USA > New York > Ulster County > Marlborough > History of the town of Marlborough, Ulster County, New York, from its earliest discovery > Part 24
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Thy only son. JOHN.
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NEHEMIAH HALLOCK MANN.
Born in Littleton, N. J., July twentieth, eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, entered the service of his country, as a private in the Lincoln Cavalry, eighteen hundred and sixty-two; commissioned Second Lieutenant, September ninth, eigh- teen hundred and sixty-two; commissioned Captain Co. M, Fourth N. Y. Cavalry, April second, eighteen hundred and sixty-three; killed at Cedarville, Va., August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; buried on the battle-field; remains subsequently re-interred in the Friend's Burial Ground, at Milton, N. Y.
Capt. Mann was a cousin of the Ketcham brothers; he was in the same regiment with John, and a letter, from John to his mother, better illustrates the man than anything that might now be said of him.
Gum Springs. June 23rd, 1863.
Dear Mother :
I have just seen Captain Mann, off to Washington Hos- pital. I suppose, before this reaches thee, thee will have heard of the affair; for I telegraphed to Sarah, his sister, to join him there. He was charging, at the head of the regi- ment, just this side of Upperville, near the entrance of Ashby's Gap. After being driven back, the Captain called for the boys to follow him, and went in ahead himself. The boys followed, but not close enough to prevent his being engaged with about a dozen at him at once, he says. One fellow gave him a cut on his cheek, which knocked him from his horse; then, as he lay helpless on the ground, another shot him ; the ball entering near the point of the left shoulder, and, cutting, under the ribs, lodged in the muscles of the left breast. The doctors think he may recover ; but I don't think it worth while to deny that his wounds are dangerous. He had just come out with the regi- ment, for the first time ; having been in charge of a large dis- mounted camp. The night before the day of battle, his com- pany were in high glee at his arrival. On the morning of the fight. I think he looked finer than I ever saw him - without exception, the finest soldier I have ever seen, with none of the brutality so common in the military character. I would give
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more for Captain Mann, commanding a brigade, than any general I have seen - except, perhaps, Killpatrick, who fre- quently charges with the boys of our regiment. I have no doubt Captain Mann would command a brigade of cavalry, with the science he learned as an orderly, with as much ease and grace as if he had been accustomed to it for a lifetime. He was in command of a squadron that morning, and when we were ordered to charge a bloekaded bridge, which a rebel colonel we captured told us they expected to hold all day, and the regiment stopped, under the fire of cannon and sharpshooters, behind walls and trees, horses and men dropping, and bullets whistling around - Captain Mann sat calmly on his horse. knowing the enemy were singling him out, until he got orders to dismount his squadron and clear the bridge, with the car- bine. Then he took a carbine, and led the men over the bridge in three minutes. Such men as John Paul Jones and Ethan Allen were made of the same stuff as he. His charge released General Killpatrick, who was taken prisoner through the fault of two regular regiments of cavalry. Three platoons of our squadron, Nehe's, Captain Hall's, and mine, were sent out in an open field, of fifty acres or so, facing a wood, in front of Upperville. We deployed as skirmishers, over half a mile, per- haps, and advanced towards the woods. When near there, a column of rebels charged on our center, driving in the skir- mishers - the single column followed by column in squadron front. Our forces advanced, the two regiments, and the rebels went back in the woods. When near the woods the regulars commenced charging across, in front of the woods; the rebs came out, formed, facing the flank. General Killpatrick rode towards the line, and tried to turn the regulars in that direc- tion ; but on they went, pell mell. until they all got by them - the rebs after them - and took Killpatrick. Keep hope and courage, mother, and all Nehe's dear friends. His voice will soon be heard where it is needed - on the field of battle. Be of good cheer, high hope, and courage always.
Lovingly, JOHN.
Captain Mann was a soldier of commanding appear- ance,- six feet three in height, straight, well-pro- portioned and strong. There was no finer-looking man in the regiment, nor none braver,- always ready for duty and always taking the place of danger ;
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no soldier was asked to go where he would not go, and while leading a charge at Cedarville, Va., he was shot through the heart. The writer well remembers him as a schoolmate, as being kindhearted and generous, faithful and true, a young man of excellent habits, a good student, a dutiful and kind son, and respected by all.
These three soldiers were the great-grandchildren of Edward Hallock, heretofore spoken of, and they all lie buried near together with three small monu- ments marking their graves, and surrounded by the graves of their ancestors for many generations, in the Friends' burial ground, at Milton, N. Y .; three young men, who, had they lived, were destined to be among the foremost men in the county and state .- cut down in their youth and usefulness, snatched from their relatives and friends without a moment's notice, buried on the field of their glory, and afterward among their departed kindred; dying in the cause of their country while upholding the flag and sustain- ing the unity of the nation ;- such was the fate of these three Milton boys.
After the body of John Ketcham was brought home, a great concourse of people assembled at his funeral, and perhaps we cannot do better than to give the words spoken at the burial by that great orator, Rev. O. B. Frothingham.
Friends: I have come here to-day as to a sacred place; as a pilgrim comes to a shrine. I have come to visit the home of the noble young man whose remains are coffined here, to see the spot where he lived, the house where he was born, the mother who held him to her bosom. the neighbors and friends he loved. I have come to receive a lesson, not to give one : to be taught, not to teach : to be comforted, not to comfort. Better than any speech of mine is the silent thought on these relics, and on all they have passed through, since the stalwart and beautiful frame to which they beloaged left your peaceful hills for the camp and the battle-field. What a strange history for such a
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man! Beaten up and down by all the storms of war, borne hither and thither by the changeful movement of the army, blackened by the sun and bleached by the frost, exposed to all the mutations of the weather. pinched with hunger, stiffened with cold. drenched with dew and rain, hardened by toil. wasted by fever, watching in the saddle, sleeping on the ground, be- grimed by smoke and powder, a mark for sabre-ent and for rifle-ball, sick in hospital, captive in prison, dying among ene- mies, buried, with no shroud but his cloak, in hostile soil, lifted from the ground, coffined and brought hither at last, to repose in peace by the side of his elder brother, and in sight of the doorway through which he had so often passed: this body tells a touching and solemn story of toil, fatigue, suffer- ing, peril, and death ; but also of patience, fortitude, bravery, cheerfulness, the devotion of a generons, pure and earnest heart.
I cannot utter words of common consolation here. There are all the usual consolations, and more. There is the thought of the Infinite God, just and loving, of the kind and tender Providence, which allows nothing to be wasted, which picks up the fragments of our broken existence, ties together the loose threads of our activity, arranges our life-plan, makes good the imperfection of our labor, and perfects itself in our weakness, suffering not even the little ones to perish, and per- mitting no good hope to fail; there is the thought of a vast hereafter, where every life shall be made complete. These consolations are for all in ordinary times; for those whose friends are cut off by untimely accident, if we may speak of untimeliness or accident in this world of God's: for those whose dear ones die of their own ignorance, error, foolishness, and vice. For these friends of ours we have more than this; the sympathy of a great multitude, the fellowship of an immense company of noble mourners, the tender respect and love of strangers, the recognition of a country, the unspoken, perhaps unconscious, gratitude of those ready to perish. The memory of such a career, of such a character, is alone consolation suffi- cient for more than ordinary grief. What greater comfort could there be for a mother than to have had even one such son ? To be recognized and honored as the mother of such ? To live in their reflected light and glory? When I think of mothers I know, who sit mourning for boys cut off in their prime by some fate which finished their career before their career had well begun : when I think of other mothers, who sit mourning for beautiful boys who have dug their own graves
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by dissipation ; and of mothers yet, who are ready to pray kind death to take their boys away from temptation before they sink under it, body and soul; this widowed mother, sitting by two such graves as these, with a heart full of such memories, seems to be blessed above the rest; yes, above thousands whose sons are living at their side.
A friend, last summer, read me a letter from a young man in the army of the Potomac, written to his mother after the Battle of Chancellorsville. It was the elder brother of him whose remains lie here. Early in the war the hearts of both burned to take part in the conflict for what they believed to be the cause of liberty, truth and justice among men. The elder went : the younger stayed, to support and comfort his mother. Presently came brave letters from the camp, telling of the life there, presenting the most encouraging aspects of it, for the sake of the dear ones at home, making light of the privations, hardships and perils, and showing how the pure purpose of the heart was deepening, how the manly character was ripening, under circumstances that are usually considered to be fatal to all sweetness and tenderness of nature. The soul of the younger brother was stirred by these words from the camp and the field. He felt that he must go. His mother pleads, his brother remonstrates, saying what such a man would say about duty at home, the mother's loneliness, the chances of battle, and the fearful thing it would be were both to die - but say- ing too, in an undertone which was felt, not seen in the writing -" Well. it is a great cause, and good men are needed in it, and it is no wonder that every high-minded man is eager to do his part." And John followed Edward ; left the hills, the homestead, the farm, the sorrowing mother, the delights of his quiet, tranquil life.
Letters came now from both boys: letters that suggested - though their writers knew nothing of it and did not suspect it - the good they must be doing in the camp by their courage, their obedience, their high tone of loyalty, not less by the purity and temperance and manly simplicity of their example. Brave we knew they were: ready. faithful, unflinching, unmur- muring. At Gettysburg the elder brother falls. The younger searches the bloody miles of battle-ground for the body, finds it after many hours among the slain, bears it in his arms a mile to a quiet resting-place, whence it is removed to be borne northward by tender hands, and laid, in the gorgeous mid- summer, beneath the trees he loved so well.
Letters now from one brother again, telling the bereaved
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mother that he was unhurt and well ; that he should come back. to her soon; that Edward's spirit was about him and would ward off the balls ; and in the future would be about them both, and help them along the rest of their way.
But exposure, work, sorrow, brought sickness; weeks of · miserable sickness in the hospital, a sigh for the invigorating breath of these hills, and for a cheering sight of his old friends. But the bugle was ringing outside ; his brave fellows were mak- ing ready for the charge ; he leaves the hospital, full of courage as ever, but too feeble in body to take the field ; for a fortnight, daily, he is out, wrapped in smoke and dust ; narrowly escaping from death, as he rallies his men, he is taken prisoner. Still, from the horrible Richmond prison, come the letters, brave and uncomplaining : he is unwounded, he is safe now from danger in battle: he has strength to bear him through; he needs but a few comforts, blankets, clothing : he is not treated harshly. Poor fellow! he is dying from exhaustion. He goes to the hospital for a few days; he goes in the afternoon; the next morning he is dead in his bed.
It was long before this brother found his way homeward ; the mother's heart was getting tired with waiting; but he is here at last : and we are here, to be honored by the presence of his remains.
For what was this young life given away? For what were this sweet home, this pleasant existence, these tranquil pursuits, this dear mother resigned? For what were all these cares and toils and sorrows borne? Not for himself; not that he might · be richer, greater, more famous ; not in pride or vindictiveness, or young love of adventure; but that the poor blacks of the South, whom he knew not, and who knew not him - the poor blacks, to whom the very name of man had been denied - the beaten, treated as the offscouring of the earth, might have their human rights; for these, whom he never saw, he died, with a faith as simple and a devotion as pure as ever man had, count- ing what he did as little, remembering only what he ought to do. Unpretending, unambitious, with the heart of a little child and the conscience of a Christian man, he lived and died for a principle.
It is a strange sight. the coffin of a soldier, wrapped in a battle-flag, lying in a Friends' meeting house. He was edu- cated a Friend, and was in spirit, to the end, one of that peace- ful brotherhood, who abhor violence, and blood-shedding. and war. Comfort yourselves, oh, Friends! with the thought that he preserved that pious abhorrence as saeredly as you do. He
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was a lover of peace: he went out in the holy cause of peace. as a peacemaker. Not to make war or to continue war, but to put an end to war; to die himself, if need were, by the hand of war. that war might cease. To make war in his country forever impossible, by eradicating human slavery, its perma- nent cause, he took up arms. There seemed no other way of doing it. He would thankfully have used other means, had other means been permitted. Accepting these, he prayed al- ways for the quiet rest he hoped these would bring. You need not be afraid of shoeking your principles by receiving him here from battle. His spirit would do no violence to the saintliest communion. Do we hate war less in these days than formerly ? Nav, friends, we hate it, if possible, a thousand times more, and we hate slavery ten thousand times more, when we see them. father and son, doing such deeds as this.
O, my friends, the time is coming, the time is surely com- ing, when all they who went down into this great struggle will be held in honor by all lovers of order and peace; when they who have lost arm or leg in it will be looked at with profound respect : when they who have come out of it riven or scarred will be counted among the beautiful; when they who, like this young man, have died in it, with a noble sense of its signifi- cance. will be reckoned among the martyrs of God's truth. The time will come, when they who have sent husband, son, brother. lover, into this struggle, will be cherished in grateful remembrance.
Yes, when they who have suffered in it, in any wise, even with no high sentiment of its grandeur, and no high purpose in their death, will yet be wrapped about with its sanctifying glory. Then we, who have done nothing. who have but given a few of our superfluous dollars, who have but preached what others ought to do, will apologize for our well-preserved health and beauty, and will be glad to hide our shame behind the form of some hero of our blood.
It is sad to see so much young manhood laid low in its bloom, and laid low by that barbarian. War, pushed on by his more loathsome brother - Slavery. But we must not be nar- row in judging the issues of a human life. Who can tell how existence may be more profitably spent ? Who can decide what is the most effectual doing? Providence decides all that for ns, and makes every earnest man do his work, wherever he is, and whether he live longer or shorter. Had our young friend lived, he would have been known and beloved among these hills, and. doubtless, would have made the force of his character felt
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by his neighbors. A good son, a faithful friend, a useful towns- man, a sincere, honest, humane man, he would have lived and died here, in the quiet, and the little stream of his existence would have fed the moral life of his generation, only as one of your mountain rivulets feeds the Atlantic Ocean. The heroic quality in him would have slumbered : his power of sacri- fice would have been uncalled for, his example of pure patriot- ism would have been lost. Now he is known by many, to whom personally he was a stranger. He is respected and loved by some who never would have heard of him. He has exhibited many qualities of the highest order, where men could see them. He has shed a virtue abroad in the camp. He has read lessons of duty to some whom he would hardly have thought of in- structing. For my own part, though I never saw him, I grate- fully confess my debt to him for a fresh belief in the nobleness of nature, for a more living faith in man, for a fresh con- viction of the worth of a simple fidelity to principle, for a new sense of the sublimity of sacrifice. For me he has done much by his living, and by his dying. Yes, O my brother ! they tell me that words of mine helped to show you the significance of this struggle, and did something to deepen in your heart the purpose that has brought you thus early to the grave. You have richly repaid the debt. You have shown me the signifi- cance of a good man's deed, and, I hope, have deepened in my heart a purpose that will help me to nobler life.
But we have said too much, we have broken too long and too impertinently the sacred silence. We should have allowed him to speak more. Had he been able to speak, he would have rebuked us for praising what he did in the sincerity of his heart, because he could not help it, and under pain of self- condemnation had left it undone. Let us lay what is left of his poor body in the ground, and think of him as living and working on: for in the future time, when sweet peace shall come back to us, he will live and work in the pure sentiments he has aided in strengthening, and in the noble institutions he has died to establish.
RECRUITING FOR THE 120TH REGIMENT.
An important part of this work fell to the lot of Col. George H. Sharpe, who, by the appointment of the Governor of the State, was to command the regiment about to be raised. Col. Sharpe had commanded a company in the regiment of three months' men, which
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had gone forth from Kingston shortly after the fall of Fort Sumpter, and his experience in that campaign served to adapt him more fully to the more responsi- ble command he was now called to assume. He en- tered actively and earnestly upon the task of recruit- ing, holding meetings almost daily in the several sec- tions of the county and addressing large audiences drawn together by interest in the country's cause. These meetings were at times addressed by other in- fluential citizens of the county, who placed country before party, and by the fervor of their appeals swelled rapidly the number of recruits and raised to a higher pitch the loyal zeal and ardor of the people.
An occasional exception was found to the enthusi- asm with which these meetings stood ready to greet the speakers who, throughout the country, came with appeals for more volunteers. One of these excep- tions was at a well-known village generally considered to be foremost in patriotic action. The people there owing to certain reasons and influences, not easy to define or understand, and which soon passed away, seemed at first indifferent to the duty of contributing to the cause by personal enlistments. A meeting had been called to be held in the evening, and Col. Sharpe upon arriving in the afternoon and consulting with the leading men of the locality was informed that the meeting would undoubtedly be well attended, but there was no prospect of any enlistments, and the attempt to get them there might as well be abandoned. The meeting did prove to be a very large one and the enthusiasm gradually rose to a very high pitch. Col. Sharpe in the course of his speech stated the result of his interview with the leading men of the town in the afternoon. He said that he had been given to understand that in the regiment to be raised that locality would not be represented. He had always had a high opinion of the courage and enthusiasm of
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its citizens, and rather than leave the town without representation in the regiment, he proposed to return to Governor Morgan his commission as colonel, and to enlist as a private for that locality in order that the whole county might be represented. He was fol- lowed by one or two strong addresses from prominent citizens, and at the close of the meeting seven young men came forward to enlist, and their example was soon followed by a sufficient number to authorize the issuing of a commission to a young man of the same town, who finally fell at the head of his men on one of the most memorable battlefields of the war.
The above is an account of the public meeting held at Milton. Edward H. Ketcham had received au- thority to recruit for a company of his regiment, and when he should obtain a certain number of recruits he was to be commissioned Second Lieutenant. At first he had very poor success, and at his earnest solicitation Col. Sharpe came down to assist him and the above-mentioned meeting was held with good success and Ketcham soon obtained his commission and was killed the first day of the battle of Gettys- burg. William J. Purdy afterward received author- ity to recruit for the 156th Regiment being formed in this county in the latter part of 1862. He enlisted about twenty-five men in the town and received his commission as Second Lieutenant in that regiment. The balance of the enlistments from this town were scattered among at least twenty different organiza- tions and in different departments and different ser- vices. Many were killed, wounded or taken prison- ers, and some of the missing have never been heard from.
From the best estimates that can be made, there are not to exceed twenty still alive, of whom not more than ten are now living in the town, of all the men from this town who enlisted in the Union army. There were very few enlistments in the navy.
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HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH.
SPECIAL ELECTION TO RAISE MONEY FOR WAR PURPOSES.
The following is a record of the proceedings of a special town meeting held in 1864 to provide money to pay a bounty to men who would enlist :
Town of Marlborough, 2
Ulster County.
At a special town meeting held at the hotel of Samuel H. Kniffin in the town of Marlboro in Ulster County on the thirty-first day of August, 1864, pursuant to a publie notice given by the Town Clerk of said town. Present: Isaac Staples and Charles C. Merritt Justices of the Peace, and A. M. Cav- erly having been duly appointed clerk, for the purpose of rais- ing money by tax on said town to pay a town bounty to all those who go to fill the quota under the last call of the Presi- dent for five hundred thousand men etc.
The following resolution was adopted at said meet- ing previous to the opening of the polls on said day, viz. :
Resolved that there be two hundred and fifty dollars raised by tax on the town of Marlboro as town bounty for all those who go to fill the quota for said town, under the President's last call for five hundred thousand men.
The above resolution was also voted on by ballot with the following result, viz :
The whole number of votes given for and against the same was one hundred and ninety-three, of which the whole number to raise two hundred and fifty dollars was one hundred and seventy-seven ; and of which the whole number against raising two hundred and fifty dollars was fourteen, and of which there were two votes given to raise four hundred dollars.
We certify that the foregoing statement is correct in all re- spects.
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