USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 26
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It was the invariable rule in the early surveys, to make the "usual allow- ance for roads." This was in many instances known to be five per cent., but if the patent was for a specified number of acres, the returns of the surveyor would make the distances in his return, and the map also, to cover the precise quantity. This five per cent. might be added to the side or to the end of a patent, and to this day which course was adopted, no one can tell. Besides this discrepancy in the measurement, the Commissioners of the Land Office would often say in the patent, " in setting out this grant we have made due al- lowance for the profitable and unprofitable acres," and this may have added to a confusion already badly confounded.
The laps, or the interference of patent lines that must have necessarily followed such a style of surveying, were not known sometimes until many years had elapsed. The starting points were often ill-defined and a malicious person could, with an axe, destroy them in a few minutes. These interferences were necessarily settled in the courts, and there is hardly a map in the archives of the State to show such records. The gores that have been discovered by later surveyors have invariably been applied for, the tracts surveyed and pat- ents granted. Some of these were discovered in the early part of the century, and some as late as 1855. These laps and gores alone are enough to destroy the accuracy of Burr's atlas and, in a great degree, all that has since been pub- lished. The writer had practical experience in plotting Warren county and brief details of the work may not be uninteresting here.
The county line on the north, as surveyed by Joseph L. Harris, was the base line for the plot, and from this was projected on the south all of the dif- ferent tracts, as he had indicated them. But as there was no certainty that he had laid down the lines of the lots, the patent or tract lines correctly, every- thing that could be obtained in the offices of the Secretary of State and the Surveyor-General, and all that could be obtained on the ground of local surveyors was brought to bear on the case, and all known authorities were consulted. The measurements governed where they agreed, or very nearly, and the course of the lines were left to vary as the measurements should prove them to be. The Hague tract was first plotted, then the Northwest Bay tract, then the Luzerne tract, which gave a strip nearly across the county north and south, and on which the measurements were supposed to be quite accurate, as no account had to be taken for "the usual allowance." From these as a base we could plot to the east and west, and by careful work bring all of the little patents into their respective places. These usually did not agree with the dimensions as given in the patents, or as designated on the maps, but when the shore line of Lake George was drawn, according to a very finely made
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map of the lake by Aug. F. Dalton (1855), it was ascertained that they agreed in very many nice particulars. In plotting west from the large tracts mentioned, the position of the confluence of the Sacandaga River with the Hudson was obtained, and then to lay out the Dartmouth patent and Hyde township was undertaken. This brought trouble and confusion, as the north- west corner of Hyde township must be a right angle, and the northwest line would strike the Hudson River too far south. Finally the townships of Totten and Crossfield were plotted and the southwest line of Hyde township made to agree with townships 12 and 14, and the space that was left was assigned to Hyde township, let it be more or less. From this line the Dartmouth patent was plotted, and Palmer's purchase, according to the decision of the court in a great law suit where the patents were said to interfere. From the Luzerne tract to the east there was no trouble in plotting Queensbury and the French Mountain tract, and the work was completed. In all this, labor the greatest care had to be taken, and the longest lines drawn first. To make sure that the surveyor was pretty nearly correct, we invariably added his dimensions of the lots, to see if they agreed with the length given on the outside lines, and as often the different dimensions of the little patents adjoining. When they dis- agreed to any considerable extent, the latest measurement was adopted. When we consider that hardly a mile of any of these lines was originally run on level land, and some of them over very high mountains, steep, rocky, and covered with a dense growth of forest, it is surprising that anything like accu- racy could be obtained.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WARREN COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
Patriotic Action of the County - The First Recruiting Officers - Two Companies Raised - The Twenty-second Regiment - Company Officers - Rosters - The Ninety-sixth Regiment - Company I - Company K, One Hundred Fifty-third Regiment - The Ninety-third Regiment - Warren County Enlistments - The One Hundred Eighteenth Regiment - Second Veteran Cavalry - Statistics.
HE news of the outburst of "the great Rebellion," in April, 1861, was borne through the rugged wilds and hills of Warren county with a celerity like that of the " fiery cross," which in past generations gathered the clans of Scotland to the call of their chieftains.
In less than three days after the fall of Sumter, applications were addressed to the adjutant-general's office, in Albany, for authority to procure enlistments.
On the morning of Thursday, the 18th of April, handbills were posted
.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
throughout the village of Glens Falls, containing a call, signed by over forty of the leading citizens of the place, for "a meeting to sustain the government." At this meeting, which was held the same evening, and which was largely at- tended, several spirited addresses were made. The national flag was brought in and displayed amidst the wildest enthusiasm, and a series of patriotic reso- lutions adopted, from which the following extract is taken as a sample of their purport and spirit : -
" Resolved, That the village of Glens Falls will not be behind any of her sis- ter villages in contributing the men and the means necessary to defend the government, and to maintain the permanency of our beloved institutions; and that, as our fathers who established the Union pledged 'their lives, their for- tunes, and their sacred honors,' to gain our independence, so will we pledge all we possess to cherish and protect the work of the illustrious men of the past, and to transmit unimpaired to our descendants the noble institutions given to us.
" Resolved, That to the end we are for maintaining this Union undivided, and, whatever may be the consequences, sacrifice of property or life itself- everything but loss of honor - we will stand by the stars and stripes until the last faint echo in the expiring gale wafts our dying prayer heavenward, in be- half of our country, its institutions, and humanity."
On the succeeding Saturday the first recruiting office was opened by Dr. A. W. Holden, and during the following week Captain George Clendon, jr., was similarly authorized to raise another company, both of which were designed to apply on the quota of New York to fill the first call for troops.
At this early period in the war, no other town in the county had as yet un- dertaken to raise a company. The hardy and adventurous youth and patriotic manhood of its northern towns were not, however, to be repressed. Day by day they poured in at the recruiting stations, and, in many instances, impatient of the tardy process of enlistment, pushed on to the cities and enlisted in com- panies and regiments already formed, and ready for departure to the scene of hostilities.
The two companies above mentioned were soon filled, and were accepted into the State service on the 6th and 7th of May following, and on the 9th were ordered into quarters-one into the barracks at Troy, the other at the Albany depot. The latter was at a later period sent to Troy, and the two afterwards joined together in the formation of the New York Twenty-second Volunteers, of which regiment a sketch is given in this chapter. Companies G and I of the same command also received considerable accessions from Warren county.
Contemporaneously with the organization of these companies a relief fund was raised by voluntary subscriptions, in the town of Queensbury alone, amounting to $11,243, for the aid and support of the families of such mem- bers of these companies as were needy or destitute. Another fund, the
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amount of which is unknown, was applied to defray the expenses of subsist- ence during the progress of enlistment.
For the disbursement of the first named fund a committee was appointed, and assessments made from time to time, as occasion required. The total amount of collections from this source up to June, 1863, when these com- panies were finally mustered out of service, was $3,260.47, which was appor- tioned among twenty-nine different families.
The preceding paragraphs are the language used by Dr. Holden in intro- ducing his sketch of the military work of the town of Queensbury, in his his- tory of that town, and serves to properly introduce the following accounts of the various organizations to which companies from this county were con- tributed :-
The Twenty-second Regiment.1 -This regiment was enlisted and mustered in 1861, under the call of the president for 75,000 men for two years' service, issued on the 15th of April. This proclamation was followed by an act of the Legislature, passed April 17th, authorizing the creation of a volunteer force sufficient to fill its quota. Thirty-eight regiments were raised under this act.
It was only cities and densely populated towns which were able to supply complete regiments to the service. In thinly settled regions and agricultural districts three, and sometimes more, counties combined to make up a battal- ion. More frequently still, the military board, to meet the exigencies of gov- ernment, consolidated companies and formed regiments irrespective of person- al interests and local prejudices.
At an early period in the formation of the companies composing the Twenty-second Regiment conferences were held, at which it was resolved to organize a regiment representing the old congressional district of Essex, War- ren and Washington counties. Applications to the executive and also to the military board, with the same intent, received a favoring response. A formal petition, signed by nearly if not quite all the line officers subsequently em- braced in this command, desiring to be associated together as a regiment, be- ing forwarded to the military board, was ordered to be held at Stanwix Hall, Albany, on the evening of the 14th of May, 1861. This meeting was pre- sided over by Brigadier-General Rathbone, and resulted in the election (near- ly unanimous) of the following field officers, viz. :-
Colonel, Walter Phelps, jr., of Glens Falls, Warren county; lieutenant-col- onel, Gorton T. Thomas, of Keeseville, Essex county ; major, John M'Kie, of Cambridge, Washington county. It will be perceived that each section of the district was thus represented in the election.
These officers had all been military men connected with the old State mili- tia organization, which, poor as it was (for there were none so abject as to
1 This sketch of the Twenty-second Regiment was largely made up from newspaper correspondence from the pen of Dr. A. W. Holden.
15
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
do it reverence), supplied a large proportion of the officers, and a goodly num- ber of the men, who filled this first installment of the mighty armies of the North. By special favor from the military board the regiment was permitted to go into barracks at the fair grounds of the Rensselaer County Agricultural Society, near the city of Troy, although Albany had been officially designated as the military depot for that section of the State. Here commenced the first experiences of that rigid discipline so necessary to the formation of the thor- ough soldier. Here was first tasted that bitter cup to the volunteer soldier, the restriction of personal liberty by sentries and guard lines. Although ac- cepted and mustered into the State service, some of the companies, through dissatisfaction with their officers and various other causes, became rapidly re- duced by desertion. Prompt steps were taken to supply the unwelcome de- ficit at this critical moment, for it was still obligatory to come up to the pre- scribed standard of "seventy-five men," neither more nor less, before the com- panies could be mustered into the United States service. Recruiting officers from nearly every company were dispatched home for fresh volunteers, and the regiment was thus increased by over a hundred. About this time it be- came necessary to disband the Whitehall company, through an embittered state of feeling which had grown up between the men and its officers, and also, as was alleged, from the failure of the home committee to support the families of the enlisted men agreeably to the understanding had when they en- listed. There may have been still other causes, but these were the leading ones. Most of the men re-enlisted, some in one company, some in another. The commissioned officers being left without a command, of course resigned. Upon the feeble debris of the company left a new one was soon afterward or- ganized, nearly all the companies in the barracks contributing their surplus men for the purpose, the new captain, Benjamin Mosher, soon after increasing the number by a fresh importation of recruits from Whitehall and vicinity.
About the 20th of May the staff appointments were made and announced, and for the first a complete roster was made.
Following is a roster of the officers of the Twenty-second Regiment on the Ist of June, 1861. The commissions are all dated May and June, 1861.
Field and Staff .- Colonel, Walter Phelps, jr., Glens Falls.
Lieutenant-colonel, Gorton T. Thomas, Keeseville.
Major, John M'Kie, Cambridge.
Adjutant, Edward Pruyn.
Quartermaster, Henry Woodruff, Troy.
Surgeon, J. B. Atherly, Albany.
Assistant surgeon, W. F. Hutchinson, Sandy Hill.
Chaplain, Rev. H. H. Bates, Glens Falls.
Paymaster, Benjamin C. Butler, Luzerne.
Non-Commissioned Staff .- Sergeant- Major, John F. Towne, Sandy Hill.
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WARREN COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.
Quartermaster-sergeant, Jeremiah W. Fairbanks, Cohoes.
Commissary-sergeant, Charles Bellamy, Glens Falls.
Hospital steward, David H. King, Fort Edward.
Drum-major, John Scott, Hebron.
Fife-major, John Wright, Glens Falls.
Color-sergeant, James Johnson, Glens Falls.
Right general-guide, Malachi Weidman, Waterford.
Left general-guide, John J. Barker, Glens Falls.
Line Officers. - Company A. - Captain, J. L. Yates, Cohoes ; first lieu- tenant, Jas. H. Bratt, Waterford; second lieutenant, Hiram Clute, Cohoes.
Company B. - Captain, Robert McCoy, Fort Edward; first lieutenant, Duncan Lendrum, Fort Edward; second lieutenant, James W. McCoy, Fort Edward.
Company C. - Captain, O. D. Peabody, Keeseville ; first lieutenant, C. D. Beaumont, Keeseville ; second lieutenant, C. B. Piersons, Albany.
Company D. - Captain, H. S. Milliman, Cambridge ; first lieutenant, T. B. Fisk, Cambridge ; second lieutenant, R. A. Rice, Cambridge.
Company E. - Captain, Geo. Clendon, jr., Glens Falls ; first lieutenant, John S. Fassett, Glens Falls ; second lieutenant, G. H. Gayger, Glens Falls.
Company F. - Captain, A. W. Holden, Glens Falls ; first lieutenant, Wm. H. Arlin, Glens Falls; second lieutenant, O. B. Smith, Glens Falls.
Company G. - Captain, Benj. J. Mosher, Whitehall ; first lieutenant, Duncan Cameron, Glens Falls; second lieutenant, Henry C. Hay, Glens Falls. Company H. - Captain, T. J. Strong, Sandy Hill; first lieutenant, W. A. Pierson, Sandy Hill; second lieutenant, M. S. Teller, Sandy Hill.
Company I. - Captain, Lyman Ormsbee, Schroon ; first lieutenant, J. R. Seaman, Schroon ; second lieutenant, D. Burgey, Schroon.
Company K. -- Captain, Miles P. S. Caldwell, Port Henry ; first lieutenant, E. F. Edgerly, Moriah; second lieutenant, C. W. Huntly, Bridgeport, Vt.
On the 6th of June the band of the regiment was mustered into the service by Captain Frank Wheaton, of the regular army, much to the pleasure and satisfaction of the entire organization. It was under the leadership of Asa Patten.
While encamped at Troy the time was busily improved by the regiment in the daily drill which is necessary to efficiency in any military organization. On Monday, June 20, the regiment was ordered to Albany, where it occupied quarters at the Industrial barracks, quarters which were vastly inferior to those left. On the following day the men received their first pay as soldiers, cover- ing the time passed in the service of the State. While in Albany the regiment received its first equipment of arms, the guns being the old pattern of smooth- bore Springfield musket; this arm gave considerable dissatisfaction, and at a subsequent date, through the exertions of Colonel Phelps and Quartermaster Schenck, the Springfield rifle was substituted.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
June 27th the regiment received marching orders, and on the following day, under escort of Captain Ainsworth's Albany Zouaves, marched through the principal streets to the steamer. The band played national airs and the troops were cheered and greeted by waving banners and handkerchiefs from many windows. Embarking in two barges and a steamer, the trip down the Hudson was made and the next day the Dey street dock was reached in New York city. The same evening the regiment was transferred to a steamer and taken to Elizabethport, N. J., where for the first time hard tack and raw meat were issued to the men. It was an unwelcome and radical change from the sumptuous Albany rations and gave a foretaste of what was to come. About midnight the regiment embarked on freight cars and the journey to Baltimore was safely made, with but one untoward incident: Joseph Pero and Frederick Minne, of Company C, were knocked from the car by coming in contact with a footbridge. They were severely injured, but finally recovered. Pero was killed in the Second Bull Run battle.
As the regiment approached Baltimore the men were deeply imbued with the expectation of an attack by the mobs that had but a few weeks previously so ruthlessly attacked the Massachusetts troops. The regiment left the cars about 8 o'clock P. M., and was drawn up in line. The following description of the passage through the city was written by Dr. Holden in 1862: "The men who had been previously furnished with six rounds of cartridges were now ordered to load. Although the dun clouds which shrouded the sun's golden setting had veiled the stars with a filmy haze, the evening was still calm, beau- tiful and serene. Just as the long rows of gas lights came flashing into exis- tence, we were ordered to wheel into column by platoons, and then we com- menced our march. Never did those glorious old national anthems speak more thrillingly to the heart than on the occasion now described. The proud patriotism which animated every heart in the line prepared each one then and there to become martyrs if need be for our country's welfare. It was Sunday night, an ' evening calm and cool,' when all were at leisure, and nothing pre- vented the gathering of a mob. The bold, martial strains of a military band, especially of a Sunday night, were a novelty to the citizens of Baltimore, for since the occurrence of the riot and massacre of the Massachusetts troops on the 17th of April, all of the national troops had been hurried through the city without ceremony, regardless of military display, and some of that dignity which should always attend a preponderating armed force. Our advent and transit was at first met with a dubious welcome, and as we occasionally turned a street corner, with a few faint-hearted cheers. In one or two instances bouquets were flung in our midst by true-hearted, loyal women who dared to be patri- otic, against the pretensions of class and the exclusivness of caste, at a period when slave aristocracy was combining its fairest energies to rule or ruin. As we passed the heart of the city and approached the suburbs on the opposite
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side, the gathering hostile elements became rapidly apparent, and cheers for 'Jeff. Davis,' and groans, execrations, anathemas and maledictions for 'Abe Lincoln,' became painfully distinguishable above the noise of the music, and the steady tramp of our advancing column. As we drew near the Camden depot at the Washington extremity, the shouts and clamor increased in fre- quency and volume, while the walks and streets were thronged with the pop- ulace eagerly hurrying along upon our flanks. Then came the order 'by the right flank, by file left, march,' and soon the head file of the column entered the depot. The band continued playing until it reached the opposite end of the building when the line was 'halted, ' brought to the 'front face' and 'dressed.' Companies B and G, on the extreme left, were still outside the building. A sergeant was entering the building; he stumbled and fell, and his musket (being loaded and capped), as it struck heavily on the floor, ex- ploded, the discharge wounding a citizen, standing near by, in the foot. This was followed by three or four scattering shots, apparently from the roof of the building, which was succeeded by a fusilade partly on the right and partly in the center of the regiment. At this juncture all the gas lights in the building were suddenly extinguished as though by a preconcerted signal. At the same instant a flash as of thirty or forty pieces was seen from the side of the building towards which the line was faced, and similar flashes appeared as though from the roof, towards which a scattered and irregular fire was kept up through the line. At this stage of affairs the commanding voices of Colonel Phelps and Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas were heard through the line above the din and roar of musketry. Their self-possession, aided by the efforts of the line officers, soon restored order and quiet through the ranks. Major M'Kie, in conse- quence of an injury received while landing from the boat at Elizabethport, N. J., had been left behind and did not rejoin the regiment until the following day. During the tumult, one of the privates from Company F mounted the shoulders of a comrade and endeavored to light one of the gas burners with a match, but could not, thus showing conclusively that the gas had been turned off at the meter. Shots were also distinctly seen by those standing outside the building, fired towards the regiment from the windows of the adjacent houses. As soon as order was restored the employees of the building rekindled the lights, and the startling word was passed through the line that one of our brother soldiers was killed and another seriously wounded, with other vague conjectures and rumors that an organized attack was being made upon us by the notorious and infamous 'plug-uglies ' of Baltimore. A portion of this intelligence was alas, too true, and as later acquired knowledge would seem to justify the opinion, probably all of it. Edward Burge, a private belonging to Company I, whose home was in Pottersville, Warren county, was found dead-shot through the head, by the testimony of the regimental surgeon in a subsequent investigation of the affair,-the ball entering the skull from above and passing out below
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
near the jaw-bone. The wounded man belonged to Company H, of Sandy Hill. His name was Lorenzo Palmer. Police officers were soon on the ground inquiring into the details of the affair, and seemed anxious to get rid of us as quickly as possible. In a short time the regiment was shipped aboard of a train of cars and was rattling on its way to Washington. Before we left assur- ances were received that all the forces in the adjacent fortifications, numbering eight regiments, were already on their way to our assistance. The following morning the arrest of Marshal Kane and other arch conspirators in that hot-bed of secession did something towards checking that rampant hostility towards the northern soldiery then pouring in daily by regiments to the national capitol. A new system was speedily inaugurated. The old police force was disbanded, many being placed under summary arrest, some of whom were no doubt par- ticipants in the April riots."
Whether or not this occurrence was the result of preconcerted plans for assaulting the regiment is even yet a question of dispute. A court of inquiry was held and the people of Baltimore exonerated, the cause of the whole affair being attributed to the first accidental discharge of one musket and the suc- ceeding firing by the troops without orders; but there are others still living who were participants in the affair, and take a different view of the matter.
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