Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 12

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374

USA > New York > Albany County > Landmarks of Albany County, New York > Part 12

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The 44th, or " People's Regiment," was a Zouave organization com- posed largely of Albany county men, and was formed October 16, 1861. It left for the seat of war on the 20th of that month, 850 strong and officered as follows:

Stephen W. Stryker, colonel; James C. Rice, lieutenant-colonel; James McKown, major; William Frothingham, surgeon; Edward B. Knox, adjutant. Captains: Co. A, Edward P. Chapin; Co. B, L. S. Larabee; Co. C, William H. Revere, jr .; Co. D, Freeman Conner; Co. E, Michael McN. Walsh; Co. F, Campbell Allen; Co. G, William L. Vanderlip; Co. H, William N. Danks; Co. I, A. Webster Shaffer; Co. K, William H. Miller. Capt. Rodney G. Kimball, 1862; Capt. B. Munger, 1862.

The regiment performed meritorious service at Yorktown, Hanover Court House, Gaines's Mills, Turkey Island, Malvern Hill, Groveton, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Rappahan- nock, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. The regiment was mustered out September 24, 1864, with 170 men, having been supplied with more than 700 recruits during its term of service. Lieut. Col. (afterwards Brigadier General) James C. Rice, a graduate of Yale and a law student, with a previous brilliant military career, participated in all the engagements of his regiment until at Petersburg, May 10, 1864, where he received a fatal wound. Sergt. Walter H. Angus, promoted second lieutenant, was killed at Petersburg June 21, 1864.

The 91st Regiment was recruited during the fall of 1861, mostly in

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and near Albany, and was mustered into the service for three years December 16, 1861, with 847 men. It left Albany December 20 for Governor's Island, where it remained until January 8, 1862. Thence it went direct to Key West, where it arrived January 20. The officers of the regiment were as follows:

Jacob Van Zandt, colonel; Jonathan Tarbell, lieutenant-colonel; Charles G. Clark, major; Robert F. Keeven, adjutant; Robert Morris, surgeon. Captains: Co. A, John W. Felthousen ; Co. B, George W. Stackhouse; Co. C, J. G. McDermott ; Co. D, Henry Crounse; Co. E, William Lee; Co. F, John Cooke; Co. G, Allan H. Jackson; Co. H, J. B. Collins; Co. I, Charles A. Burt; Co. K, Henry S. Hulbert.

The 91st was stationed at Pensacola for seven months, when it went to New Orleans under Banks and participated in engagements at Port Hudson, Irish Bend, Bayou Vermilion, and other points, suffering severely. The regiment returned home July 19, 1864, and nearly all of its members re-enlisted. After being fully recruited it was in Feb- ruary, 1865, assigned to the 5th Corps and stationed near Petersburg, where it performed valiant service in the closing scenes of the war. Among the officers of the regiment who lost their lives were the fol- lowing: Major George W. Stackhouse, died June 19, 1863, from gun- shot wounds, at Port Hudson. Capt. John A. Fee, a native of Albany, rose from the ranks, was wounded June 30, 1863, and died July 15. Lieut. William P. Clark, born in Watervleit, shot through the head at Irish Bend July 14, 1863. Lieut. Sylvester B. Shepard, born in Albany, was a member of the celebrated Burgesses Corps, killed at Port Hud- son June 14, 1863, at the head of his company.

The 11th New York Havelock Battery was organized in Albany Oc- tober 26, 1861, and mustered in January 6, 1862, with 156 men and the following officers: Captain, A. A. Von Puttkammer; first lieuten- ants, R. A. Warrington and James Rodgers; second lieutenants, G. A. Knapp and John E. Burton. The battery left Albany for the front on January 17, and participated in the battles of Second Bull Run, Fred- ericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and others. From September, 1864, to Lee's surrender it was engaged almost every day. Lieut. Henry D. Brower, a native of Albany, of this battery was killed at Chancellorsville May 3, 1863; Corporal William H. Van Gaasbeek was killed at Cold Harbor June 6, 1864, and Corporal William H. Brough- ton was killed at Petersburg, September 28, 1864.

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On the 2d of July, 1862, a call was made for 300,000 men, under which the quota of New York State was 59, 705, but the State furnished 78,904. Recruiting and other military operations at Albany now be- gan in earnest. It was clearly seen that the war was not to be, as at first anticipated, a brief and unimportant struggle, and throughout the North the work of raising troops to aid the cause was taken up with vigor. The 113th Regiment (or the 7th Regiment New York Volun- teer Artillery) was organized in Albany county, under the proposition that each senatorial district should raise one regiment with the utmost possible dispatch. A committee was appointed consisting of Eli Perry, J. F. Rathbone, Lyman Tremain, J. Tracey, T. W. Olcott, George Dawson, C. B. Cochrane, J. V. L. Pruyn, Franklin Townsend, Samuel Anable, W. M. Van Antwerp, George H. Thatcher, and Henry A. Brigham, and the first man enlisted for the regiment signed the roll July 24, 1862. So energetically was the work prosecuted that over 1,100 men were mustered in on August 18, 1862, with the following field and staff officers:

Colonel, Lewis O. Morris; major, Edward A. Springstead; adjutant, Frederick L. Tremain; quartermaster, E. Willard Smith; surgeon, James E. Pomfret; assistant surgeons, J. W. Blaisdell, George W. Newcomb; chaplain Humphrey L. Calder. Captains: Co. A, Joseph M. Murphy; Co. B, Samuel E. Jones; Co. C, John A. Morris; Co. D, Charles McCulloch; Co. E, Norman H. Moore; Co. F, Robert H. Bell; Co. G, Francis Pruyn; Co. H, John McGuire; Co. I, William Shannon; Co. K, Samuel L. Anable. Lieutenants; Co. A, A. Sickles, 1st, John B. Read, 2d; Co. B, J. Kennedy, 1st, William E. Orr, 2d; Co. C, H. N. Rogers, 1st, M. Bell, 2d; Co. D, C. Schurr, 1st, H. C. Coulson, 2d; Co. E, A. V. B. Lockrow, 1st, J. F. Mount, 2d; Co. F, N. Wright, 1st, R. Mullens, 2d; Co. G, S. McEwan, 1st, C. W. Hobbs, 2d; Co. H, H. C. Ducharme, 1st, F. Pettit, 2d; Co. I, J. O. Hair, 1st, J, M. Ball 2d; Co. K, M. H. Barckley, 1st, G. Krank, 2d.

The regiment left Albany August 19, 1862, and was stationed in the defenses of Washington. In December, 1862, its character was changed from infantry to artillery, and recruited to 152 men in each company. It performed arduous and important service in building many forts and batteries. In the spring of 1864 two companies were added to the reg- iment, with the following officers: Captains, Co. L, James Kennedy ; Co. M, George H. Treadwell. First Lieutenants, Co. L, F. W. Mather ; Co. M, G. B. Smallie. Second lieutenants, Co. L, C. C. Mcclellan; Co. M, E. S. Moss. On May 17, 1864, the regiment joined the Army of the Potomac near Spottsylvania and was engaged in the battles of Po River, North Anna, Tolopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Reams's Station, in some of which it suffered severely. On February

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22, 1865, the remnant of the regiment was ordered to Baltimore to re- main until mustered out in June, 1865. Of the many fatalities that occurred in this organization, the following should be mentioned: Col. Lewis Owen Morris, a native of Albany, took part in the Mexican war, retained command of this regiment until June 3, 1864, when he was killed by a confederate sharpshooter. Major Edward A. Springstead, born in Albany, served as first lieutenant in the 43d Regiment, was promoted from captain in the 113th, and was killed at the head of his men at Reams's Station August 25, 1864. Capt. James Kennedy, born in Albany, wounded at Cold Harbor June 3, and at Reams's Station August 25, 1864, and captured; died in Libby prison September 10, 1864. Capt. John A. Morris, a native of Albany, shot through the heart at Spottsylvania May 19, 1864. Capt. Nathaniel Wright, shot at Reams's Station August 25, 1864. Capt. Robert H. Bell, was wounded in the Wilderness May 19, 1864, and died June 20. Lieut. William Emmet Orr, a native of Albany, wounded at North Anna, and died June 2, 1864. Lieut. James H. Morgan, born in Albany, taken prisoner at Reams's Station and died at Salisbury, N. C., November 21, 1864. Lieut. Michael H. Barckley, born in the town of Knox, graduated at Union College, raised a company in his town, was wounded at Cold Harbor and died July 6, 1864. Charles S. Evans, a native of Rensselaerville, killed at Cold Harbor June 5, 1864. Lieut. Charles L. Yeardsley, born in West Troy, killed at Petersburg June 3, 1864, while leading Co. G in a charge. Lieut. John B. Read, wounded at Cold Harbor and left within the enemy's lines. Sergt. James S. Gerling, wounded in the Wilderness June 3, 1814, and again August 24, and died October 8, 1864. Sergt. George Sanders, wounded by a shell at Cold Harbor and died in hospital June 18, 1864. Sergt. Will- iam H. Bell, born in the town of Berne, died in service March 15, 1864.

Recruiting for the 192d Regiment, the last to leave Albany and very nearly the last to leave the State, began in January, 1865. While nominally an Albany regiment, a large part of its officers and privates were from adjoining counties. The organization reached the seat of war too late to experience any fighting.

Among other officers from this county who performed honorable ser- vice in the army and fell either on the field or from disease contracted in the army, a few may be briefly noticed here:

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Col. Edward Frisby was a native of Trenton, N. Y., and settled in Albany in 1826, where he engaged in business as a hatter. He joined the State militia at an early age and rose from corporal through the several grades to brigadier-general. In April, 1861, he went to the front with the 25th Militia Regiment, returned, raised the 30th Regi- ment of volunteers and went out as its colonel. He was killed in the second battle of Bull Run August 22, 1862.

Lieut. - Col. Frederick Lyman Tremain, son of Lyman Tremain, re- ceived a college education and had not reached his majority at the breaking out of the war. He enlisted in the 113th Regiment, raised a company and was promoted adjutant; was afterward transferred to the 1st Brigade, 3d Division, Cavalry Corps, and later to the 2d Brigade, 2d Division. After participating in all the engagements with General Sheridan's army, he was wounded at Dabney's Mills, February 5, 1855, and died three days later.

Capt. Harmon N. Merriam, educated for the law, aided in raising the 10th Regiment and was commissioned captain of Co. H; was wounded at Port Hudson May 27, 1863, while at the head of his com- pany, and died on his way home July 15, 1863.

Capt. John McGuire, a native of Ireland, settled in Albany in 1845, was a sergeant in the Worth Guards, enlisted in the 25th Regiment and served through 1861-2. In September of the latter year he was made first lieutenant in the 175th Volunteers and promoted captain. After a long period of honorable service he was killed by guerillas April 15, 1865.

Lieut. James Williamson, born in Scotland, was first lieutenant in the 10th Regiment Militia, and when the regiment was changed to the 177th Volunteers he was appointed first lieutenant Co. H. He was killed while leading a charge at Port Hudson, May 27, 1863.

Orderly Sergeant Peter M. Shaler, a Scotchman, settled in Albany in 1858, joined the 10th Regiment, was wounded March 24, 1863, and died July 18, 1863.

Sergeant Alexander D. Rice, born in Albany April 10, 1837, enlisted August 6, 1862, in Co. C, 7th N. Y. Heavy Artillery, and promoted to sergeant; was wounded June 3, 1864, and died June 28.

Sergeant Andrew T. Hotaling, enlisted in Co. A, 7th Heavy Artillery, November 7, 1862, and twice thereafter promoted; wounded at Peters- burg June 22, 1864, and died July 26.

Sergeant Paul Quay, born in Knox July 30, 1841, enlisted in the 7th

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Heavy Artillery, taken prisoner June 16, 1864, was sent to Anderson- ville and thence to Milan, where he died in prison.

Succeeding the call of August 4, 1862, for nine months volunteers (under which New York furnished 59,705) the next call was that of February 1, 1864, under which, in the aggregate, New York furnished 59,839 men. March 14, 1864, another call was issued for 200,000, un- der which this State supplied 41,940, nearly 10,000 more than her quota. Under the next call, July 18, 1864, for 500,000 men for one, two, or three and four years, this State furnished a total of 83,843 men. The last call was dated December 19, 1864, for 300,000 men, and en- listments stopped before the various quotas were filled, the aggregate from New York being 34,196.

In the payment of bounties Albany county kept abreast of the other counties of the State and her quotas were filled as promptly as those of any other section. The county paid out for bounties to volunteers $3,100, 700, and for expenses of recruiting and other military matters $225,125.39; making a total of $3,325,825. 39.

The war had scarcely begun when the Ladies' Army Relief Associa- tion was organized in Albany to co-operate with the United States Sanitary Commission in the aid of sick and wounded soldiers. The association was in existence as early as November, 1861, and similar organizations were effected in Coeymans, Rensselaerville, Knox, and perhaps other towns in the county. The ladies of Albany raised $19,- 212.30 in money for the purposes noted during the four years ending January 1, 1866, and sent away to the battlefields thousands of boxes and barrels of supplies of every description to comfort the soldier in his time of privation and suffering. The Army Relief Bazaar, a great structure well adapted to its purpose, was erected in the Academy Park and there was held during the months of February and March, 1864, a great Sanitary Fair, in which Troy, Schenectady, and other places par- ticipated. It was splendidly managed and the net proceeds reached about $82,000, which was turned over to the Sanitary Commission. The Albany Auxiliary to the U. S. Christian Commission also received between April 1, 1864, and January 1, 1866, the sum of $23, 740.20, be- sides a great quantity of supplies of various kinds, and books, all of which went to the alleviation of the sufferings and privations of the soldiers. Besides all this, private subscriptions in aid of the cause were numerous and liberal in this county. In the forenoon of the 9th of

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April, 1865, news of Lee's surrender reached Albany, and swept on over the whole North, kindling an outburst of joyous thanksgiving such as the country had never before witnessed, and heralded the long reign of peace that was soon inaugurated.

During the period of the war public improvements and important public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all Northern cities, while in villages and rural districts the frequent calls to arms, the great sacrifices demanded in men and money, and the sad news that came from scores of bloody battlefields, all served to distract public attention from the ordinary affairs of life. With the advent of peace all this was changed. The welcome event was properly cele- brated in all communities, and the people, so long oppressed by the terrors of civil war, turned joyfully and full of hope to the energetic prosecution of public improvements and private business. In spite of the enormous cost of the war-a financial drain that reached every hamlet in the land-there was seeming prosperity throughout the North during the several years succeeding the close of the conflict. The great demands of the government for war materials, which had for five years promoted many industries and afforded various avenues for speculation and wealth-making, the abundance of money which had poured from the national treasury in payment for supplies, and for the vast armies whose rank and file seldom hoarded it, the high prices ruling for all products, created by an inflated currency, were all causes of an era of prosperity such as the country had not before experienced. Albany county had its share in this tide of prosperity, though not to the extent of many cities where manufacturing was more extensive. Many private projects of importance were launched, river commerce was active, building operations were extensive, mercantile business was greatly extended and banks and other institutions of financial character multiplied. The agricultural interests of the county shared also in the general prosperity; farmers realized high prices for their products, and many were led to purchase farms at prices which a few years later would have been ruinous.

It was inevitable that such a state of affairs could not long continue in a time of peace. With the gradual contraction of currency, the de- creasing demand for many kinds of products, with contemporaneous over-production, and the fear of financial disaster through anticipated return to specie payment, there came a reaction which culminated in

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1872-3, causing much financial distress and many business failures. Albany county, however, as has been the case in all times of depres- sion, suffered less than many other localities; the county had gained less and was not so much affected by the inflation caused by the war, and hence suffered less in returning to normal conditions.

To preserve its chronological place in this work, the subject of the anti-rent struggle should have been taken up in the preceding chapter, but as its effects were felt through the period of the war and even later, its brief consideration is left for this place. Anti-rentism came into existence very soon after the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last holder of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck under the British crown. He died January 26, 1839. He had inherited the great manor under the law of primogeniture, as the eldest son, which had existed here through the colonial period. The American laws following the Revolution worked a radical change in this respect, and in order to keep his vast landed interests in possession of his sons and their de- scendants, Stephen Van Rensselaer, on arriving at his majority, adopted the plan of selling his land in fee, reserving to himself and his assigns all minerals, streams of water for mills, and some of the old feudal rents in wheat, fowls, service with horses, etc., and finally, the reserva- tion of one-quarter of the purchase price on every vendition of land. It is said that Alexander Hamilton drew this form of conveyance and advised his client that he could adopt it. But there was at that time an English statute in opposition to such a method of sale, such right belonging to the crown alone. It is believed that Mr. Hamilton as- sumed that the English statute had not been in force in this colony, and that therefore it had no real force here. In any event the patroon sold his lands, warranting the title, his deeds containing the feudal reservations above mentioned.

While this system of sale worked satisfactorily during his life and generally during the lives of the first purchasers, trouble began soon afterward. The patroon devised all his interest in the lands thus sold in fee to his two eldest sons, William P. and Stephen. To the latter, who was the older of the two, were given the rents in Albany county, and to the other those in Rensselaer county. The old patroon was a kindly man and doubtless his many favors to those who had purchased from him served to pacify them under the onerous burdens. But when the sons came into their estate, either their different treatment of the

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landholders, or changes in the business and agricultural relations of the time, led to complaints and later to more serious trouble. Litiga- tion began and continued many years. "The counsel consulted were either ignorant of that [English] statute or they dismissed considera- tion of it on the assumption that it was never the law of the colony or of the State. Had that statute, at the time of the anti-rent outbreak, been recognized as the law of the State, it is not too much, probably, to assert and believe that, before the distinguished judges who then adorned the bench, with the Senate composing the court of last resort -a popular as well as judicial body-the anti-rent controversy would have been spared more than a quarter of a century of political and legal conflict, and the feudal-burdened counties have become as en- lightened, prosperous and free as their sister counties in the State." 1

Early in the spring of 1839 the anti-renters held a meeting for the purpose of deciding upon some equitable basis of settlement of the dis- pute. A committee was appointed to call upon Stephen Van Rensse- laer, the elder son, and learn upon what terms they could purchase the soil outright. The committee was composed of the foremost men of the district involved; they called at the manor office in Watervliet on May 22, 1839, and met Mr. Van Rensselaer, who refused to recognize them in any manner. They then passed into the inner office, occupied by the agent, Douw B. Lansing, while the latter held a lengthy con- versation with Mr. Van Rensselaer, after which the committee were informed that they would be communicated with in writing. The com- mittee felt that this was an insult, and went away. Subsequently Mr. Van Rensselaer sent a letter to Lawrence Vandusen, of Berne, who was chairman of the committee, in which he declined to sell on any terms; this letter was read throughout the manor during that year. The landholders now began active opposition to the collection of rents; agents were insulted and their personal safety endangered; bodies of masked men resisted and attacked sheriffs in discharge of their duties and other demonstrations of force were made in various localities. In December. 1839, Sheriff Michael Artcher called to his aid the posse comitatus; with a body of about 600 men he started from Albany on the 3d day of December, 1839, for Reidsville, in the Helderbergs. Arriv- ing near the place, the sheriff selected about seventy-five of the most courageous of his men and continued towards Reidsville, where it was

1 Writings of Andrew J. Colvin.

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known many of the anti-renters had gathered. Just before reaching the place they encountered a force of 1,500 mounted men, who barred the road and ordered the sheriff and his party back. There was no al- ternative but to obey, and the whole party hastened back to Albany. When, on the following day, the sheriff acquainted Governor Seward with the outcome of his brief campaign, the governor called out the military in numbers sufficient to have captured every person in the western part of the county. The military force comprised the Albany Burgesses Corps, Albany Union Guards, Albany Republican Artillery, First Company and Second Company Van Rensselaer Guards, Troy Artillery, Troy Citizens Corps, and the Troy City Guards. The com- mand of this force was given to Major William Bloodgood, and, headed by Sheriff Artcher, the march was taken up towards Reidsville on De- cember 9. No resistance was met with before Reidsville was reached, and even then no enemy was found. It was a ridiculous sight-a great body of armed troops upon a long and weary march, to meet not even a single landholder upon whom to expend their ardor. The return was made amid a pitiless rain storm. Resistance to rent collections continued against various methods of compulsion, without much advan- tage to either side. The landholders hoped by petty and threatened acts of resistance to force the proprietors into an acknowledgment of their position, while the latter seemed to think that by military and legal action they could compel the landholders to pay whatever was demanded. At last the controversy was made a political issue, and a paper, the Freeholder, was started in Albany in support of the cause of the land- holders. Both the Whig and the Democratic parties strove to obtain the advantage of alliance with the anti-renters, but the former party had the largest number of them in its ranks. Their power was soon mani- fested in the political field. Eleven counties promptly elected represen- tatives with anti-rent proclivities to the Legislature, and Albany county elected Ira Harris to the Assembly in 1845 by more than 2,000 majority. Silas Wright, who had been considered invincible, was defeated by John Young for governer in 1846 through the influence of the anti-renters, and the strife went on. As far as its political features were concerned, little was accomplished and in that respect the cause soon lost its in- fluence.

Among the conditions of the manorial grants in fee was a provision that the grantee, or his heirs, was to pay to the proprietor on every sale of the land, ad infinitum, one-quarter of the purchase price; so

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that if a farm worth say $2,000, on which all the improvements had been made by the purchaser, was sold four times at that price, the proprie- tor would get the whole value of the farm, including the improvements, in four payments of $500 each. Litigation began in the courts on this quarter-sale provision in 1848 and in 1852 went to the Court of Appeals. Without here attempting to follow the details of the decision, let it suffice to say that it was in favor of the oppressed landholders. The Court of Appeals was then comprised of Charles H. Ruggles, chief judge, Addison Gardner, Freeborn G. Jewett, Alexander S. Johnson, John W. Edmonds, Malbone Watson, Philo Gridley, and Henry Welles. After this decision was rendered the manor proprietors were advised by counsel to sell, and this was done in some cases prior to 1852. With the changed conditions under the decision of the court, and the low prices at which lands were now offered by the proprietors, speculators, and adventurers came into the field and made many purchases. The principal buyer was Walter S. Church, then of Allegany county, who during the succeeding thirty or forty years, was responsible for end- less trouble for himself and the landholders. Litigation continued and in many iustances families were dispossessed of their farms amid dis- tressing conditions.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 12

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374