The surrender was made to Fitzhugh Lee .on June 29, 1864. On that occasion First Sergeant Frederick Arnd handed over to General Lee, with other things, a gold watch that he had prized highly.
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