USA > New York > Wayne County > Military history of Wayne County, N.Y. : the County in the Civil War > Part 23
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" Mr. Rhein was born in the town of Neustadt, Kurhessen county, one of the German provinces, not far from the banks of the Rhine, on March 5th, 1795. He joined Napoleon's army during the spring of 1814, as a drummer boy, when he was a trifle over nineteen years of age, and a few months over twenty years old at the time of the battle of Waterloo, June 18th, 1815. He continued in the service until Septem- ber 12, 1817, at which time his discharge is dated. Among his old papers we found a letter of recommendation, written by his old regimental commander, commending him highly as being a good soldier, and as being faithful and earnest in the performance of his duties.
" March 19th, 1819, he was apprenticed to a harness maker of his native village to learn the trade, which he followed until the last few years of his life. In 1832 he was married to Mary M. Snyder, and soon after, with his wife, came.to this country. He first settled at Sand Lake, afterwards moving into the town of Sodus in this county. The last five years of his life were spent with J. L. Snyder, his step- grandson, at whose home on the corner of Miller and Norton streets his death occurred. The funeral services were held on Tuesday, May 29th, at II o'clock, at the German church, of which he was an honored member, the sermon being preached by Rev. Mr. Lehn, his pastor, followed with remarks by Rev. A. J. Kenyon, of the Methodist church of this village. His remains were interred in Willow Avenue Cemetery."
DEATH OF AN OLD SOLDIER.
" Frederick Rorabach, a German, died at his home in the town of Sodus (at Sodus Centre), in this county, one day last week, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years. Deceased was a soldier under Napoleon during the latter portion of his campaign, commencing with the battle of Austerlitz and ending with the defeat at Waterloo. It was
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interesting to hear the old man, in his broken English, recount the scenes of those terrific engagements-his excite- ment sometimes getting the mastery over him, as he dwelt upon them, so that he could scarcely articulate a word. His affection for Napoleon, and the tenderness with which he always spoke of his beloved commander, were truly remarkable.
" Deceased was a farmer by occupation. He came to this country about fourteen years ago. He was an industrious, active man to the last; indeed, he had been carrying in wood only a few minutes before he died, when, sinking into a chair, he expired without a struggle or a groan." -March 18, 1869.
· AN OLD SOLDIER GONE.
" Edward Quaif, of Manchester, died on the 23d ult., at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was in early life a soldier of the Peninsula war, and served at the battles of Salamanca, Saragossa, Badajos and Cindad Roderigo, and was one of nineteen left out of a Regiment of more than 1,000. In his advanced years he was remarkable for his physical strength and vigor ; at eighty years of age he could perform as much labor, and with as little bodily discomfort, as the most of farm hands."-February 5, 1869.
Dr. Henry Perrine, of Palmyra, removed to Florida at. the time of the Seminole war. He was killed in the massa- cre at Indian Key, August 7, 1840. Dr. Perrine was born in Brooklyn in 1797, and was therefore only forty-three years old at the time of his death.
Edward Quaif, of the town of Manchester, near Palmyra, died January 23d, 1864, aged eighty-three. In early life he was a soldier of the Peninsula war. After the defeat of Sir John Moore at Corunna, Arthur Wellesley was ordered to Spain with reinforcements. At this time there was sent out the King's Household Guards, a body that seldom or never left the kingdom. Mr. Quaif served in this body sixteen years, and went with it to Spain on this expedition, where he was engaged in several bloody battles and des- perate sieges.
Dr. Alexander McIntyre, of Palmyra, was an assistant surgeon in the War of 1812, and served upon the lines at Niagara. He was present and near to General John Swift, when the latter was killed. Dr. McIntyre was born in
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Cummington, Massachusetts, in 1792. In 1800 he came to Palmyra to reside with his uncle, Dr. Gain Robinson. When sixteen years old he engaged as clerk in Newark at the mouth of the Niagara river. Besides his clerkship he taught music and made excursions for trade among the Indians. His suc- cess was such that at the age of nineteen he was able to pur- chase a farm at Youngstown, upon which he settled his parents. His father was captured in a British raid and died a prisoner of war at Quebec in November, 1815. Dr. McIntyre completed his studies with his uncle and was a well known physician of extensive practice at Palmyra down to the time of his death in July, 1859. Upon the Robinson side of Dr. McIntyre's ancestry, there were many noted as sol- diers in England; and in this country three served in the Revolutionary war, one being killed in battle at Burgoyne's defeat, and two dying in the army, of disease.
PART SECOND.
CHAPTER I.
OPENING OF THE CIVIL WAR-PROCLAMATION CALLING FOR 75, 000 MEN RECEIVED IN WAYNE COUNTY -SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE -EDITORIALS OF APRIL 1861 -PUBLIC MEETINGS - RESOLUTIONS - SPEECHES - FLAGS WAV- ING -- FATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS FROM THE PULPIT, THE PRESS, THE PLAT- FORM AND THE STREET.
F ORTY-SIX years had passed away since the proclama- tion of peace in 1815. During all that period the people of Wayne County had had no occasion to be aroused by the scenes or the sounds of war.
Here and there a citizen of the county had joined the · regular army and been engaged in various Indian wars, but they were so few as to attract little or no attention. The Mexican war had been fought and a victory won ; yet only a few persons actually residing in Wayne County at the time were engaged in that struggle. The contest of the Canadian patriots in 1838, and the intervention of Americans in their behalf, created for a time, apprehensions of war with England.
The dispute with England in 1842 over the northeast boundary line of Maine was easily settled by diplomacy. A similar struggle with reference to the northwest boundary occurred in 1846, and " Fifty-Four Forty or Fight," was for a time the rallying cry of the newspapers ; but this difficulty was also settled by negotiation. The United States gave up what is now British Columbia, and the danger passed away. It is true that within that period there had been political revo- lutions ; startling events had taken place ; exciting subjects had been under discussion ; but the bloody hand of war had not touched our soil, nor had its hoarse voice summoned our
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people to the field and actual strife. There had been a national growth not surpassed and seldom equaled in all the history of the ages.
New states had been settled and admitted to the Union. California and the adjoining Mexican provinces had been secured by the treaty which terminated the war with Mexico.
The discovery of gold had given a sudden impulse to the march of emigration and its resistless columns had scaled the mountain peaks, traversed the valleys, and made the wilder- ness to blossom as the rose and the desert to become a fruit- ful field. The United States had increased in national power, in material wealth, in educational facilities, and in all the ele- ments of civilization. Great benevolent and religious organi- zations were actively at work caring for the poor and the destitute ; and sending the Gospel to the waste places of our own land and to the dark fields of barbarism on other con- tinents.
That war would have any important part in the future his- tory of this continent was a forgotten idea. Moral, religious and educational influences were thought to be the only weap- . ons that would hereafter be used along the lines of national progress.
A National Peace Society existed with a publication house and other machinery for dissemenating its principles. At its grand anniversary meeting, there was heralded forth its work of universal brotherhood. Swords were surely to be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. Hon. Charles Sumner one of their most eloquent orators uttered the epigrammatic sentence :
"No revolution is worth the shedding of a single drop of human blood."
These higher agencies were to supersede the work of armies, and wars were to cease. It was a golden dream of the philanthropist ; only a dream. The day of universal peace had not even dawned.
Besides, there was an impression that martial qualities had died out from the race; that if moral ideas did not prevent war, yet cowardice would; that men would not fight, dare not fight as their fathers had in the olden times.
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The two sections of the Union that finally engaged in the deadliest war of the ages, fearfully misunderstood each other at this period. The discussions upon the subject of slavery had been for years growing in intensity. Commenc- ing with the issuing of the "Rights of Man" in 1832, those discussions had invaded every department of national life. Churches had divided and even dissolved under the agita- tions evoked and the passions aroused, yet who thought of war in the future ? Political parties had crumbled. Political revolutions had occurred. Statesmen had risen and states- men had fallen on the waves of popular commotion. Yet who dreamed of armies and of battles? The halls of Congress had echoed to the eloquence of a hundred orators presenting one side or the other of the subjects in dispute, or proposing a compromise between them. Yet who really believed that civil war was to be the outcome of all this? Personal combats even had occurred without really creating an impression that there was danger of actual war. Charles Sumner had been brutally beaten at his desk. Northern Representatives carried revolvers to their seats. Potter, the long armed Representative from Wisconsin, accepted the challenge of Roger Pryor and named bowie knives as the weapons to be used. Burlingame, from Massachusetts, of unerring aim, accepted the challenge of Brooks, of South Carolina, and named the Clifton House, Niagara Falls, as the place, and rifles as the arms. Yet no one seemed to see how short the step was from the era of personal combat to the era of war. At the North men said, let Congress limit, restrict, and abolish slavery ; let them do what they will and the South will only bluster, not fight. They are loaded down with slavery ; the moment they organize to fight the North, the slaves will rise and no Southerner will dare leave his home to the horrors of a slave insurrection. The South said of the North : they are a sordid, trading race ; they care more for the almighty dollar than for the best country the sun ever shone upon ; threaten their trade and they will not fight; they are "greasy mechanics" and " mudsills" with neither courage nor patriotism. And so with this terribly mistaken opinion of each other the sec-
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tions drifted on and on to the inevitable conflict. The North at least asleep, the North, at least, all unconscious of the dread struggle just before them.
True, there had been warning voices, but they were unheeded. Daniel Webster in his place in the United States Senate in 1832, when the tariff, not slavery was South Carolina's pretext for nullification and dissolution, had uttered these words-words that will live as long as language shall be spoken or books shall exist in the libraries of the remotest ages :
" When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union : on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood."
Did the curtain of the future lift for him at that instant, that he might look down the brief vista of thirty years and see his son Colonel Fletcher Webster bleeding and dying on the battle field of Bull Run, August 29, 1862 ?
At last the very edge of the perilous plunge from peace to war was reached. Events had marched with marvellous rapid- ity. The result of the election of November 6, 1860, pro- nouncing Abraham Lincoln the chosen President of the United States was known throughout the country November 7th.
On the same day the Legislature of South Carolina issued a call for a convention to meet December 17th. That Con- vention met on the day named and on the 24th of the same month adopted an ordinance of secession and Governor Francis Pickens immediately issued a proclamation announc- ing that South Carolina was a free and independent State ! ! The State forces within a day or two seized the Custom House, Post Office, and the Arsenal in Charleston, and Forts Pinckney and Moultrie in the harbor ; Major Anderson with- drawing his small force to Fort Sumter.
On the 9th of January, 1861, Mississippi passed an ordi- nance of secession ; on the Ioth, Florida ; on the 11th, Ala- bama; on the 12th Georgia; on the 26th Louisiana and on the Ist of February, Texas. Each State seizing at the same time the arsenal and the government buildings within its limits except Fort Pickens in Florida.
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February 9th a Convention to effect peace by comprom- ise met at Washington whose elaborate discussions and care- fully drawn propositions proved wholly ineffectual. To return to an earlier date: December 14th, General Cass resigned his place in the cabinet because President Buchanan refused to re-enforce the Forts in Charleston Harbor. Various other resignations followed and Joseph Holt became Secre- tary of War. December 29th, Commissioners from South Carolina came to Washington to demand the surrender of all the Forts within the limits of that State. They were not received by the President and the latter permitted his Cabi- net, a majority of which was now loyal, to attempt the pro- visioning of Fort Sumter. The steamer Star of the West left New York January 6, with supplies for Major Anderson. On the 9th in attempting to enter Charleston Harbor she was fired upon by the rebels and compelled to desist. Mr. Thomas of Maryland having left the Cabinet because of the attempt to re-enforce Fort Sumter, General John A. Dix was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, where he wrote the famous order to Lieutenant Caldwell of a Revenue Cutter :
" If any man attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot."
Nothing further was attempted by the outgoing adminis- tration. The Legislatures of New York, Ohio and Massa- chusetts offered military aid but no steps were taken to accept it.
March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated Presi- dent. It was an hour of solemn responsibility. Holding that no State had any right of its own motion to secede from the Union, and that therefore all ordinances of seces- sion were void and all acts under them treason, he said :
"I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken and to the extent of my ability I shall take care as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States."
Prior to this on the 4th of February, a convention of dele- gates from the seceded states had met at Montgomery, Ala- bama, and on the 8th, adopted a preliminary constitution,
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forming a government to be known "as the Confederate States of America." A permanent constitution was adopted March 17th, but the convention elected Jefferson Davis, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President, Feb- ruary 9th. Mr. Stephens was sworn in February 10th, and Jefferson Davis February 18th, and a few days later the cabinet was appointed.
It thus appears that when President Lincoln entered upon the duties of his office he stood face to face with a new and hostile government already formed on southern soil-that to all intents and purposes a state of war had existed since the seizure of the arsenal and other buildings at Charleston, December 17th to 20th. Events were not to be delayed at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. Within a week Com- missioners from the confederate government came to Wash- ington bearing propositions for negotiation. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, replied on the 15th that he could not in any way admit that " the so-called Confederate States con- stitute a foreign power with whom diplomatic relations ought to be established ;" and both he and the President declined all official intercourse with the Commissioners.
At a meeting of the Cabinet March 21, it was decided that a fleet should be sent to re-enforce Fort Sumter. A hastily equipped squadron sailed from New York and other North- ern ports April 6th and 7th. This fact was known to the Confederate authorities. General Beauregard in command at Charleston received orders from the Confederate Secre- tary of War to demand the immediate surrender of Fort Sumter. The demand was made upon the 11th and refused by Major Anderson.
On the 12th, the bombardment commenced. The eyes of loyal people were upon the flag that waved above Fort Sumter, a symbol of national sovereignty, and their hearts were with Major Anderson and his heroic band beleaguered within the walls of the old historic fort. The rebels were 10,000 strong ; they were entrenched in batteries which they had been allowed to build during all the winter ; they were well armed with guns and ammunition, which traitors in the Cabinet and elsewhere had allowed them to steal from
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the arsenals of the government. There was of course but one result possible. The Union fleet had failed to enter the harbor which it reached on the 12th. Major Anderson was obliged. to surrender.
This narrative of events has seemed necessary in order to properly understand the reception of the news in Wayne county and the action of her citizens in response. We add several other dates at this point for completeness of state- ment before limiting our work to its local objects. Seven states had seceded as shown above and formed the Con- federate government. What "the border states" would do became a question of great moment to both the parties in the struggle then opening. The attack upon Fort Sumter was largely prompted by the desire of the Confederate Government to force the border states to action.
Roger A. Pryor, who some years before had ran in terror from Potter's bowie knife, said in Charleston the evening before the attack on Fort Sumter, " Strike a blow and the moment blood is shed, Virginia will make common cause with her sisters of the south." It was the same sentiment which Mr. Gilchrist uttered when he said, " Sprinkle blood in the faces of the people of Alabama, or they will be back in the Union in ten days."
The Virginia Convention voted eighty-nine to forty-five not to secede. This was on the 4th day of April. On the 17th, by treasonable methods at a secret session, the ordi- nance was forced through, eighty-eight to fifty-five. Arkan- sas seceded May 6th, and Tennessee the same day. North Carolina did not secede until May 20th. The South were elated with the victory won at Charleston. The Governor of that State said :
"We have humbled the flag of the United States. We have defeated their twenty millions. We have brought down in humility the flag that has triumphed for seventy years. To-day, on this 13th of April, 1861, it has been hum- bled, and humbled before the glorious little State of South Carolina."
At Montgomery the Secretary of War, Mr. Walker, said : " No man can tell where the war this day commenced will end, but I will prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the
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breeze here will float over the dome of the Capitol at Wash- ington before the first of May. Let them try Southern chivalry and test the extent of Southern resources and it may float eventually over Faneuil Hall itself."
Such was the exultation of the South. It remains to state the other side. The surrender of Fort Sumter woke the North to action as one man. The news telegraphed to all parts of the nation thrilled the loyal masses of the East and the West. Men with daily newspapers waving in their hands met their neighbors on the streets shouting " They have fired on Fort Sumter." " Fort Sumter has Surrendered." Shame, grief and indignation struggled for expression. Business was suspended. Men could not continue their avocations. They thronged telegraph offices, studied newspaper bulletins, gathered in groups at street corners to talk over with flash- ing eyes and clenched fists the disgraceful news.
In the midst of this excitement and simultaneously with the news of the surrender came the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. It was like the blast of a trumpet thrill- ing a continent from ocean to ocean. It was the war cry of an imperiled government. And men read more than its careful measured words. They read between its lines all the black story of treason that made the call necessary. They read, the trampled flag, the insulting shouts of the traitors and as they read they sternly resolved that the Uuion should live and that the flag should again wave over the men who had defied the sacred symbol of a nation's sovereignty.
THE PROCLAMATION.
" WHEREAS, The laws of the United States have been for some time past and are now opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by com- binations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law. Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to
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call forth and hereby do call forth the militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details for this object will be im- mediately communicated to the State authorities through the War department.
" I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this attempt to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our National Union and the perpetuity of popu- lar government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces called forth, will probably be to repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union ; and in every event the utmost care will be observed consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.
" And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.
" Deeming that the present condition of public affairs pre- sents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective cham- bers at twelve o'clock, noon, on Monday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as in their wisdom the public interest and safety may seem to demand."
Such was the call to arms that thrilled the people of Wayne and ended the long years of peace. True, it was not a call to defend their own lake frontier as in the days of their fathers, a half century before. They had no occasion
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to expect a hostile fleet in Sodus Bay. There was no danger that hostile armies would march over their own fields, or that their own villages and houses would be burned by an invading foe.
But though evidently secure in person and in property from actual attack, the danger to the country stirred all hearts to their profoundest depths. It was easily seen that if rebellion was allowed to triumph, there was no guaranty of peace even to the remote counties of the North. One successful revolt against the flag might unsettle everything upon this continent for a thousand generations.
The title to every man's home is valid only because a stable government can protect it. Destroy the government and the title is gone. No commercial paper is good for anything except as there is a government able to enforce its collection. Destroy the government and all contracts are void. Destroy the government and business must return to the barter of barbarism.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter having begun on the morning of the 12th (Friday) ; the surrender being agreed to on the afternoon of the 13th; the evacuation of the fort being made on the 14th ; the proclamation was issued on the 15th. The current of news reaching Wayne County was somewhat interrupted by the occurring of Sunday, so that to a large part of our citizens the startling events first became known on Monday. The demand, the attack, the surrender, and the proclamation reached most of the towns together, or at least in quick succession.
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