Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 8

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084

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Prior to the actual outbreak of the Rebellion the president issued a proclamation calling forth "the militia of the several States of the

ORLEANS COUNTY.

Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress com- binations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." Following this and the first gun of the great conflict, the principal villages in this county became at once centers of military activity and enthusiasm.

On Monday, April 15, 1861, the State Legislature passed a bill ap- propriating $3,000,000 and providing for the enrollment of 30,000 men to aid the general government. The volunteers under this call were to enlist in the State service for two years and to be subject at any time to transfer into the Federal service. This measure caused intense excitement throughout the State and the villages of Orleans county were ablaze with enthusiasm. In Albion the air seemed colored with flags ; the young ladies of the seminary wore zouave jackets and aprons of red, white and blue, and made and hoisted a large flag over the in- stitution ; the ladies in Albion Academy followed this example, and similar scenes were being enacted at other places in the county.

Immediately following the president's first call for 75,000 volunteers a public meeting was ordered in Albion for the evening of the 18th of April. It was largely attended and public enthusiasm characterized the proceedings. Speeches were made by Judge Sanford E. Church, Judge Davis, and others, and on motion of the latter a committee of three, consisting of H. L. Achilles, O. F. Burns, and H. J. Van Dusen, was appointed to adopt measures to secure enlistments in the county. The organization of three companies promptly followed, one of which had its headquarters at Medina. The first Albion company completed its enrollment and organization on the 22d of April, by the election of David Hardie, captain ; James O. Nickerson and William M. Kenyon, lieutenants. The second company elected H. L. Achilles, jr., captain ; W. H. Coann and Henry J. Hannington, jr., lieutenants. The Medina company completed its organization about the same time by electing E. A. Bowen, captain (afterward lieutenant-colonel of the 15Ist), and George Davis and - Chaffe, lieutenants.

An immense public meeting of citizens of all parts of the county was held on the 23d of April at Albion, which was addressed by H. R. Selden, Sanford E. Church, J. H. Martindale, N. Davis, jr., O. F. Burns, J. H. White, P. Salisbury, and others. Previous to the meeting a parade of the three military companies, the fire department, with

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bands of music, was made through the streets. The meeting was called primarily to raise funds for aid of families of volunteers. About $20,000 were subscribed, which was distributed, and collected, by com- mittees. This meeting was soon followed by a similar one held in Medina, at which nearly as large a sum was raised for the same pur- pose.

On the 3d day of May, 1861, a large part of the balance in the treas- ury of the Albion Lecture Association (then amounting to $171), was appropriated for the purchase of rubber blankets, to be presented to volunteers from Albion. On the 5th of June the women of Albion organized a ladies' volunteer association for the aid of soldiers and their families. Similar associations were organized in Medina and other vil- lages of the county and were the means of raising money and providing comforts and luxuries for the soldiers throughout the war.

Meanwhile, on the 13th of May, Captain Hardie's Company left Al- bion for Albany, and was followed by Captain Bowen's Company. Both were assigned to the 28th Regiment, under command of Colonel Dudley Donnelly, of Niagara. Captain Achilles' Company left for Elmira on the 20th of May and was there incorporated into the 27th Regiment. Each of these companies was presented with beautiful flags by the ladies.

The 28th Regiment was mustered in at Albany on the 22d of May, and on the 26th was ordered to Camp Morgan near Norman's Kill, where the men were uniformed and armed. On the 25th of June it left for Washington, arriving on the 28th. On the 5th of July it was attached to General Patterson's command at Martinsburg, Va. The regiment participated during its two years of service in engagements at Point of Rocks; marched twenty-two miles in five hours to join in the fighting at Ball's Bluff, but was too late ; at Winchester and Harrison- burg; at Cedar Mountain, where Colonel Donnelly was mortally wounded and Lieutenant-Colonel Brown was shot through the arm, and Adjutant Sprout killed ; at Antietam, where the regiment per- formed heroic service, and after working on the fortifications at Harper's Ferry, wintered at Stafford Court House. The deaths in the regiment in 1862 were sixty-three. In its last battle at Chancellorsville, the regiment lost in three days of fighting seventy-eight in killed, wounded

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and missing. The 28th returned to New York about the middle of May, 1863, and was mustered out.

The 27th Regiment, in which Company K was the one commanded by Captain Achilles, before mentioned, was organized at Elmira, May 21, 1861, was mustered in on July 5th, and left for Washington on the following day. It participated in the battle of Bull Run. On May 7, 1862, while its position was the first regiment of the first brigade of the first division of the first corps of the army, it was engaged in fighting on the York River, in which the losses of that part of the army were large, and afterwards camped at White House Landing, the 27th being on the extreme right of McClellan's army. During about a month in May and June of 1862, the regiment was often actively engaged, much of the time as skirmishers. It participated in the battle of Gaines' Mills on the 27th of June, losing 179 men in killed, wounded and miss- ing. On the 11th of September, Company K suffered an irreparable loss in the death of their gallant lieutenant, W. H. Coann, of Albion, who died at Washington while the regiment was at Georgetown. At South Mountain on September 14, the 27th was engaged on the skirm- ish line, and on the 17th at Antietam. In December the regiment marched to share in the ordeal at Fredericksburg where so many heroes fell. From this field the 27th returned to White Oak Church. In the last week of April, 1863, it was again engaged at Fredericksburg under General Sedgwick, and soon afterward in the disastrous battle of Chan- cellorsville. After this the regiment was guarding Banks's Ford until the end of its term, May 13, 1863. In the order mustering out the regiment it was specially commended by General Sedgwick. During its term of service, Company K had sixteen men discharged, seven died, eight were killed, three deserted, three were dismissed, and two were transferred.

The 11th Regiment of Infantry, organized in New York to serve three years or during the war, was joined in the latter part of 1861 by nine volunteers from Orleans county; they were Henry J. Van Dusen, Ora Van Dusen, Daniel Wells, Benjamin C. Marsh, Henry Burbank, S. Hunnant, Henry Harden, and two others. The first of these men lost an arm at Gaines' Mills ; the second was detailed on account of ill health ; Wells died of disease, and one of those not named died of 10

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wounds. The others with a single exception, were all killed in battle. It was this regiment that the gallant Ellsworth commanded.

The Eighth Regiment of Cavalry was mustered into service Novem- ber 28, 1861, to October 4, 1862, and the organization was perfected at Rochester. Company F, of forty men, was from Orleans county, commanded by F. T. Gallett, of Albion ; first lieutenant, Thomas Bell, of Albion ; second lieutenant, W. M. Bristol, of Wayne county. The regiment reached Washington on the 30th of November, 1861, and there remained through the winter. In the spring they were placed at Conrad's Ferry on the Potomac, guarding twenty-five miles of the river ; and on April 6 took possession of Harper's Ferry. While guard- ing the railroad out of that station the regiment shared in the rout of Banks's army. The men were not mounted or decently equipped until June, 1862. From this time onward, like other gallant cavalry organi- zations, this regiment was almost constantly on the move and shared in numerous encounters of varied character. Its services in the fall of 1862 were especially arduous and dangerous. On June 9, 1863. in the great cavalry raid near the Rappahannock, the regiment was con- spicuously engaged and lost several men, among them the brave Colonel Davis, who had taken command in June, 1862. Sergeant Daniel Has- kell, from Orleans county, was badly wounded. The details of the in- numerable raids of the regiment from this time onward cannot be fol- lowed here, but it took active part at Gettysburg, and in the engage- ments at Locust Grove, Hawes' Shop, White Oak Swamp, Opequan, Cedar Creek and Appomattox, besides those before mentioned. The original members of the regiment were mustered out in 1864, and the veterans and recruits June 27, 1865.

The Third Cavalry, organized at New York and mustered in in the summer of 1861, contained a company raised by Captain Judson Downs, of Murray, which left for Washington August 23, 1861-the fourth company to leave the county. In Captain Fitzsimmons's company in this regiment were nine men from Ridgeway. The battle flag of this regiment bears the names of Burns's Church, Young's Cross Roads, Williamston, Kinston, Whitehall, Goldsboro, Ball's Bluff, Weldon Rail- road, Edward's Ferry, Stony Creek, Petersburg, Malvern Hill, New Market, and Johnson's House. On the 5th of November, 1861, the

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company from Orleans county was detailed for duty at the polls at Emmettsburg, and was there presented with a flag by the ladies of the place. At the close of the term of service the original members of the regiment were discharged and the veterans and recruits retained. It was consolidated with the First Mounted Rifles, July 21, 1865, and desig- nated the Fourth Provisional Cavalry.

A regiment called the Second Mounted Rifles, otherwise the " Gov- ernor's Guard," was raised in the summer of 1863, mainly in the western part of the State. The first company filled was Capt. Joseph N. Rushmore's of Lockport, and by February, 1864, the regiment was ready for the field. While its volunteers were recruited in the full ex- pectation of being mounted, such expectation was not realized until near the close of the war, and the regiment saw the most eventful and arduous service on foot during its whole term. The regiment was under command of Col. John Fisk, of Niagara Falls, and Orleans county furnished Company L, numbering ninety - eight men. N. Ward Cady was its first captain. From December, 1863, to the following March, the regiment was stationed in Fort Porter, Buffalo, under in- struction. While stationed at Buffalo Captain Cady was promoted major, and when the regiment went to the front the officers of Company L were Henry B. Barnard, captain ; H. J. Arnold, first lieutenant ; Earnest Mansfield, second lieutenant; and Dr. S. R. Cochrane was hospital steward. From that time it was near Washington at Camp Stoneman until May 5th, when it was ordered to the front with the Army of the Potomac. From that time on through the intensely active campaign of the last year of the war, this noble organization bore an honorable share in all the prominent engagements. It partici- pated in the battle at Spottsylvania the next day after leaving Camp Stoneman ; this was followed by the engagement at North Anna, but the loss was light in both these events. Then followed fighting at Tolopotomoy Creek, and at Bethesda Church, the loss at the latter place being considerable. The regiment was now under command of Lieutenant Colonel Raymond, of New York. Next came the battle of Cold Harbor, after which the regiment moved across the James River with the army, was in a charge on the Petersburg works on the 17th of June ; was in the advance on the Weldon Railroad on the 18th, captur-

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ing the road and participating in a charge on the enemy which resulted in severe loss-between 200 and 300 killed and wounded. Captain Williams and Lieutenant De Long, the latter of Lockport, were among the killed. From this time until July 29, the regiment lay in the rifle pits constantly under fire. On the morning of the 30th occurred the mine explosion in front of Petersburg and the regiment shared in the succeeding assault, under command of Major Mapes. The final charge was made by the division containing this regiment and two lines of works were captured, with a loss to the regiment of nearly 150 men killed, wounded and prisoners. Among the most severely wounded was Captain Barnard while leading his company against the enemy's works. A few days later at Pegram's Farm where a battle took place, Major Mapes, Captain Stebbins, Lieutenants Mansfield, Bush, and be- tween forty and fifty others, were taken prisoners, while the killed and wounded numbered between fifty and seventy-five, Lieutenant Casey, of Lockport, being among the killed. In the engagement at Hatcher's Run in October, the loss to the regiment was light. In November the regiment was sent to City Point, where the long delayed horses were supplied, and orders received to report to Gen. Charles H. Smith, of the Third Brigade, Second Cavalry Division. On the second day after joining the cavalry, the regiment shared in a raid to Stony Creek Station, and in December took part in the raid on the Weldon Railroad and destroyed it. At this time the regiment was divided and a part of it sent back to participate in the second engagement at Hatcher's Run, under com- mand of Lieutenant Newman. When the regiment returned to camp it was detailed as rear guard of the Fifth Corps. Breaking its winter camp on the 29th of March, 1865, the regiment started with Sheridan in the final pursuit of Lee, sharing in the almost continuous fighting, at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, Jetersville, Sailor's Creek, and Appomattox. After the surrender the regiment was detailed to escort General Grant to Burkville Junction and then returned to Petersburg. After starting to reinforce Sherman in North Carolina, the regiment was sent to Buckingham county, Va., where it performed provost duty until August, 1865. On the 12th of that month it reached Buffalo and was mustered out, at the close of a most honorable career.

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The 8th New York Heavy Artillery was one of the most notable organizations of the war. During its term of service it lost nearly 1, 200 men in killed, wounded and missing ; of these 22 officers were killed and 2II men ; 29 officers and 653 men were wounded, and five officers and 250 men missing. A volume could not tell the story of which that is a ghastly record. The regiment was recruited in Orleans, Niagara and Genesee counties, by Col. Peter A. Porter, of Niagara Falls, and was mustered in at Lockport August 22, 1862. Companies A, C, and K, were raised in Orleans County. The regiment was organized as the 129th Volunteers, but never did any duty as such, the name being changed to the 8th Heavy Artillery in February, 1863; two additional companies were raised for the regiment in 1864. From the time of its muster the organization served until the spring of 1864 in the Baltimore defenses, except a short campaign to Harper's Ferry and in Western Virginia. On May 15, 1864, the regiment was ordered to Washington, where it arrived in the afternoon, and on the morning of the 17th was on the march for Fredericksburg, where a halt was made for supper. At 10 o'clock the march was again taken up and did not end until the Army of the Potomac at the front was reached. The regiment was now attached to Tyler's Division, Second Corps. On the night of the 19th the regiment was first under fire, and lost thirty- three in killed, wounded and missing. On the 20th the regiment started on a march that ended on the 23d at North Anna River, where the rebel fortifications were stormed and captured by part of Birney's Division, the 8th taking part in the cannonading. On the 2d of June the regiment reached Cold Harbor. The great battle was in immediate prospect and this regiment had its orders to be ready for a charge at 4 o'clock ; but the order was countermanded on account of a rain storm, and night settled down, while many took their last sleep. In the morning the distance between the lines of the 8th and the rebels was about half a mile. The sharp engagement that followed has been thus vividly described :

The first battalion on the left of the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bates; the second, in the center, by Captain McGinnis (Major Spalding being sick ;) the third, on the extreme right, by Major Willett. The batteries in the rear of the regiment opened a heavy fire simultaneously with the advance of the charging column, and the enemy replied no less vigorously. One after another went down beneath the storm of iron and lead which swept the plain. As the ranks thinned they closed up

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sternly, and with arms at trail and bayonets fixed they pressed forward on a run with- out firing a shot. Down went the colors, the staff splintered and broken, as well as the hand that held it. Brave hands seized them again and bore them onward until the enemy's works were close at hand. Colonel Porter fell, crying, " Close in on the colors, boys!" Major Willett was wounded ; a large number of line officers lay dead and dying ; one-third of the rank and file were hors du combat ; a part of the regiment was floundering in the mud ; the rebels were pouring in double charges of grape and canister at less than point blank range, sweeping away a score every moment. The line having lost its momentum, stopped from sheer exhaustion within a stone's throw of the enemy's works. All this transpired in a short ti ne. The supporting line failed to come up, old soldiers declaring that it was foolhardiness to advance under such a fire; so the brave men of the 8th had to look out for themselves. They began to dig, and every man was working himself into the ground. Every stump, mole-hill, bush and tree was a shelter. Thus the regiment lay all day, under the very noses of the rebels, and came away in squads under cover of the darkness. This seemed as hazardous as the charge itself, for no sooner did the rebels detect a movement in their front than they opened a murderous fire of both musketry and artillery. Some were killed in attempting to come out, among them Captain Gardner of Company I. An officer in describing the fire says: "It was either more severe than in the morning, or the darkness made it seem more terrible."

At nine o'clock in the evening the regiment was back in its old posi- tion, but sadly shattered. The body of Colonel Porter was discovered on the 4th about midway between the pickets of the opposing lines. It was secured in the night of the 4th. . The following figures tell the story of what this regiment suffered in that battle : 9 officers and 146 men killed ; 14 officers and 323 men wounded ; I officer and 12 men missing. After Cold Harbor, the regiment went to Petersburg under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Bates, arriving on June 16, afterwards sharing the fighting at Reams's Station, Deep Bottom, Hatcher's Run and Appomattox, suffering losses of 13 officers and 65 men killed ; 15 officers and 230 men wounded ; and 4 officers and 238 missing. On June 4, 1865, Companies G, H, I, and K, were transferred to the 4th New York Artillery ; Companies L and M were transferred to the 10th New York Infantry, and the remaining six companies were mustered out June 5, 1865.

In August, 1862, just after the departure of the 8th Artillery for the front, Col. William Emerson, of Albion, began an effort to raise a regi- ment of infantry to be numbered the 15Ist. So prompt were the re- sponses that by the middle of October the organization was ready for inspection. It was recruited from Orleans, Niagara, Genesee, Monroe

ORLEANS COUNTY.

and Wyoming counties, Companies A and D, and a part of G being from this county. On the 22d of October the regiment left Lockport for Elmira, where it was armed and then proceeded to Baltimore ; there it remained until the following spring. On the 22d of April, 1863, it was ordered to West Virginia, and during May and June was at Clarksburg, Buckhannon, Weston, Winchester, Martinsburg, Monocacy and Mary- land Heights. Thence a march was made to Frederick City, where the regiment was a part of the reserve during the fighting of the battle of Gettysburg. On the 4th of July a rapid march was made to the South Mountain Pass, which was reached the same night. On the 8th the main Army of the Potomac arrived there and all made the march through the Pass during the succeeding two days. The 15 Ist was then assigned to the 3d Corps. After the execution of Lee's well known ruse by which he escaped across the Potomac, when Meade thought he had him bagged for successful battle, the disappointed Federals march- ed on the 15th of July, under a broiling sun, into Virginia. Scores fell out of the line and at night when the 15 Ist went into camp, only ninety- seven men answered to their names; they came in afterward, straggling and foot sore. On the 16th the regiment camped at the base of Maryland Heights. The remainder of the campaign of 1863 was a se- ries of maneuvres without decisive action on either side. On the 26th and 27th of November the regiment shared in the battles at Locust Grove and Mine Run, the first severe fighting in which the 15Ist was engaged, the loss to the brigade being about 1000 in killed, wounded and missing, the loss being the greatest on the left of the line where our men made a charge through a piece of timber, driving the enemy from behind a rail fence at the point of the bayonet. It was here that Captain Wilcox, of Niagara county was killed. The regiment camped for winter at Brandy Station, occupying log houses that had been built by the enemy. In the spring of 1864 the reigment became a part of the Sixth Corps under Sedgwick, and on the 4th of May, the Army of the Potomac started towards Richmond. On the following day began the great battle of the Wilderness, in which the 15 Ist suffered its heaviest loss. This was followed by the battles of Spottsylvania and Cold Har- bor, in which the regiment bore an active and honorable part. On the 15th of June the regiment crossed the James with the Army of the

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Potomac for its new field of operations before Petersburg. Remaining in front of Petersburg two weeks, the regiment on the Ist of July start- ed for Washington to head off Early, but it was saved the trouble by other troops, and marched to Baltimore and then to Monocacy, where it shared in sharp fighting on the 9th. The following day, after a retreat of twenty miles, the regiment went to Baltimore and camped near the spot where it passed its first winter. A few weeks later, with Sheridan in Shenandoah Valley, the 15 Ist shared in the fighting at Opequan, Fish- er's Hill and Cedar Creek, and in November was ordered back to Peters- burg. Here the winter camp was made. In the short campaign of the spring of 1865 the regiment saw little fighting, and early in April was ordered to Danville to join Sherman's forces. After Johnston's sur- render the regiment proceeded to Richmond and thence to Washington, and in July, 1865, were mustered out of service. This regiment was engaged in eighteen battles, some of them the most severe of the war, and as an evidence of what they did, it is only necessary to state that when they entered the service they numbered over 1,000 men and at the close of the war mustered out only 302 men. The regiment holds an annual reunion at the present time, and can now muster only about sixty men at these gatherings. The rank and file of the companies from this county in this regiment contained many men of education and ability, and represented some of the best families in this section. Of the privates and non-commissioned officers, Charles H. Mattinson was promoted first lieutenant and adjutant; Harmon Salisbury, Albert Waring, and Samuel A. Tent, second lieutenants; Edwin L. Wage, captain and assistant provost-marshal at New Orleans ; and Eugene A. Barnes, second lieutenant, who late in the war had command of the troops at Fort Sumter. The old regimental flag is sacredly preserved by the surviving members and being but shreds and tatters, is unfurled only at their annual reunions.

Company M of the First Light Artillery was raised in Niagara and Orleans counties, thirty-eight men being from Orleans county, mostly recruited by Charles E. Winegar, who was first lieutenant in the battery and afterward promoted captain Battery " I." The regiment was mus- tered in for three years from the 30th of August, 1861, and was or- ganized at Elmira, proceeded to Washington, where it was equipped

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Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 8

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084