USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 63
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596
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
Mr. Frederick Whittaker, author of the article on the Civil War in Scharf's History, after giving the partienlars of the organization of the Port Chester company (he does not mention the Yonkers com- pany), says:
The Town of Cortlandt. almost at the same time, sent out sixty men, raised by Mr. Ben- jamin R. Simpkins. For the want of the money that kept the Port Chester company to- gether, this fine body of young men became lost in the great City of New York, and drifted into different regiments, so that not a man of the sixty was ever credited to the county, and not a few of them returned home. Another party of sixteen went off to White Plains, under the command of Mr. William M. Bleakly, of Verplanek's Point. On the roll of Company A, 27th Regiment, they appear as credited to Ehnira, of all places in the world. Mr. Bleakly afterwards became Captain Bleakly in the 27th, and was discharged in February, 1862. The company of Mr. Joseph JJ. Chambers is another instance of the same state of affairs; for, though the men undoubtedly hailed from White Plains, they are likewise credited to Elmira, their captain being made lieutenant-colonel on the 21st of May. Yorktown also lost a great number of men in the same way, no mention of them being found in the official records of the two years' volunteers; and of other towns there is still less traee in any doenments by which official proof can be furnished of the facts. The whole history of the two years' volunteers, in Westchester County, is one of men pressing their services on the government, which seemed not to want them; and it cost more trouble, in the months of April and May, 1861, to get into the army at all than it afterwards did to get out of the draft.
The 5th New York Volunteers, known as Colonel Duryea's Zouaves, received a goodiy number of Westchester County men, especially from Yonkers. In this regiment Ralph E. Prime (afterward nominated by the president to be brevet brigadier-general) was a captain. John G. Peene, another well-known citizen of Yonkers (subsequently mayor of the city), was among the first to enlist.
The original demand for two-years' men was soon modified so as to require a service of three years. From Angust 10 to November 15, 1861, the 4th New York Cavalry was mustered in, comprehending three companies (B, C, and F) from Yonkers. The 5th Independent Battery, mustered in November 8, 1861, included several privates from Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and Peekskill, and in the 1st Regiment Monnted Ritles, mustored in all the way from August 31, 1861, to September 9, 1862, there were volunteers from Tarrytown, Mount Pleasant, and Harrison. "This," says Mr. Whittaker, " conelndes the three years' volunteers in Westchester County as organizations of which the records are accessible in an official form," up to the enlistment of the famous 6th New York Heavy Artillery.
The 6th New York Heavy Artillery was recruited obediently to a call issued by the president in 1862 for 300,000 volunteers for three years. Governor Morgan appointed a union defense committee 1 for
1 The members of this committee were: William H. Robertson, of Katonah; Hezekiah D). Robertson, of Bedford: Chauncey M. De- pew. of Peekskill: Edward F. Shonnard, of Yonkers: John Jay, of Bedford; James A. Hamilton, of Dobbs Ferry; Thomas Nelson.
of Peekskill: Gouverneur Morris, of Morris. ania; Gouverneur Kemble, of Cold Spring (Putnam County): Lewis G. Morris, of Ford- ham: Moses G. Leonard, of Rockland Lake (Rockland County); Saxton Smith, of Saxton Valley (Putnam County); Silas D. Gifford, of
597
FROM 1842 To 1900
the Sth senatorial distriet-then comprising the Counties of West- chester, Rockland, and Putnam-which proceeded to raise the troops required to make up the quota of the district. "It began its work by promptly effecting the organization of an infantry regi- ment of ten full companies of more than one hundred mon each, enlisted to serve for three years, which was designated by the au- thorities of the State of New York as the 135th New York Volunteer Infantry, and was named by the committee the Anthony Wayne Guard." The original line officers were:
Company A. ( Peekskill ): Captain A. A. Crookston, Lieutenants George W. Smith and Richard M. Gilleo.
Company B. (White Plains): Captain E. W. Anderson, Lieutenants Thomas W. Dick and Horton R. Platt.
Company C. (West Farms): Captain B. B. Valentine, Lieutenants James Smith and George C. Kibbe.
Company D. (Somers): Captain Eward Jones, Lieutenants W. S. Seriber and Platt Benedict.
Company E. (Port Chester): Captain C. II. Pahner, Lieutenants W. T. Morse and Ford- ham Morris.
Company F. (Yonkers): Captain Edmund Y. Morris, Lieutenants Samuel Bassett and Henry A. C'hadeayne.
Company G. (Carmel, Putnam County): Captain Webster Smith, Lieutenants Stephen Baker and Charles F. Hazen.
Company H. (Morrisania): Captain H. B. Hall (wounded), Lieutenants David Harmel (mortally wounded ) and Gouverneur Morris, Jr.
Company I. (Sing Sing): Captain Clark Peck, Lieutenants Charles C. Hyatt and J. H. Ashton.
Company K. (Nyack, Rockland County): Captain Wilson Defendorf, Lieutenants John Davidson and Frederic Shonnard, of Yonkers.
The villages mentioned in this list were the places where the various companies were raised. Absolutely every township of the county, and probably every hamlet, was represented among the volunteers. It was distinctively a Westchester County regiment. Yonkers was the headquarters of the enlisting officers. The regi- ment was first assembled there about the end of August, 1862, and it was mustered into the United States service on the 2d of Septem- ber. Pending the appointment of fiehl officers, Lewis G. Morris acted as provisional colonel. The position of colonel was tendered to Thomas Arden, a graduate of West Point, but he declined it. There- upon Captain William Hopkins Morris, also a West Point graduate, was made colonel. He had previously been an officer in active service in the Army of the Potomac. Colonel Morris subsequently rose to the grades of brigadier-general and brevet major-general of United
Morrisania: Munson 1. Lockwood. of White Plains: Robert H. Ludlow, of Westchester: John W. Mills, of White Plains; Chauncey K. Works, of Carmel (Putnam County); Abraham B. Conger, of Rockland (Rockland County): William Bleakley, Jr., of Cortlandt; Aaron I ..
Christie, of Nyack (Rorkland County): JJohn B Wandle, of Piermont &Rockland County. An drew E. Suffern. of Haverstraw Rockland ('aunty ): Edward J. Strant, of Nanuet Rock- land County), and Daniel Tomkins, of Stony Point (Rockland County).
598
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
States volunteers. To General Morris belongs the honor of having attained the highest rank awarded to any citizen of Westchester County during the War of the Rebellion. The appointment of lieu- tenant-colonel of the regiment was given to Captain Ralph E. Prime, then of White Plains, now of Yonkers, a gallant officer of the 5th New York Volunteers. But for various reasons Captain Prime did not assume this command, and the lieutenant-coloneley fell to Cap- tain J. Howard Kitching, of Dobbs Ferry, an officer in the 20 New York Light Artillery. By the promotion of Colonel Morris to the rank of brigadier-general, Kitching became colonel of the regiment (April 11, 1863). He was at that time only twenty-five years old. Elis services as commander of the regiment were most brilliant. At the battle of Cedar Creek, August 19, 1864, he received a wound from which he died at Dobbs Ferry on the 16th of January, 1865. He was succeeded in the command of the regiment by Lieutenant-Colonel George C. Kibbe, who was commissioned colonel March 17. 1865.
GEN. WM. H. MORRIS.
Although instituted as an infantry organization, this regiment took the name of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery. " Nevertheless, during its whole three years of arduous service with the 8th Corps, with the Army of the Potomac, with the Army of the James, and with Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah, it continued to serve as infantry. On and after De- cember 26, 1862, the regiment was sent to Harper's Ferry in detachments. . . . After six months or more of very varied service in the Shenandoah Valley with other troops, guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, performing skirmishing, scouting, and general outpost duties, the regiment formally joined the Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg campaign, becom- ing part of French's 3d Corps, which was held in the neighborhood of Frederick City as a reserve to protect Washington, by the orders of the war department. The regiment, first with General Morris's brigade of the 30 Division, 30 Army Corps, then with the reserve ar- tillery, and afterward with Ayres's division of the 5th Corps, partici- pated in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from Gettys- burg, in July, 1863, to August 13, 1864, in the siege of Petersburg, including the Bristol Station, the Mine Run, and the great Grant campaigns, and has probably the unique record of having served in battle with every corps of the Army of the Potomac, with Sheridan's Army in the Shenandoah, and with the Army of the James. . . The last time the regiment was under fire was in a brief engagement at Bermuda Hundred, April 2, 1865. The original members were mus-
599
FROM 1842 TO 1900
tered out of the United States service JJune 27, 1865. The remainder, with a battalion of the 10th New York Artillery, became the con- solidated 6th New York Artillery." 1
About a year before the termination of its period of enlistment the regiment unanimously tendered its services to the government for another term of three years. This offer was declined on the ground that the men would probably not be needed.
The 6th New York Heavy Artillery is recognized by all writers on the campaigns and battles of the Civil War as one of the great fight- ing regiments. It is estimated that during its career of less than three years the total number of men who fought in its ranks-the great majority of them from Westchester County-was fully four thousand. Its surviving members retain to this day a fraternal or- ganization, which holds annual reunions.
Another regiment to which Westchester County largely contrib- uted was the 16th New York Cavalry, better known as the Sprague Light Cavalry, mustered into the service between June and October, 1863. Companies K, L, and M of this organization consisted mostly of men hailing from the Towns of Mount Pleasant, Yonkers, Green- burgh, and White Plains.
No attempt can be made in the present work to embody a. com- plete or even a measurably thorough record of the contributions of organized bodies of men by the different localities of our county to the armies of the United States during the Rebellion. A previous writer on this phase of the county's history states that in entering upon his undertaking-which specially involved the satisfaction of local readers-he had it in view to make a complete compilation, but found that impracticable, " while an incomplete one might give just offense to men whose names would be unavoidably left out from lack of information." " In a comprehensive history of the county con- fined to reasonable limits it is of course out of the question to in- troduce a precise record by localities, and none other would meet the requirements of any formal treatment of the subject.
Several painstaking local historians of the county have carefully calculated the total enlistments in their respective townships, adding other exact particulars of much interest.
Yorktown, according to the Rev. W. J. Cumming, " sent out approx- imately 281 soldiers." He has been able to identify the regiments to which 133 of these men were attached: they were nineteen in num- bor, the 6th New York Heavy Artillery leading with 56. It is not known in what regiments the remainder of the enlisting men from
1 Yonkers In the Rebellion. " Scharf, I., 496.
600
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
Yorktown-constituting a majority of the whole number-served. This is a specimen case. In the first months of the war it was com- paratively an easy matter to raise recruits, but as the struggle pro- grossed bounties had to be paid and drafts resorted to. " In accord- ance with a resolution adopted at a town meeting held on September 23, 1863, a system of mutual insurance, as it were, against draft, was established, which provided that every person enrolled as liable to military service who should pay into a common fund the sum of $39 should be entitled, if drafted, to receive from the town the sum of $300 to proenre a substitute or pay the government for his exemp tion." Agreeably to this plan the honds of the town were issued at various times, according to the quotas required from the town under different calls. "The total sum expended in Yorktown for volun- teers was $87,745, and by the town itself, exclusive of the help re- ceived by the State, $66,445." 1
Mr. Charles E. Culver, the historian of Somers, gives the names and dates of enlistment of sixty soldiers from that township, dis- tributed among seventeen regiments. In addition to these, he says, there were twenty-three substitutes enlisted and twenty-five others were enlisted from other places for the town. "Every burial place in the town contains the headstones of some of our soldiers." One of the heroic dead of Somers was Major Edward Jones, of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, who fell at Cedar Creek. The amount required to be paid in Somers for what Mr. Cumming styles the in- surance against draft was only $25.2 In the Town of North Salem Mr. Culver finds thirty-five records of enlistment.3
Mr. George Thatcher Smith, in his contribution to Scharf's His- tory on the Town of Poundridge, presents a variety of interesting particulars. At the election of 1860 there were only 328 votes cast in the township, yet " before the close of the war 94 residents had enlisted in the army and three in the navy," there being also ten re- enlistments; and in addition about thirty-six non-residents were pro- cured by the supervisors as substitutes. The really remarkable cir- emmstance is stated that of the ninety-seven residents who went to the war sixty-one were shoemakers, only twenty eight being farmers. A payment of $10 sufficed in Poundridge to exempt from draft. The total indebtedness incurred by the township on account of the war was $35,280.4
In New Castle, says Barrett, the war debt amounted to about $48,000,5 and in North Castle to $50,000.6 He gives the names of 16] soldiers (including eleven colored men) from North Castle.
" Rye," says the able historian of that town (the late Rev. C. W.
1 Scharf, 11., 452. " Ibid., ii., 477. 8 Ibid., li., 502. : Ibid., ii., 568. 5 Ibid., ii., 619. " ]bid., ii., 635.
601
FROM 1842 TO 1900
Baird), " furnished from the opening of the Rebellion about 350 men for the war. Of these, 126 were residents of the town and were volu- teers under the first call; 138 enlisted under Governor Morgan's proc- lamation of August 13, 1862; one man was drafted; forty-one sub. stitutes were provided, and forty-five recruits obtained. The town responded promptly to every call made for troops, either by national or by State government, and provided bountifully for the families of those who went forth to sustain the honor of the country. It is supposed that in addition to the numbers already stated, as many as fifty persons from the town enlisted in Connecticut regiments." 1 From Harrison, accord- ing to Mr. Baird's re- searches, there were altogether 168 enlist- ments2 Only one of the Harrison mendied from a bullet wonnd-cer- tainly a curious and probably an mparal- leled fact in view of their considerable num- ber.
Throughout the war, in spite of the very hearty responses of our citizens to the numer- ons calls for troops, the majority of the people THE JAY HOMESTEAD, BEDFORD. of Westchester County continued in sympathy with the prevailing political sentiment of New York City. The three leading Democratic newspapers were so (m)- phatic in their expressions that the grand jury of Westchester County. in Angust, 1861, brought in a presentment against them. The follow- ing is a portion of this interesting document :
The Yonkers Herald, Highland Democrat, and Eastern State Journal have, from the time of the issue of the president's proclamation, immediately after the firing on Fort Sumter, stead- ily treated the war which has followed, in the extraets and articles they have published, as an unholy and partisan war, unjustly commenced and prosecuted by the administration. In so doing it has evidently been their purpose to consolidate a party by the aid of whose op- position and influence they might prevent enlistments and retard the successful proscention of the war.
The grand jurors therefore invoke the attention of the district attorney of this county to the prosecution of the editors and proprietors named if hereafter, after this publie notice of their evil course, they should persist in thus continuing to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the government.
1 lbid., Ii., 651. 2 Ibld., II., 718.
602
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
No prosecutions resulted, and indeed the admonition thus given had little effect upon the editorial attitude of the newspapers con- corned.
At the election of 1862, when Horatio Seymour was chosen gov- ernor, Westchester County gave 7,866 votes for the Democratic State ticket and 5,556 for the Republican, showing a Democratic gain in plurality of more than a thousand votes since the election of 1860.
During the celebrated draft riots of 1863 in New York City there were various sympathetic disturbances in Westchester County, which are recorded with particularity by Mr. Frederick Whittaker in Scharf's History. On the 14th of July-the second day of the New York riots-" crowds visited the enrolling offices of Morrisania and West Farms, tore up the enrolling lists, destroyed the telegraph offices at Williams's Bridge and Melrose, ripped up some rails on the New Haven and Harlem roads near the Bronx River, had pickets on both roads as far as Mount Vernon to signal when a general at- tempt to tear up tracks might be safe, but were quieted in Morrisania and West Farms by appeals made by Supervisor Canldwell and Mr. Pierre G. Talman." On the 15th " the Hudson River train was stopped at Yonkers, the rails having been torn up between that place and the city, so that the Canadian mail had to be taken to New York on the boat. The citizens of Yonkers formed two com- panies of Home Guards to keep property and life safe, but there was no serious disturbance. The arsenal was guarded day and night. At Tarrytown a guard was also formed, and procured a cannon to overawe the mob, so that all was peaceful along the Hudson River." A mob from the marble quarries at Tuckahoe marched to Mount Vernon, with the avowed purpose of " burning down the houses of all the Republicans in the place." They contented themselves, how- ever, with noisy demonstrations and stone throwing. On the even- ing of the 15th a large public meeting was held in the town hall at Tremont. It was under the anspices mainly of influential citizens of Democratic antecedents, who, whilst deprecating violence, were strongly opposed to the draft on grounds of public policy, and hence were in position to make their recommendations respected by the excited populace. The principal speaker was Mr. John B. Haskin. This meeting was instrumental in calming the passions of the time.
The vote of the county for president in 1864 stood: George B. Mc- Clellan (Dem.), 9,353; Abraham Lincoln (Rep.), 7,593. In 1868 the vote for Horatio Seymour (Dem.) was 11,667, and for Ulysses S. Grant (Rep.) 9,641.
Between 1860 and 1865 only one new village was incorporated-
603
FROM 1842 TO 1900
that of Morrisania (1864). A notable event of this period was the organization of the Woodlawn Cemetery in December, 1863. The improvement of the grounds was commenced in April, 1864, and the tirst interment was made Jannary 14, 1865.
The war interfered seriously with the growth of population in Westchester County. In 1865 the total population was 101,197, a gain of only 1,700 over 1860. The Village and Township of Yonkers had a combined population of 11,049, being considerably in advance of that of any other political division of the county except the Town of Morrisania. In 1865 the total number of people living in the por- tion of the county which now constitutes the Borough of the Bronx was about 20,600.
The Village of White Plains was incorporated by an act passed April 3, 1866. The first officers of the village were: president, John Swinburne; clerk, John M. Rowell; trustees, Gilbert S. Lyon, Edward Sleath, 11. P. Rowell, J. P. Jenkins, J. W. Mills, and Harvey Groot.
In 1868 (May 14) Port Chester received a village charter. This place was originally called Saw Pit. " That very inelegant name," says Baird, " had its origin in the fact that a spot on Lyon's Point, now part of the Village of Port Chester, was occupied in ancient times for the building of boats." The present name was adopted in 1837. Port Chester's growth has been rapid, owing to the develop- ment of its manufacturing industries, and, with the exception of New Rochelle, it is now the largest community of Westchester County on the Sound.
During the decade 1860-70 two men who, with the late JJudge Robertson, are probably to be regarded as the most representative publie characters of Westchester County birth and antecedents in our generation-Chauncey M. Depew and James W. Husted,-entered political life. Mr. Depew, born in Peekskill in 1834, began the prac- tice of law in his native village in 1859, and in 1861 was elected mem- ber of the assembly on the Union Republican ticket from the 3d assembly district. He was re-elected in 1862, and in 1863 was elected secretary of state. In 1867 he was appointed county clerk of West- chester County to fill a vacancy, but declined the office. His career since then has been one of great prominence and usefulness in varied connections; and probably no other American of our times has bo- come more widely known or enjoys a higher or more distinguished pop- ularity. Mr. Husted ( born in Bedford, October 31, 1833) was a class. mate of Mr. Depew's at college, studied law with Edward Wells at Peekskill, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. Although elected school commissioner of the 3d district of Westchester County in 1859, it was not until eleven years later that he began his phenomenal
604
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
career in the assembly. Meantime, however, he held important ap- pointive positions under the State government. " He was first elected a member of the assembly in 1869, to represent the 3d assembly dis- triet of this county, and he continued being elected and re-elected to the latter office up to and including the year of his death [1892] ; serving from 1869 to 1878 from this connty, 1879-80 from Rockland County, and again in 1881 and 1883 to 1892 from this county. He
JAMES W. HUSTED.
was speaker of the assembly in the years 1874, '76, '78, '86, '87, and '90. He had a longer legislative experience than any other man in the his- tory of the State -- twenty-two years; he also had the distinction of hav- ing been speaker more times than any other man."1 He was only once defeated as a candidate for the assembly-in 1882, by John Hoag.
In 1868 John Thompson Hoffman, a native of Westchester County.
1 Smith's Manual of Westchester County, 77.
605
FROM 1842 TO 1900
was elected governor of the State. He was a son of Dr. A. K. Thomp- son, of Sing Sing, and was born in that village on the 10th of Jan mary, 1828. After completing his general education he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and engaged in the practice of law in New York City. Ile soon became prominent both in his profession and in politics. He served two terms as governor, being re-elected in 1870. It was unfortunate for him that his career in the executive office was coincident with the Tweed Ring exposures, which involved much criticism of his political affiliations with Tammany. Upon the completion of his second term he retired from public life. He died on the 24th of March, ISSS.
Eighteen hundred and seventy was the last census year in which Westchester County retained the bonuds established for it under the original county act of 1683. The population in 1870, by town- ships and villages, was as follows:
TOWNS
POPULATION
Bedford .
3,697
Cortlandt
11,691
Peekskill Village.
6,560
Verplanck Village
1,500
Eastchester
7,191
Central Mount Vernon Village
150
East Mount Vernon Village.
500
Mount Vernon Village
2,700
West Mount Vernon Village.
1,200
Greenburgh
10,790
Harrison .
787
Lewisboro .
1,601
Mamaroneck. .
1,483
Morrisania
19,609
Mount Pleasant .
5,210
Beekmantown Village
2,206
New Castle .. . .
2,152
New Rochelle
3,915
New Rochelle Village
279
North Castle
1,99€
North Salen.
1,75.1
Ossining. Sing Sing Village
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