USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 35
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
the United States. Returning to Albany, we delivered our torn battle flags to the governor of the state in the presence of General Grant, July 4th, 1865, and they may be seen in the Capitol." Major Stevens adds: "This is only a part of the history of the battles of the regiment. According to the compiler of the "History of New York in the Rebellion," the 77th was engaged în fifty-two battles and skirmishes, and the skirmishes were equal to any of the battles of the Cuban or Philip- pine wars."
Of the original fifty members of Company A who first left Westport, only three returned with the company at the expiration of nearly four years of service. These three went out as prisates and returned with commis- sions-Major C. E. Stevens, Captain Charles A. Davis and Lieutenant Sorel Fountain. Nearly all the rest had been killed in action, had died in prison or hospi- tal, or had been discharged ou account of disability. Twenty-two of the company Row sleep in southern soil, eight who were killed in battle, and fourteen who died of disease and starvation.
The names of the Westport men who belonged to Company A were as follows:
Major Cbaries Edson Stevens. Weut out as a sergeant. and upon the resignation of Lt. Faresworth, Jan. 5. 1862, was promoted 2nd Lieutenant. In December following be was appointed-Ist Lieutenant of Company A, and Oct. 12. 1864, Captain of Company E. In November the three years' term of service for which the meu of the fitb bad enlisted expired. and the regimeat was accordingly mus- tered out of service, butenough of the veterans re-enlisted to form a battalion of five companies which was called the With Battalion New York State Volunteers, with C. F.
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Stevens captain of Company C, and soon afterward (Jan. 1. 1865) appointed Major of the battalion. From April 2 to May 1. 1865, Major Stevens was in command of the battal- ion. Major Steveus was born in Westport April 26. 1539. the son of Guy and Mabel (Stoddard) Stevens. Married Jan. 10. 1864. to Eliza 31. Lyon. daughter of Isaac and Lu- vinda (Holcomb) Lyon. and had one son. Harold. His second wife was Carris Richards. daughter of James and Sarah (Thomson) Richards, and they have two daughters. Gertrude aud Elizabeth. Major Stevens is now keeper of the lighthouse at Barber's Point.
Surgeon George Thomas Stevens. Commissioned Sur- geon of the the 77th Oct. 8. 1861 and mustered out Dec. 15. 1864. Operating surgeon for the division two and a half years. and for a time medical inspector of the Sixth Army Corps. In 1866 be published a book called "Three Years in the Sixth Army Corps. " Dr. Stevens was born in Jav. N. Y. in 1832, son of the Rev. Chauncey and Lucinda (Hoadley) Stevens. For five years he was Professor of physiology and diseases of the eye in Union College, and since then bas risen high in his profession, writing many standard medical works in both French and English. and belonging to the bigbest foreign scientific societies. He is now aspecialist in diseases of the eve in New York. His wife was Harriet Wadbams. grand-daughter of Gen. Lu- man Wadbams.
Captain Reuel W. Arnold. In the service from Septem. ber, 1861, to April 3. 1862
Captain Charles A. Davis. Went out as a corporal. al- though only seventeen. and was promoted 2nd Lieutenant Oct. 16, 1564. 1st Lieutenant of Company E. Nov. 15, 1864. and Captain April 25. 1865 He is the son of Alvin Davis.
Lt. William Douglass. In the service from September. 1861 to April. 1862.
Lt. William F. Lyou. In December of 1862 promoted from Orderly Sergeant to 2nd Lieutenant. Killed in the enemy's works at Spottsylvania. May 10, 1864. Son of Isaac D. Lyon, and brother-in-law of Major Stevens.
2nd Lt. James H. Farnsworth. In the service from Sep- tember. 1861. to Jan. 5. 1862.
Lt. Sorel Fountain. 2ud Lieutenant in the 77th Battal ion. Served throughout the war.
Sergeant James E Garnes. Mustered in as a musician :
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postmaster for the company; lost a leg at Petersburg. June 21. 186-4. Half brother of Major Stevens, and first keeper of the lighthouse at Barber's Point.
Sergeant Hiram Barues. Wounded at Antietam. dis- charged, re-enlisted in the 96th N. Y. Takeu prisover, be was in Libby prison five weeks. and in the stockade at Salisbury. N. C six months. Cousin of James E. Barnes. Has a sou in the U. S. Navy.
Sergeant Rex A. Havens. Killed May 3. 1864, in the battle of Chancellorsville, at the crossing of the river. Son of Asahel Havens, and brother of Mrs. William Doug. lass.
Sergeant Hiram Burt. Died of wounds received at the battle of Cedar Creek. October, 1204. Son of Alvin Burt.
Corporal George G. Allen. Killed at Spottsylvania. May, 1564: son of Nathaniel Allen.
Hiram Persons. Died Dee. 25, 1-6], at Meridian Hill.
William Coll. Died at Fortress Monroe. April 19. 1802. son of Hinkley Coll.
George W. Bigelow. Died in field hospital, Youngs' Mills, Va .. April 30. 1862.
Jobn Ormsby. Died iu field hospital in Youngs' Mills. April 23. 1862.
Richard Fleury. Died in hospital in New York. May 5. 1-12.
Frank Hoisington. Died in Douglass Hospital. Wash.
Auigton, May 21. 1562.
Dan W. Sheidon. Died at Liberty Hall hospital, May 30. 1862. When MeClellan took possession of the country along the Chickabominy. near Richmond, the mansion called Liberty Hall. which had been the birthplace of Pat. rick Henry, was turned into a hospital by the Union troops. Son of Platt R. Sheldon and grandson of Capt. Jesse Bra- man.
Charles Paluer. Died of an accidental wound in camp at Patrick Station. Va . March 19. 1st3.
Corporal James A. Lawrence. Losta leg at Petersburg, June 21. 1964.
John Cross. Wounded at Chancellorsville, May, 1263.
Heury James. Woanded at Fredericksburg. May. 1-63.
Charles Pierce, Wounded in the Wilderness, May 5, 3-64.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
William I. Gregory. Wounded in the Wilderness, May 6. 1864.
Dennis Thomas. Wounded in the Wilderness. May 6, 1864.
Eber N. Allen, son of Nathaniel.
Corporal Chauncey A. Ballou.
Thomas Benson.
Corporal James R. Bignall. Transferred to U. S. Navy, April. 1864.
Corporal Francis Maroin Bull.
Lorrin Cole, son of Tillinghast.
Michael Conley.
Roswell B. Dickenson.
George W. Doty.
Charles Goodspeed.
Rodolphus Goodspeed.
Henry H. Merrill.
Ezra Miner.
Lewis Odell.
Heury H. Richards.
Obed Ringer.
John H. Sawyer. Took small-pox in camp. and was sent home convalescent ; discharged at Albany, October S. 1862.
Jacob V. Stevenson.
Corporal David Stringham.
James Van Ornam.
The One Hundred and Eighteenth.
Some single enlistments took place in the year follow- ing, and then, Angust 4, 1862, came the call of the pres- ident for three hundred thousand additional troops. Another company was at once raised in Elizabethtown. with Robert W. Livingston as captain. This was company F. of the 118th N. Y. V., and in it were seven- teen Westport men. The 118th was called "the "Adi- rondack" and contained three companies from Essex county. It was mustered into the service Aug. 29, au
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left Plattsburgh for the front early in September. The second lieutenant of Company F. (promoted first lien- tenant the following year) was William Henry Steven- son, son of Thomas Stevenson, a farmer who lived in the south part of the township, so near the line that Watson makes the mistake of saying that Lt. Stevenson came from Moriah. A brother and three cousins were also in the service, all going out from the same neigh- borhood.
The 118th was attached to the Army of the James, and saw its first service in the defense of Suffolk, Va. In June of 1864 the brigade to which the regiment be- longed was ordered to destroy parts of the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad, and had a sharp skirmish with the enemy near the South Anna river. It was at this time that Lt. Stevenson captured a slight breast- work which was obstinately maintained in the centre of the skirmish line of the Confederates. He called for vol- unteers, took the first five men who offered, made a rapid flank movement behind some bushes on the right, and carried the breastwork with a rush. One of the Confederates was killed, one wounded, and thirteen others brought into the Federal lines as prisoners. This dashing exploit made Stevenson a hero at once, and throughout his short career he was the pride of the regiment.
In the spring of 1864 Gen. B. F. Butler took com- mand of the Army of the James and co-operated with Grant in his advance upon Richmond. The 118th was in the 2nd brigade, Ist division, 18th corps. Early in
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May Gen. Beauregard held Fort Darling on the James, and Butler spent about six days, from the tenth to the sixteenth, in an uusuccessful attempt to dislodge him. At three o'clock Monday morning, May 16, Beauregard attacked Butler and drove him from the outer works which he had captured. The 118th fell back fighting, tak- ing sbelter as they could behind redoubts and traverses. The firing from the advancing Confederates was severe, and Capt. Livingston crossing an open space between two redoubts, was struck by a bullet in the shoulder, and his men saw him fall. Lt. Stevenson sprang from the cover of an embankment and ran to his assistance, followed by four men of the same company. In the very act of stooping to lift Livingston from the ground, Stevenson was struck dead by a shot from the enemy, who were already upon them. Two of the men who followed him were captured, and afterward died in prison. The other two succeeded in rescuing their captain, and carried him with them in the rest of the retreat, although he was struck by another shot after they had reached his side. The fate of Stevenson, so gallant a sacrifice to loyalty and to duty, endeared him to his comrades, and has made him conspicuous among the military heroes of Westport. A monument to his memory stands in the little cemetery at Mullein brook, and upon the formation of the G. A. R. Post at Port Henry, after the close of the war, his name was given to it in commemoration of his bravery.
Butler's army fell back to Bermuda Hundred and fortified. Soon afterward the 18th corps was taken in
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transports down the James river and up the Pamunky, and landed at the White House, to join the Army of the Potomac in the campaign of Graut against Rich- mond. Here the men of the 118th. met those of the 77th for the first time since the 77th had left the wharf at Westport, two years and eight months before. From the first of June to the twelfth there was constant fight- ing, with two unsuccessful assaults upon the Confeder- ate works. For eight days the two armies lay within the range of each others' fire, the sharpshooters pick- ing off' many men, -- an ordeal as severe as anything experienced by the 118th during the whole war. This was the engagement at Coal Harbor, where the troops were forced to lie flat on the ground to escape the in- cessant fire of the enemy and the dead could not be re- moved or buried, but were thrown upon the breast- works, soon to form a more dreadful menace to friend than to foe. Trees in therear of the troops were stripped of their bark and often cut entirely through by the mus- ketry fire from the Confederate ranks. On the 15th of June the regiment took part in an assault upon Peters- burg in which it suffered severely. For two months it lay before Petersburg, almost constantly under fire, and July 29 it stood drawn up in line waiting for the ex- plosion of the great mine which the Union troops had been so long preparing for the destruction of the Con- federate works. The mine was sprung with terrible effect, but the Confederate defense was still so determ- ined that the 118th was not ordered to the charge.
From August 27 to September 27 the regiment was
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in camp upon the south bank of the James, and at this time the 96th, to which some Westport men belonged, was attached to the same brigade-the second. Then came the assault and capture of Fort Harrison, or Bat- tery Harrison, on the north side of the James, one of the outer works of the city of Richmond. At three o'clock on the morning of September 29 the division crossed the James on a pontoon bridge, with the second brigade in the advance. The fort which they were to attack lay about three miles up the river. Two miles of this distance lay through woods which were full of the enemy's pickets, and then they came to an open space which was commanded by the guns of the Con- federate batteries. The attacking column was formed by the 96th New York and the Sth Connecticut, supported by the First and Third brigades of the divi- sion. The 118th New York and the 10th New Hamp- shire were thrown out as skirmishers on either flank, the 10th New Hampshire on the left and the 118th on the right. Both of these flanking regiments had just been armed with the new Spencer rifle, at that time the most perfect fire-arm known, and one which required skillful and resolute marksmen to bring out its best work. While the central column advanced to the at- tack, carrying the enemy's works in one grand rush, in the face of a furious fire of bullet, shot and shell, the 118th on the right put in their work demoralizing the defense, picking off the gunners at their posts, and pouring in a discriminating fire upon the Confederate troops under which they faltered aud ran. The Union
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men swarmed over the embaukment and into the fort, the two regiments in the centre plauting their colors at the same time, and turning the guus of the batteries upon the fleeing for. At the same time the 118th came in on the right, and the first two men who leaped into the redoubt and trained the guns to fire upon the re- treat were Nelson J. Gibbs, one of our own men, born under the shadow of Coon mountain, and Heury J. Adams, an Elizabethtown man. In Gen. Butler's ad- dress to the army of the James, a few weeks later, the name of Lieutenant Gibbs is mentioned first in the offi- cial commendation which the incident received.
Mr. Gibbs at this time held the rank of 2nd Lieuten- ant of Company 1, soon afterward made first Lieuten- ant. The words of the address of Major-General But- ler, dated at "Headquarters,, Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Army of the James, before Rich- mond, Oct. 11, 1864," are these :
"Lieuts. N. J. Gibbs and H. J. Adams of the same regiment, the first men in the redoubts, are commended for their presence of mind in turning the enemy's guns to bear upon them. They are respectfully recommended to His Excellency the Governor of New York for pro- motion." This recommendation, in the case of Lt. Gibbs, resulted in his receiving a brevet commission as Captain, "for gallant conduct at the attack ou Fort Harrison, Sept. 29, 1864," signed by Reuben E. Fenton, Governor. That is the kind of a commission which it is very gratifying to receive, and the native town of the recipient immediately took the honor to itself. When
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
the account of the taking of Fort Harrison came out in the newspapers, a number of our principal citizens started a subscription paper which bore the signatures of about twenty men, the first being that of the Hon. George W. Goff, then the owner of the Jacksonville property, who had a son in the service himself. A handsome silver-mounted revolver was purchased and presented to Captain Gibbs upon his return, as an ac- knowledgment from his fellowtownsmen of the distinc- tion which had been conferred upon Westport through him. He was theu twenty-two years of age.
The Westport men in Captain Livingston's company were :
Captain Nelson J. Gibbs. Son of Merrill and Abigail Gibbs. Married first, Theresa, daughter of Aaron Clark; second, Jennie, daughter of James Richards.
Lt. William H. Stevenson. Killed May 16. 1864. Son of Thomas Stevenson.
John Flinn. Killed in action; brother of Jerry and Michael Flinn.
Newton Merrill. Died at Gloucester Point. Va .; son of Noel Merrill.
George Wright. Died in U. S. hospital, St. Dennis, Md. : son of Elijah Wright.
William L. Frisbie. Died in hospital near Relay House, Md., Feb. 15, 1863, aged twenty. Son of Levi Frisbie, and grandson of Capt. Levi Frisbie.
Egbert Braman. Son of Jason. and grandson of Capt. Jesse Braman; afterward entered the ministry of the M. E. church.
John Ormiston. Died at Young's Mills, Va., May 1. 1862.
Henry Welch. Was brought home sick by his father, Eleazar Welch, and died upon the wharf at Westport im- mediately after landing from the steamboat.
William Ringer. Adolph James.
Lambert Cross. Alvin T. Burt.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Ralza Roberts, of Lewis. Afterward practiced medicine in Westport.
Hiram Lampman.
Joseph Hardy.
Henry Southard.
Conant Sawyer. Could not pass the medical examina- tion necessary to enlistment, for the reason that he was totally blind in our eye, as the result of an accident in boy- hood. Knowing this, he applied to Captain Livingston in person, and begged so bard to be allowed to go with the company that the captain took him. giving him the task of caring for his borse, and other duties about his person. One of his brothers had been already killed, and two oth. ers were in the service.
The Ninety-Sixth New York.
There were nine Westport men in this regiment at different times.
Sergeant Austin Braisted, Co. K. Son of Darius Braisted.
Sergeant Hiram Barnes. Re-enlisted in the 96th after having been discharged from the 77th on account of wounds received at Antietam, Captured, in Libby prison five weeks, in Salisbury stockade, six months.
Silas W. Flinn, son of Jerry Flinn. Died in Salis- bury stockade.
Leonidas Barnes. Brother of Hiram.
Fred Matthews,
John Tucker.
Zemmett Couchey.
Robert Tyler, Co. C.
Dr. Platt R. H. Sawyer was hospital steward in the 42nd N. Y., was promoted to assistant surgeon in the 142nd N. Y., and then full surgeon in the 96th N. Y.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Other Regiments.
There were two Westport men in Company F, 99th U. S. Infantry, Hosea Sayre, who died at Brandy Sta- tion, Va., April 28, 1864, and Ed. Sweatt. -
Other men in infantry regiments were :
Frank Whipple, corporal in Co. E, 12th N. Y.
Henry Bromley, 14th N. Y.
Walter Goff, son of George W. Goff, belonged to the 44th, or the "Ellsworth Avengers."
Robert Hooper, enlisted at Ogdensburgh in the 105th N. Y.
Ed. Ross, 121st N. Y.
Some of our men enlisted in other states. Daniel F. Payne enlisted in Burlington, Vt., Sept. 1861, in the 5th Vermont Volunteers; was wounded at Savage Sta- tion June 29, 1862, losing his right arm and receiving injuries in the head ; left behind in the retreat of Mc- Clellan, he was a prisoner in Richmond four weeks, was then exchanged and sent to the hospital in Philadel- phia : served to Sept. 1862.
Charles P. Sheldon, son of Platt R. Sheldon, enlisted from his home in Iowa. William Welch and Edwin Barnes also enlisted in Iowa. Peter Ringer went out from California, and was killed in the service. Zenas Clark went from Maine, Ed. Holcomb from New Hamp- shire, and Joseph Estey from Vermont. Edward .Os- borne was in the 17th Vermont Volunteers, which was the last regiment raised in Vermont. It was mustered in Oct. 17, 1864, fought at Petersburgh, pursued Lee's
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
army until its surrender, and was mustered out July 22, 1865.
Alvin Farr was in the 17th Michigan, and Lewis Potter in the 21st Wisconsin, the latter badly wounded in the battle of Lookout Mountain.
Samuel K. Dunster was hospital steward in the 24th Massachusetts.
Dr. William H. Richardson was a volunteer surgeon in the Army of the Potomac after the battles of the Wilderness in 1864. He was sent to the Assembly the same year.
Some names have been given me which I have been unable to assign to the proper regiment :
Augustus Avery, Silas Allen, Darwin Buck, Heury Counter, October Counter, John Decker, James Fee, William Harper, John McConley, Dan McConley, James McGray, Felix MeMannus, Lewis Raymond, Charles Shambo, Robert Slaughter, Richard Winter (belonged to a Zouave regiment), and Charles Young.
Benoni T. West is buried here, but probably enlisted from North Hudson.
Cavalry Regiments.
We had thirty-six men in the cavalry arm of the serv- ice, fourteeni belonging to the Second New York Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, a regiment which saw most of its service in the western campaigns.
Allen Talbot. Co. D.
Joseph Suun. Levi Harris.
Oscar Phinney, enlisted Sept., 1863, in Co. E.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Josiah Stratton, Co. E.
William Floyd, sou of Ransom,
Edward Harper. Edward Harper; Jr.
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Silas Frazier. Daniel James. John E. Gregory. Alexis Sarswoll. Robert Stevenson. Brother of Lieut. Stevenson of the 11Sth.
Carlyle H. Torrance, Co. L, served from Feb. 1864to Nov. 1865. He now has a son in the Philippine war.
Nine wero in the Eleventh New York Cavalry, o1 "Scott's Nine Hundred." This regiment went from Washington to New Orleans, and took part in the ope- ratious ou the Mississippi, then went eastward through Tennessee and made a junction with Sherman's army, after it had gone "Marching through Georgia."
James E. Patten, Co. C. Edwin Lawrence, Co. C. Leslie Smith, Co. C. Solomon Deyo, Co. I. Alexis Brothers, Co. I.
Cassius Joubert, Co. I. Died in Baton Rouge, La., Oct. 27, 1864, of typhoid fever, at the age of nineteen. Brother of Napoleon Joubert.
H. L. Degrotf.
Benjamin Albert Barrett, The marble-ontter at Wadhams who cut the name of John Brown upon the ancient tombstone at North Elba.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Oliver Dana Barrett, his brother, a graduate of the University of Vermont. Raised a battalion ju "Scott's Nine Hundred." Practiced law in Washing- tou from 1867 until his death in 1901, being the law partuer of Gen. B. F. Butler and executor of his estate.
We had seven men in the Second New York Cavalry. called the "Harris Light Brigade," named after Senator Tra Harris of Albany. This regiment belonged to the Army of the Potomac, and when the monument to its memory was erected on the field of Gettysburg, one of the speakers said of it : "The story of the marches, raids, skirmishes and fights of this regiment from the Potomac to the Rappahannock, from the Rappahan- nock to the Rapidan, from the Rapidan to Gettysburg back through the valley of Virginia to Appomattox, is best told by the traces of bullets upon its battle flags." Our men were :
Julius Blongy. Culbert Matthews. Lafayette Lasher. A. C. Constantine.
Charles Constantine, his son.
Elbert M. Johnson. Chauncey Hodgkins.
Five men joined Company H of the Fifth New York Cavalry. This company was raised in Crown Point by Captain John Hammond, afterward Colonel of the reg- iment and brevet Brigadier-General, in the summer of 1861. The company was mounted upon one hundred and eight horses, many of which were purchased in
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Westport. Col. Hammond himself rode a Westport horse. The regiment was organized with one thousand and sixty-four mounted men, and at the end of the war only seven of the original horses still remained.
The Fifth New York Cavalry had a brilliant career in Virginia and in the Shenandoah valley, where it was commanded by Gens. Wilson and Custer. There it fought in the line next the 77th New York Infantry. At Gettysburgh, upon July 3, it stood upon the extreme left, supporting Elder's Battery, and made a gallant charge at the base of Big Round Top. Its monument upon that battle-field bears a beautiful bas-relief of a cavalryman upon his horse, and the legend, "5th N. Y. Cavalry, 1st Brig. 3rd Div. Cavalry Corps." Watson says : "By an auspicious fortune the Fifth had fought at Hanover, Pa., the first battle on free soil ; it was the first Union regiment that crossed the Rapidan in Grant's campaign; it received the first shock at the battle of the Wilderness, and was the last to leave the field."
John G. Viall was appointed Second Lientenant of Company H in December of 1861, First Lieutenant in September of 1862, and Captain in April of 1864. His father, William Viall, and his grandfather, John Gree- ley, had both seen service in the war of 1812, and his great-grandfather, John Greeley, fought as a boy at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Other Westport men in Company H were Abram Sherman, De Witt Hooper, Thomas Ross and Andrew J. Daniels.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Napoleon Joubert belonged to the Fourth New York Cavalry.
William Sherman, brother of Abram, served upon the peninsula before Yorktown in the 16th Michigan Lancers.
Col. Francis L. Lee.
There is a book in the village library called "The Record of the Service of the Forty-fourth Massachu- setts Volunteer Militia in North Carolina, August 1862 to May 1863." It is dedicated "To the Memory of our Commander, Comrade and Friend, Colonel Francis L. Lee," stating the fact that Col. Lee died while the book was passing through the press. From these pages the following facts have been gathered.
Mr. Lee had been for years a member of the New England Guards, & military organization of Boston which was founded during the war of 1812, and which endured until September 1862, when it was merged into the Forty-fourth Massachusetts. When President Lin- colu issued the call for three hundred thousand troops for nine months, August 4, 1862, Mr. Lee was at home with his family at Stony Sides. When he read the news of the President's call in the papers, he started immedi- ately for Boston, which he reached on the evening of August 7, going at onee to the armory where the Fourth Battalion were assembled. As he entered, the men were signing the roll for the new regiment, in the midst of cheers and enthusiasm. Mr. Lee was then Major, but soon afterward received his commission as colonel of the regiment, aud on August 29 they went into comp
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