USA > New York > Delaware County > Delaware County, New York, history of the century, 1797-1897, centennial celebration, June 9 and 10, 1897 > Part 6
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IX. The Civil War.
1861 1865.
A A PERIOD of trial through which Delaware county had to pass was the war of 1861-5, which was fought for the preserva- tion of the Union .* The sentiment of the county was thoroughly stirred in reference to this war, and troops were contributed far in excess of the average for the whole State. It is unnecessary to explain here the canses of this bloody war. It is enough to state that the spirit of the North was unanimously enlisted in behalf of the government at Washington. We shall only enumerate the several bodies of troops which from time to time left the county to join the armies of the Nation in their effort to put down the rebellion.
1. The first body to leave the county was Company I of the 71st regiment. This company left Delhi June 4, 1861, under the com- mand of Robert T. Johnson as captain. Their movement to the front was a continuous ovation. At first they moved to Camp Scott on Staten Island, where they were attached to the Excelsior Bri- gade (Sickles Brigade) as Company I of the Third Regiment. From this point they were transferred to a point near Washington where they were on picket duty during the winter. In the spring of 1862 they were attached to the Army of the Potomac, and from that time were engaged in many battles, viz: Seven Pines, Peach Orchard. Glen Dale, Malvern Hills, Bristow Station, Second Bull
* For the facts collected in this chapter concerning the Delaware county troops in the Civil war I gratefully acknowledge my obligations to the History of Delaware County, 1850. The fullness and particularity with which the eir- "umstances are stated are worthy of all praise.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, and Peters- burg. No wonder that they were much cut up, and when after their volunteered service of three years they were discharged in August, 1864, but few of the original company returned to the county. The commander of this company, Captain Johnson was promoted to the rank of Major in the 144th regiment of N. Y. Volunteers, and though he was wounded, yet he still lives in honor of Delaware county's first contribution to the war. This company had at various times during its term of service a roster of twenty- one officers and eighty-three men.
2. The second organized body of Delaware county troops was a company which was raised in Colchester in May, 1861, by Captain William H. Elwood and Elbridge G. Radeker, who personally sus- tained the preliminary expense of the organization. As the body was not large enough to constitute a full company, it was con- solidated with a similar company from Cattaraugus county, and assigned to the 71st N. Y. Volunteers. They too experienced much bloody fighting under General Hooker. They were engaged in the following battles: Stafford Court House, Siege of Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Charles City Cross Roads, Malvern Hills, Bristow Station, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wapping Hills, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. They served the full time of their enlistment, viz., three years, and were discharged in the spring of 1864. The portion of the company from Delaware county numbered thirteen offeers and fifty-four privates.
3. As a third contribution Delaware county sent a company of cavalry, denominated in the war records as Company E of the 3rd N. Y. Cavalry. Fifty-five men were enlisted at Delhi and detach- ments were added at Walton and Hancock, so that the company numbered about one hundred men when it rendezvoused at Elmira in August, 1861. They were taken to the neighborhood of Wash- ington and there subjected to the rigors of a winter's training. They formed a part of Major Mix's batallion, and were with
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THE CIVIL WAR ING-1865.
Burnside in his campaign in North Carolina in 1862 and 1863. From this they were recalled to the neighborhood of Richmond, but again were sent back to North Carolina. They saw an immense amount of service, having been in thirty-five engagements. Their captain was Ferris Jacobs, jr., of Delhi, who in 1863 was promoted to Major, in 1861 to Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1865 to Brigadier General, with which rank he was mustered out at the close of the war. The company carried on its rolls living and dead thirty-one officers and one hundred and fifty-three privates.
4. The Ellsworth regiment was recruited from various localities throughout the State. Delaware county furnished a very consid- erable number, who were among the very best of this superb regiment. It was organized at Albany in the summer of 1861, under the military designation of the 44th N. Y. Volunteers. When it started to the front in October, 1861, it numbered 1,061 men. For a time the regiment was employed upon picket duty; but in time it had its full share of fighting. In 1862 it was engaged in the Second Bull Run. being almost annihilated in this bloody battle. It bore its part in other engagements as follows: Hanover Court House, Gaines' Mills, Turkey Bend, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Shep- ardston Ford, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Middleburg, Get- tysburg, Spottsylvania Court House. North Anna, Bethesda Church, Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. It was mustered out after the three years' term of service for which it had volunteered. Ouly fourteen officers and 160 privates returned to Albany, where they were welcomed home by Governor Seymour. All the rest including their gallant Colonel Rice were left on Southern battle fields.
5. The next contribution to be mentioned is the 8th N. Y. Independent Battery. It was organize l at Newburg, October, 1861. the enlistment being for three years. Most of the men, but not all, were from Delaware county. The captain was Butler Fitch a Delaware county man. On its roster, including of course promo- tous and re-enlistments, were sixty-four officers and 102 privates, and thirty-two recruits and re-enlistments.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
6. The 51st N. Y. Volunteers was formed by the consolidation of the Shepard Rifles (so called from Colonel Elliot F. Shepard), the Scott Rifles and the Union Rifles. They were organized as one regiment at New York in October, 1861, and set out for the front under the command of Colonel Ferrero numbering 850 men. They were placed in the brigade of General Reno, and went through the trying campaign of General Burnside in North Carolina. The following battles among others they shared in: Slaughter Mountain, Rappahannock Station, Warren Station, Manassas, Chantilly, Fred- erick City, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Antietam, Banks' Ford, Vicksburg, Jackson, Blue Spring, Campbell Station, Knoxville, and Grant's Campaign against Richmond and Petersburg. The career of the regiment may in brief be stated as extending from Roanoake Island in 1862 to the surrender of Lee at Appomattox.
7. Company 1 of the 89th Infantry N. Y. Volunteers was originally mostly from Delaware county. It was raised in Delhi by Captain Theophilus L. England and First Lieutenant Robert P. Cormack. The company numbered eighty-two enlisted men. The remaining companies were mostly enlisted in the counties of central New York, and the regiment was organized at Elmira under Harri- sou F. Fairchild as colonel. Like many others of the Delaware county troops the 89th were called to participate in Burnside's North Carolina campaign. They shared in the following battles: Roanoake Island, Camden, South Mills, Newbern, South Mountain. Antietam (where ont of 500 men engaged 200 were lost), Fred- ericksburg, Charleston, Fort Wagner, Fort Gregg. Under General " Baldy" Smith they were a part of the Army of the Potomac. They were present at Appomattox when General Lee surrendered in April, 1865. In all they were engaged in twenty-three battles. When they were mustered in in 1861 they numbered 980 men; and when they finished and returned home there were only 225 left.
8. The 101st N. Y. Volunteers was made up by combining two skeleton regiments, one raised in Delaware county and the other raised in Onondaga county. The consolidated regiment was sent to
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THE CIVIL WAR -IMING.
- the Army of the Potomac where it was so reduced by the casualties of war that it was consolidated with the 37th N. Y. Volunteers, taking the latter designation. After the terrible battle of Chancel- lorsville it was necessary again to consolidate the 37th with the 40th N. Y. Volunteers under the latter name. It was at last mus- tered out at the end of the war in JJuly, 1865. It had participated in the following battles: Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, Seven Days' Retreat, Malvern Hill, Gainesville, Second Bull Run, Frederick, Md., Antietam. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Ma- uassas Gap, Brandy Station, Rapidan, Culpepper, Kelly's Ford. Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Roam's Station, Petersburg and Appomattox. Of the troops fur- nished by Delaware county in this consolidated and re-consolidated regiment there were of officers forty-one, and of privates 232.
9. The most complete organization which Delaware county furnished to the war was the 144th regiment N. Y. Volunteers. It was raised in the summer of 1862 when President Lincoln called for 300,000 more men to put down the rebellion. The utmost enthusiasm prevailed. Meetings were held everywhere throughout the county. Within twenty days from the time of the first move- ments the regiment was ready to be mustered in. It was moved at once to Washington in order to aid in the defence of the Capitol, and at the same time to be trained and disciplined into a hardy body of soldiers. In April, 1863, they were moved to Suffolk in Virginia which General Longstreet was then besieging. From there they were moved to West Point in Virginia. In July, 1863, they were ordered to the Army of the Potomac; but in August they were sent to South Carolina where they were present at the bom- bardment of Charleston and Sumter. In February, 1864, they were sent to Florida. Then later in the year they were employed in co- operating with General Sherman in his great march through the centre of the Confederacy. They were not engaged in as much or as severe fighting as some of the other bodies of troops from Delaware county. But they were present at a most important
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
period of the war, and when it came to an end in the spring of 1865, they were still an active and intrepid body of troops. They were mustered out of the service in July, 1865. The flags which had been given to them at Delhi when they left, they brought back with them when they returned. They were torn and shot through, and stained with blood, and worn with wind and rain. But they were precious relies of their campaigns and now are treasured with other mementos of the war in the capitol at Albany.
We close the account of the services of this regiment by some statistics of the organization:
The following were the Colonels from the beginning to the end of its service: Robert S. Hughston. David E. Gregory, William J. Slidell, James Lewis.
Lieutenant Colonels : David E. Gregory, James Lewis, Calvin A. Rice.
Majors: Robert T. Johnson, Calvin A. Rice, William Plaskett.
Adjutants: Marshall Shaw, Charles C. Siver, George R. Cannon.
Quarter-Masters : James H. Wright, Samuel Gordon. jr., Spencer S. Gregory.
Surgeon : John R. Leal.
Chaplains: Alexander H. Fullerton. David Torrey.
There were also the following numbers of other commissioned officers, and of privates in the several companies:
Captains .
22
First Lieutenants. 33
Second Lientenants 38
Company A
135
Company F 139
Company B
150
Company G 133
. Company C
134
Company H . 145
Company D
145 Company I.
144
Company E.
151
Company K 128
Total Field officers, Commissioned officers and Privates. 1,516.
-
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THE CIVIL WAR 'S61-1865.
Besides the above martial organizations which were contributed by Delaware county to the Civil war, there were many volunteers who joined regiments or companies which were raised in neighbor- ing localities. Thus there were enlistments carried on along the Susquehanna river, and not a few of the boys from Delaware county were gathered into these centres. It is impossible to give the credit which is due for these patriotic contributions. But it may be affirmed without hesitation that no part of the State responded with more readiness and enthusiasm to the calls of the nation than Delaware county. For the sacrifices both in men and money which were made for the preservation of the unity of the country, the citizens of this generation may be justly proud of the patriotism of the past generation.
X. Early Industries.
A S the county was developed by the labor of these industrious and intelligent pioneers the whole face of a neighborhood became transformed. The forest was crowded back and in its place appeared smiling fields of wheat and rye, corn and buckwheat, hay and potatoes. Apple orchards, plum trees, and currant bushes appeared on every farm. The log-house and barn gave place to frame buildings; horses displaced oxen in many of the services of the farm and the family. Roads were laid out and maintained throughout the county. Mills* for grinding grain, which at first were few and distant, were erected at convenient places on streams which furnished water power. When these mills were woll nigh inaccessible the pioneers had recourse to home made wooden mor- tars, which were dug out of a green stump large enough to hold a peck of grain. Over this was bent a tough sapling to which was tied a heavy wooden pestle. With this rough apparatus the farmer could break the husks from the grain, and even crush the kernels into a kind of rude meal.
Saw-mills were early introduced at many suitable mill-sites. These were generally erected near pine or hemlock forests, and lumber was cut by them for the new frame houses and barns which everywhere began to be erected.
For many years lumbering was one of the great industries of Delaware county. At many places both on the East and West
* The first settlers in Harpersfield were compelled to go to Schoharie with their grain; those who settled in Middletown went to Kingston; and the Johnstons at Sidney ascended the Susquehanna and found mills at Cherry Valley.
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EARLY INDUSTRIES.
branches of the Delaware river great rafting stations were main- tained. The lumber was eut in the winter, and either prepared for rafting unsawed, or it was sawed into boards and joists and seant- ling. In the spring this lumber was built into rafts in a protected eddy of the river. Then the lumbermen taking advantage of the usual freshets of the spring started their rafts on the river. It was no easy task, and not wholly without danger, to steer the raft through the rough and sinnous current and past the sharp head- lands and rocks. When the narrow part of the stream had been passed, usually below the junction of the two branches of the Delaware, the smaller rafts were joined together, four of the former making one large raft. In this fashion the raft was run down the whole length of the river to the great lumber market of Philadel- phia. It is only necessary to add here that the lumber of Delaware county has long since been exhausted and instead of the supply being sent out in rafts by the rivers, it has now become necessary to bring it in by the car load on the railroads.
There were a number of minor industries which for a time were prevalent in the county, but which have gradually passed away and are no longer of consequence. 1. As long as hemlock timber lasted the tanning of leather continued. In many localities this was an important business, and in some has continued until very recent times. But the hemlock forests have now been completely demol- ished, and tanning has ceased to be of consequence in reckoning the available resources of the county. 2. When the forests were being cleared up, and when wood was the only kind of fuel immense quantities of wood ashes were produced on the farms. These were used in many and various ways. Soft soap for use in all farm purposes, was made by lecching wood ashes and producing a lye. This when combined with animal fat produced the well known soft soup, which farmers in carly times almost universally employed. The wood ashes also were sold by the bushel to establishments where they were reduced to merchantable potash and pearlash, which were largely used in the arts.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
The making of maple-sugar was from the earliest settlement of the county a prominent occupation. Even before the Harpers came to live in Harpersfield they had come thither in the spring of 1772 to obtain this crop. The town was so well supplied with maple trees that for a long time it bore the name of "the Bush" or the "Sugar Bush." Sugar was made in the spring of the year at the time when sap of the maple begins to ascend from the roots to the buds. The tree that is used for sugar-making is called the sugar maple (Acer saccharinum) which abounds in the northern part of the United States and Canada. An incision was made in the trunk of the tree two or three feet from the ground. To catch the sap which flowed from this incision a spile was inserted in the tree just below it; and from this spile the sap fell drop by drop into buckets or sap-troughs. It was gathered from these receptacles into a hogshead, from which it was fed to evaporating pans. Then when reduced to the consistency of thin molasses it was transferred to a pot where it was still further reduced to a consistency which would when it was poured into monlds cause it to harden into cakes.
This maple-sugar was ahost the only kind of sugar used among the pioneers, and is still manufactured in every part of the county where maple trees are to be found.
It soon became apparent that butter making was the industry best adapted to Delaware county. In general the soil was too stony and intraetable for the raising of grain. Wheat was almost aban- doned as soon as facilities for importing wheat flour became availa- ble. Rye continued to be raised, but usually not in quantities much more than sufficient to supply the wants of the farmer's family. Oats were needed both for man aud beast, and even the rough soil and the short season were no impediment to the raising of good crops. Buckwheat and Indian corn and potatoes were also crops which were raised readily and freely, but farmers generally contented themselves with crops sufficient for home consumption. The main business of the farmer and his family was to make butter,
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EARLY INDUSTRIES.
which always could be sold either in bulk or in small quantities for cash.
The great question in reference to every farm was; how many cows will it keep. This depended on two things, first the amount of pasture land which furnished food for the cows in summer, and second the amount of meadow land which furnished hay for the cows in winter. Grass and hay,-these were the staple articles of food for the cows. There were, however, other foods which were sometimes used to supplement these. In the autumn when the grass was beginning to fail sliced potatoes and sliced turnips were fed to the milch cows. And in the spring when the cows had grown tired of hay, and the pasture was not yet ready for them, they were often fed with a mash of bran or crushed grain in addition to the hay which was their main diet.
Butter making was essentially the same in the early periods of the county as it is now. The cows,* however, were much inferior as milk-givers to the present breeds, and the milk was much less rich in butter. The cows were usually the native cattle which had spread from New England, and were the miscellaneous crosses between cattle imported from Holland, Denmark, England and Scotland. They were small and generally active in climbing the hillsides of Delaware county farms. The average daily milking was from six to ten quarts. From this it was enstomary to make during the season at the very best about 100 pounds of butter. When these figures are compared with the dairy records of the present day they seem trivial. Now a good Jersey cow yields fifteen to twenty quarts of much richer milk, which if used for butter making will produce something like 250 to 300 pounds during the season.
The milk was poured into tin pans and these set in a cool dairy house until the cream had risen. Then the cream was skimmed
* Professor E. B. Voorhees, director of the New Jersey Experiment Station who has given facts here mentioned, says the dairy cow of the Middle States was undoubtedly a descendant of the early importations from Holland 1625, from Denmark 1627, and from the West Indies into Virginia as early as 1609.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
from the pans and put into the churn, where it was agitated with a dasher until the butter "came." Churning was a tiresome task when done by hand; but this was almost the unvarying custom in the earliest times. Later, wheels were constructed to do the churn- ing, which were sometimes turned by a dog or a sheep and sometimes by the water of some convenient stream. The butter when taken from the churn had to be worked in a large wooden bowl with a wooden ladle in order to squeeze from it the milk which might cling to it. Then it was salted with fine salt and packed into the firkins or tubs in which it was carried to market. Nearly all this heavy work, -and it was heavy-was done by the women of the pioneer families; and by this means they bore their full share in the labor of maintaining the families and producing the means by which progress and prosperity were gradually spread throughout the new settlements.
The butter, as we have said, was packed in firkins holding from eighty to one hundred pounds; or sometimes in tubs made by saw- ing a firkin into two parts. A farmer kept these packages in his cellar until the cool weather of the autumn arrived. Then he loaded all his firkins into a lumber wagon, covering them carefully from the sun and the dust, and carried them to some place on the Hudson river, whence it could be taken to New York. At these places-Catskill or Kingston generally-there were butter buyers or commission merchants who were ready either to purchase the dairies for cash, or to take them to New York on commission. At a period a little later there sprang up a class of men in various cen- tral localities throughout the county who undertook to purchase their butter from the farmers at home, and thus spare them the long journey which they had been obliged to take. Still later and within a comparatively recent time, there have appeared creameries at many points, to which the farmers now carry their milk. These establishments treat the milk, the cream and the butter in the most approved methods, and have done much to raise the dairying industry of Delaware county to its present high character.
XI. Roads and Railroads.
D ELAWARE county is a completely inland county; no ocean or navigable river touches it on any side. More than this, it has a rough and mountainous surface, over which it is impossible to build far-reaching roads, or railroads of commercial value. Access to the county was in three principal directions: 1st, through the Shandaken mountains from Kingston into Middletown and the valley of the East branch; 2d, by the head-waters of the West branch through Schoharie and Greene county from Catskill; 3d, up the valley of the Delaware as it winds through the mountains, and then up either branch into the various valleys of the county. As fast as the county became settled of course roads were opened and settlements connected. At first these roads were little more than trails such as the Indians followed in going from place to place on their hunting excursions. But the new settlers brought wagons and horses with them, and these required wider roads, the trees to be ent down and the roots and rocks to be grubbed out, and bridges to be built over intervening streams. It is just to say that the roads in this county were never good. Along the principal streams the roads were ent through the soft alluvial soil, and were dusty in summer, muddy in spring and autumn, and only good in winter when they were covered with snow. The roads up the smaller valleys and over the hills were invariably rough and stony, every shower washing away the earth and leaving the stones more and more exposed.
The care of the roads was in the hands of a so-called path- master, who was elected to this office by the inhabitants of the road district. Each citizen was assessed for a certain sum proportionate
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
to the size of his farm. He was permitted, however, to work out his assessment upon the roads, either in hand labor or with a team and driver. As this was almost invariably his choice, the work was not always the best adapted to the wants of the highway. The pathmaster was generally ignorant of the best method in which to treat his district, and in consequence the repairs were very often mere waste labor which left the roads in a worse condition than they were in before. If the assessment had always been collected in money and that spent judiciously, the condition of the roads would have been much better, and the worry and annoyance would have been much less.
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