USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 28
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134
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
of June 18, 1873, the same counties were consti- tuted the Twenty-seventh District, and still retain that relation.
Livingston county has not been represented in the United States Senate ; and had only one Rep- resentative prior to its organization. That was Samuel M. Hopkins, from the Twenty-first District, in 1813-'15. Micah Brooks, who subsequently lived and died in this county, was, indeed, while residing in Ontario county, a Representative in the succeeding Congress-1815-'17-but resigned the first session. The Representatives from this county since its organization have been :- Elijah Spencer, 1821-'3 ; Moses Hayden, of York, 1823-'27 ; Philo C. Fuller, of Geneseo, 1833-'36 ;* John Young, of Geneseo, 1836-'37, 1841-'43 ; Charles H. Carroll, of Groveland Center, 1843-'47 ; Jerediah Hors- ford, of Moscow, 1851-'53; George Hastings, of Mt. Morris, 1853-'55; William H. Kelsey, of Geneseo, 1855-'59, 1867-'71.
CHAPTER XIV.
WAR OF THE REBELLION-ITS UNDERLYING CAUSE -SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA-FOLLOWED BY OTHER STATES -FIRST MEASURES TO REPRESS REBELLION-READY RESPONSE OF THE NORTH-ADDITIONAL TROOPS CALLED FOR- PROMPT AND GENEROUS RESPONSE OF LIVING- STON COUNTY - THIRTEENTH REGIMENT - TWENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT - THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT-REGIMENTAL CAMP AT GENESEO - ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH REGIMENT, OR WADSWORTH GUARDS - CALLS OF JULY 2, 1862, AND AUGUST 4, 1862-MILITARY DIS- TRICTS FORMED-THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH REGIMENT, OR FIRST NEW YORK DRAGOONS-ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT - THE DRAFT - QUOTAS UNDER VARIOUS CALLS-SUBSEQUENT CALLS-COUNTY BOUNTY-ENORMOUS LOCAL BOUNTIES-STATE BOUNTY-LOCAL BOUNTIES ABROGATED-CON- TRIBUTIONS TO THE SUPPORT OF THE INDIGENT FAMILIES OF VOLUNTEERS-QUOTAS UNDER LAST THREE CALLS.
"THE war of the rebellion covers a period in the history of Livingston county to which the de- scendants of those who participated in it may re- cur with just pride. The causes which led to this sanguinary interneciary struggle date back to the
dawn of civilization on this continent. Coloniza- tion in New England and Virginia commenced with radical social distinctions, which engendered different habits, thoughts, aspirations and interests, and eventuated through the operation of climatic influence and diverse occupations in bitter section- alism. Variances which were at first regarded with zealous apprehension ripened into direct antag- onism, determined opposition and finally intense hatred. One was the champion of the broad catholic spirit of liberalism and progress ; the other was firmly wed to a debasing and enervating conservatism, on which it sought to build a slave- holding and slave-perpetuating aristocracy. Amity and fraternity cannot subsist between communities thus constituted ; and an open rupture could not be averted. It was only delayed by meeting the demands of the one with the concessions of the other. When further concession could not con- sistently be made, rupture was inevitable, and the issue thus delayed was the more bitterly contested when it came.
The South, for obvious reasons, construed the Federal government to be a mere confederation of sovereign states, in contradistinction from a sovereign nation composed of subordinate states. This doctrine as expounded in the writings and speeches of Calhoun and subsequently of those of Stephens, its two great champions, implies not only the right of nullification, but also of secession. Whatever may be the just claims of this theory as an abstract proposition it is clearly inconsistent with the spirit which actuated the founders of our constitution, incompatible with the aspiration of the great free North, and not permissible when, as in this case, associated with the perpetuation of an evil so repugnant as that of human slavery.
The struggle which culminated in the admission of Kansas into the Union as a free state, con- firmed a conviction which had long been matur- ing, that the territorial extension of slavery in this country had reached its limit under the provisions of the constitution, and marks the period when covert assaults gave place to the open and avowed purpose to disrupt the Union. As in 1832 an ob- jectionable protective tariff was made to justify nullification, so now the premonition that her peculiar institution was doomed, was made by the South to justify secession, South Carolina, in both cases, taking the initiative.
On the election of Mr. Lincoln, the nominee of the Republican or anti-slavery party, to the presi- dency in 1860, it was evident that further delay was
* Resigned September 2, 1836,
135
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
useless, and the leaders in secession labored assid- uously to create a sentiment in the South favorable to its immediate consummation. Dec. 17, 1860, the people of South Carolina met in convention at Columbia, and adjourned thence by reason of the prevalence of small-pox to Charleston, where they repealed the Act of May 23, 1788, ratifying the Federal constitution and the amendments thereto, and declared "that the union now subsisting be- tween South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." An address to the people of the other slave-holding states was issued, inviting them to join in "a great slave-holding Confederacy," and reciting that "we must be the most independent, as we are the most important of the nations of the world." This action was followed in a few days by Georgia, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. "The Border States, foreseeing inev- itable war, and that the shock of the conflict would fall upon them, temporized. After all that had been done to pledge them to the movement, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, though a reign of terror, political and social, was inaugurated in them, either took the step with great reluctance, or avoided taking it at all."* Preeminent among these, and indeed among the states composing the Confederacy, was Virginia, which did not pass the ordi- nance of secession until April 17, 1861, and then only after exacting the foremost rank in the Confederacy and protection for her slave interests. Even then she did not carry the whole state with her; for the western portion maintained their de- termination to adhere to the Union, and was after- wards recognized as a separate state. Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee also passed ordi- nances of secession.
February 4, 1861, the delegates of six of the seceding states (South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and Florida,) met in conven- tion at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a pro- visional government, denominated "The Confed- erate States of America," founded, as affirmed in the inaugural address of its president, on the prin- ciple of the inequality of men, and with human slavery as its corner stone. Jefferson Davis was elected President and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President. They were soon after elected permanently for six years. The permanent consti- tution was modeled substantially from that of the United States. The following summer the seat of
government was removed to Richmond and their Congress opened its first session in that city, July 20, 1861, the day previous to the battle of Bull Run.
The people of the South, deluded with the as- sumption of their vast superiority over those of the North, did not believe that the latter would offer any great resistance to secession, much less attempt to coerce them ; and the people of the North were equally deceived as to the real intent of the former, believing that secession was not meditated then, but only employed as a means to extort further con- cessions. Not, however, that they failed to per- ceive the ultimate issue of the threatening antago- nism of the times, but that it was hoped-believed, that an amicable adjustment would be reached.
Wm. H. Seward, in referring to this subject in 1858, said : "Shall I tell you what this conflict means ? They who think it accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces." Notwithstanding, the South did not fail to make extensive preparation for a forced separation. In this they were aided by their long- continued control of the Federalgovernment, both in its executive and legislative branches. When war became inevitable, and the North found it nec- essary to prepare for it, the Federal treasury was de- pleted ; the army-a large portion of it-was sta- tioned in the distant State of Texas, where it was surrendered with all its equipments to the Confed- erates ; the navy was dispersed to distant foreign stations, so that when the war broke out there was only one war vessel on the whole northern coast, and not a gun on the Mississippi and its great sys- tem of waters; the material of war was distributed throughout various places in the South, where, as was contemplated, it was seized, together with mints, arsenals and fortifications, by the authorities of the seceded States, and appropriated to the uses of the Confederates. Many of the officers both in the army and navy treacherously deserted to the Confederacy ; as likewise did the legislators of the seceded States, not, however, until they had done their utmost to embarrass the Federal authorities, and to procure legislation to the detriment of the Union and in the interest of their confederates, so that when the North awoke to the realities of war, they found their enemy abundantly supplied with the materials of war, and with an army already in a well-advanced state of discipline ; while they, though seriously crippled to furnish these, were ut-
* Draper's History of the American Civil War 1., 517,
136
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
terly destitute of both. Their efforts to supply these, as well as their early military movements, were long embarrassed by spies in the persons of government employees and the host of secession sympathizers who abode in Washington.
The delay of Virginia saved to the Union the stronghold of Fortress Monroe, the most important of our southern coast defenses.
During the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson, who was then in command of the insignificant government forces in Charleston, and stationed in Fort Moultrie, one of the weaker works in that harbor, after repeated entreaties for aid from the authorities at Washington, removed his force to Fort Sumter, which is built on an arti- ficial island, made of stone chips from the quarries of New England, and had cost the government a million of dollars. This act Major Anderson be- lieved to be warranted by his instructions from the President, which were to the effect that while he " must carefully avoid every act which might need- lessly provoke collision, if attacked, he must defend himself to the last extremity." He was also au- thorized, if attacked, or if he had tangible evidence of a design of that kind, to put his command into either of the forts he might think best. It never- theless greatly surprised the President, who had " carefully abstained from increasing the force in that harbor, or taking any measures which might add to the public excitement there," and filled the impetuous South Carolinans with indignation and rage. The latter immediately took possession of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie, the guns of which had been spiked and carriages burned by Anderson before leaving it, and hoisted over these and the government buiklings in that city the pal- metto flag. They also forcibly seized the government arsenal in Charleston, which through the careful providence of the traitor, Floyd, while Secretary of War, was well-supplied with the material of war, the munitions contained therein being estimated to be worth a half million of dollars.
An attempt was made to reënforce and provis- ion Fort Sumter, and on the 5th of January, the unarmed steamer Star of the West left New York for that purpose. The Confederate authorities at Charleston were apprised of her departure, (which it was designed should be kept secret,) by Mr. Thompson, of Mississippi, who was then Secretary of the Interior, and present at the Cabinet meet- ing which made provision therefor. She was fired upon from a battery on Morris Island and struck, and an attempt was made to cut her off by two
steamers and a schooner. She returned to New York without having accomplished her object.
South Carolina, immediately after passing the ordinance of secession, sent commissioners to Pres- ident Buchanan to negotiate for the transfer of the public property within her borders and establish amicable relations with the Government in her sovereign capacity. Compliance was, of course, promptly declined. So, likewise, were similar pro- positions made to President Lincoln, March 12, 1861, by representatives of the Confederate gov- ernment.
Failing in this, South Carolina immediately com- menced a systematic organization of her troops and the construction of works for the reduction of Fort Sumter, which she continued for several months unmolested. By April, fourteen batteries with thirty heavy guns and seventeen mortars were completed ready for this object, and on the roth of that month, Gen. Beauregard, who was placed in command of Charleston, was instructed to de- mand the immediate surrender of the Fort, and on refusal, to reduce it. He made the demand the fol- lowing day, and compliance being declined, he commenced the bombardment on the morning of the 12th. Fort Sumter made no reply for nearly three hours. The first shot in defense of the Union was fired at 7 o'clock, A. M., of that day, by Capt. Abner Doubleday. The Fort was sur- rendered on the 13th, and on the 14th, Anderson, without the loss of a man, marched out with his command, consisting of thirty-five artillerists, nine officers, thirty laborers, and fifteen musicians, and left on the steamer Isabel for New York. The ex- ample thus set by South Carolina was quickly fol- lowed by the other seceding States, until they had possessed themselves of nearly every one of the southern coast defenses.
The firing upon Sumter put an end to the hope which largely prevailed in the North that the dif- ferences between it and the South could be ad- justed by peaceful arbitration. The Administra- tion, which had studiously abstained from any act which might prejudice an amicable settlement-a means which the South, though fully determined to apply force if necessary, would gladly have ac- cepted-were now convinced that the application of force was necessary. It was a relief to many who were clamorous that secession should be op- posed as promptly and vigorously as was nullifica- tion, and who chafed under the diplomatic restraints with which the Administration surrounded itself in the hope of promoting a peaceful solution of the
137
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
difficulties. The London Times, which represent- ed, and in no small measure manufactured, public opinion, not only in Great Britain but also through- out Europe, in referring to this period, ungenerous- ly or unwittingly said :-
"The secession of South Carolina is to them what the secession of Lancashire would be to us ; it is treason and should be put down. But the North is full of sophists, rhetoricians, logicians and lawyers ; it has not a man of action. Mr. Seward can tell us what will not save the Union, but not what will. He looks upon secession as ideal and impossible. While he is dreaming the Confede- racy is strengthening. The Union seems to be destined to fall without a struggle, without a lament, without an epitaph. Each individual State finds numberless citizens ready to lay down their lives for its preservation ; but for the Union, the mighty firmament in which those stars are set, and which, though dark itself, lends them their peculiar lustre, nothing is done."
But how different is this from the real picture ! On the 15th of April, two days after the fall of Sumter, President Lincoln called on the several States for 75,000 men to suppress the uprising, which was then regarded, even by those in the best position to judge, as little more than an evanes- cent emcute. The proclamation also called an ex- tra session of Congress to be convened on the 4tlı of July. On the 19th of April he established a blockade of the forts of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tex- as; and on the 27th of that month extended it to those of Virginia and North Carolina.
The people were ready and promptly responded to the call of the President. Had the prescience of the governmental authorities been equal to the readiness and willingness of the common people, in all probability we should have been spared much of the bitter fruitage which early lassitude com- pelled us to reap. "To an eye-witness," says Draper, in referring to the response of the North, " there was something very impressive in the action of the people. A foreign observer remarked, ' With them all is sacrifice, devotion, grandeur and purity of purpose-with the poor, if possible, even more than the rich.' In the large cities great meetings were held, in which men of all parties united. Party lines vanished. There was none of that frantic delirium which was manifested in the Slave States, but a solemn acceptance of what was clearly recognized to be a fearful but unavoidable duty-'Faint not, falter not; the republic is in peril'"* The Livingston Union, of Mt. Morris, in referring to secession, in an editorial under date of
March 20, 1861, says :- " * * * it can no longer be treated as a brief malady whose virulence will subside under the influence of careful nursing and soothing mixtures. Its cure, if possible at all, will require the greatest wisdom-the most self- sacrificing patriotism." Such it proved.
On the day after the proclamation was issued some Pennsylvania companies reported for duty in Washington, just in time to frustrate a plot for the seizure of that city .* Within four days Massachu- setts had despatched four regiments, and in less than a week her whole quota was far in advance towards Washington. The passage of the Sixth Massachusetts through Baltimore on the 19th of April was resisted by an infuriated mob, which assailed it with guns and revolvers, and with bricks, stones and pieces of iron thrown from the upper windows of the houses. The regiment sus- tained a loss of three killed and eight wounded, and killed eleven and wounded four of the assail- ants. Maryland and others of the border slave states endeavored to observe an "armed neutrality" between the North and South-a means by which they hoped to secure immunity from attack them- selves, while they would be able to aid the South by prohibiting the passage of Northern troops through their borders, and by giving her direct material succor under this guise.
New York, instead of filling the requisition on her for seventeen regiments-between 13,000 and 14,000 men-for three months, for which the 75,000 were called, raised 30,000 men for two years and added a war loan of $3,000,000. Many other states acted in like manner ; Rhode Island not only instantly sent her quota and added a loan, but her governor, Sprague, went at the head of her troops. Within fifteen days 350,000 men had offered their services.
The South, by years of anticipation and covert preparation, were in a better state of readiness than the North, and were thus able to precipitate events with astounding rapidity. The conviction of the extent of that preparation, the magnitude of the struggle, and the means necessary to oppose it, forced itself only gradually on the minds of the authorities at Washington, who repressed rather than stimulated a popular uprising.
It soon became evident that the time of the 75,000 three months' men would expire before they could be fully armed and equipped. On the 3d of May, 1861, a call was issued for 42,034 vol- unteers for three years, and provision made to in-
* Ibid 11, 72.
* Draper's History of the American Civil War, 11., 79.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
crease the regular army by 22,714 men and the navy by 18,000 men, for five years. On the Ist of July two hundred and eighty regiments had been accepted. Congress met July 4th and July 22, 1861, voted $500,000,000 and 400,000 more men, of which New York's quota was 25,000 men, who were called for on the 25th of July, four days after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, which was fought on Sunday, July 21, 1861, mostly with three months' men, whose time was then expiring. July 29th the addition of 25,000 men to the regular army was authorized.
Livingston county's contributions to the quotas under these early calls were both prompt and gen- erous. Public meetings were held in various parts of the county and eloquently addressed by able speakers. Each village and hamlet became the center of an organized effort in this interest, and as these measures were mostly prosecuted by the several towns in their independent capacities, they will be noticed more in detail in connection with the several towns. Six hundred volunteers were raised in the county for the first thirty-eight two- years' regiments. In Dansville, seventy-seven men were recruited by Captain Carl Stephan, and be- came Co. B of the 13th regiment ; for which a second company (G) was raised there by Captain Ralph T. Wood in the summer and fall of 1861. During the winter a third company was raised for this regiment in Dansville and Rochester, by Job C. Hedges and Albert S. Lema, of Dansville, and Lt. C. S. Benjamin, of Co. A in that regiment, who opened an office in Rochester. Enough men for another company were raised in Avon, Lima, Li- vonia, Geneseo and Caledonia, and were distributed through that regiment. Captain James Perkins recruited eighty-five men in Lima, and Captain Charles E. Martin, eighty-eight men in Mt. Mor- ris, for the 27th regiment, the former becoming Co. G and the latter Co. H. Captain Wilson B. War- ford recruited seventy-four men in Geneseo, and Captain James M. McNair, seventy-seven in Nunda, for the 33d regiment, the former becoming Co. E and the latter Co. F. Both these towns subse- quently sent forward recruits to fill the depleted ranks of their companies. A large number of young men of this county enlisted in various cavalry and artillery regiments-the 19th, 22d and 24th cavalry and 14th artillery.
The 13th Regiment was raised in Rochester, by Col. Isaac F. Quimby, and in April, 1861, and on its organization in Elmira, May 6, 1861, Captain Stephan, of the Dansville company, was chosen
Lieutenant-Colonel, George Hyland, Jr., who was formerly First Lieutenant of his company, became its captain. The Dansville band joined this regi- ment in Elmira, May 20th. It was the first regi- ment which passed through Baltimore after the Sixth Massachusetts was assaulted in the streets of that city by a mob. It served two years with marked distinction and was mustered out on the 14th of May, 1863. It participated in the follow- ing battles, as detailed in the Dansville Advertiser of February, 12, 1863 :-
Cub Run, . July 18,
Bull Run, .
21,
1861.
Vorktown,
April 5, 1862.
Siege of Yorktown till May 4, 1862.
Hanover Court House,. " 27, 1862.
Mechanicsville,
June 26, 1862.
Gaines' Mill,
June 27, 1862.
Malvern Hill,
July 1, 1862.
Manassas,
August 30, 1862.
Shepardstown,
Antietam,
Sept. 17, 1862. 66 19, 1862.
Fredericksburgh, .. Dec. 13, 1862.
1861.
The 27th Regiment was organized at Elmira, May 21, 1861. It was composed, besides the companies from this county, of Capt. Adams' com- pany from Lyons, Capt. Chambers' company from White Plains, the companies of Capts. Bartlett, Rodgers and Jay, from Binghamton, of Capt. Ar- chilles, from Albion, of Capt. Gardiner, from An- gelica, and Capt. Wanzer, from Rochester. Henry W. Slocum, of Syracuse, a graduate of West Point, and for eighteen years in the regular service, hav- ing participated in the Florida and Mexican wars, was chosen Colonel; Joseph J. Chambers, of White Plains, Lieutenant-Colonel; and Joseph J. Bartlett, of Binghamton, Major. As it was cus- tomary to give the early regiments names in addi- tion to their numeral designation, this was denomi- nated "Union Regiment."
It was mustered at Elmira, for two years, July 5, 1861, and the next day set out for Washington, where it arrived on the sith, and was assigned to the First brigade, (Col. Andrew Porter,) of the Second division, (Gen. Hunter.) It left Washing- ton on the 16th and on the 18th encamped near Centerville. At two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 21, 1861, it marched to the field of Bull Run, where it first encountered the 27th Vir- ginia regiment, which fell back. ' It next met the 8th Georgia, which fell back till reenforced, when the 27th was repulsed and took refuge under a hill. It was soon ordered to charge a battery stationed on a knoll, which it did under a heavy fire which told fearfully on its ranks. Col. Slocum was
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