USA > New York > Wayne County > Military history of Wayne County, N.Y. : the County in the Civil War > Part 24
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That Monday will never be forgotten by many who even yet recall where they were standing when the news reached them.
In Lyons, the proclamation being telegraphed during the night or in the early morning, was on a bulletin board before the office of the Lyons Republican, when citizens came down to their business ; and this was also the case with the other large towns having quick telegraph communication. Before sunset the proclamation was known in all parts of the county.
The response was prompt and patriotic here as elsewhere. It would not be true to say that there were no discordant
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voices, but they were so few and unimportant as to be lost in the general uprising tide of patriotic emotion. From this standpoint of time, "twenty years away," we seem to recall only the grand outburst of indignation which marked the reception of the intelligence. The flag, with its colors of red, white and blue, became at once a sacred symbol of a people's love. It flashed out from the quickly erected staff on the grounds of the wealthy, and from the gatepost of the poor. It waved over places of business. Its folds were flung out from the domes of public buildings, from court houses, from academies, and from churches. The flag was the fashionable thing in jewelry ; its colors were called for in dress goods; and wall paper for dwellings was soon stamped with the same national symbol.
The newspapers then published in the county reflected the popular sentiment, and uttered it with no uncertain sound.
From the Wayne Democratic Press of April 17, 1861. THE WAR BEGUN.
" Our paper to-day contains the telegraphic account of the attack upon Fort Sumter by the Southern Rebels, and of its unconditional surrender. The American Union is dis- solved-broken in twain by internal dissensions. Although but little if any blood has been spilled, a war has been in- augurated between the North and the South, which may last a score of years. We now stand as two nations-a North, embracing all the North, and a South embracing, we fear, all the South. The estrangement has been consum- mated by those who supposed that the way to deal with a sovereign people who asked only a redress of their wrongs, was by force instead of concession.
"Thousands of the people of the North have been misled and betrayed by those in whom they put their trust, and thousands more are gloating over the consummation of their cherished plan of severing the Union and forming from the ruins two Confederacies-one slave, the other free.
" But the war is already begun, and it is the duty of our people to rally in support of the Government."
From the Clyde Times of April 17, 1861.
" The war news which reached here on Saturday last, and which was published in our second edition of that day, ex- cited our community to a high pitch; and still more was the anxiety for news increased when it considered that Sunday
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would intervene before they could obtain further details. Monday morning, however, brought the anxiously looked for news; and when the surrender of Fort Sumter was an- nounced, every countenance darkened as though the black cloud of despair had settled upon their minds. Soon the people began to rally ; vengeance took a lodging in almost every breast, and oaths long and loud against the Southern Rebels were freely uttered.
"' Those now swore who never swore before, And those who often swore now swore the more.'
" Every hand in our office was immediately put into re- quisition, and by eleven o'clock extras containing the par- ticulars of the fray were being scattered over the country as fast as a double team could carry them, and before night every house within a circuit of twenty miles was appraised of the news that civil war had commenced.
" In the spreading of the news our assistant was enabled to see the manner in which it was received ; and he reports that every heart seemed to beat with enthusiasm when the President's Proclamation was read, and all declared their intention to stand by the Administration and the glorious flag of freedom as long as the stripes held together or a star was visible on its azure field. Set down the yeomanry of Eastern Wayne as supporters of the Union, despite political proclivities."
From the Lyons Republican of April 19, 1861.
THE WAR HAS ACTUALLY BEGUN.
" The dreadful realities of civil war stare us in the face. It is our fortune to-day to record the first act of open aggression of the Southern traitors upon the government of the United States. The first blow has been struck by the rebels. There is neither excuse nor palliation for their con- duct. It is wanton and malicious, and evidences a spirit on the part of those who directed it which must be subdued though it costs thousands of lives and millions of dollars to accomplish that object. The present is a momentous crisis in the affairs of the Republic. It is the turning point of our history. If in the struggle which has commenced treason is to triumph over the rights which are ours under the Constitu- tion and the Union, we may bid farewell to the peace and prosperity which were purchased by the blood of our fathers and irretrievable ruin will ensue. This is no time for hesi- tation. Those who love the Union and who desire its per- petuation must look the danger squarelv in the face and pre- pare to meet it. Those who love our common country, and who would see the Republic survive the perils that menace
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it, must aid by every means in their power, by their voices, by their money, by their lives, if necessary, in sustaining the majesty of the laws. The traitors have resorted to force and they must be met by a repelling power sufficient to crush them.
" None but traitors will sympathize with treason-and to look calmly or indifferently upon this struggle is to act the part of a traitor. The true man will take his stand by the Government and live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish, unite his fortunes with those of the Constitution and the Union.
" It is no time to talk of party allegiance. No matter what may have been our former differences. No matter which of us may have been most in fault. We are now to determine a question with which party has nothing to do. Every party feeling should be buried in the soundness of the cause. The welfare of the country first-party afterwards !"
From the Clyde Times, April 20, 1861. THE CIVIL WAR.
" The great excitement incident upon the news of Ander- son's surrender daily increases. Martial enthusiasm and Union sentiment continued in the ascendant, and "the war" is the only topic of the day. Probably never was a call for troops so eagerly responded to, and certainly never were so many anxious and striving to obtain acceptance of their services in this hour of the country's danger.
" So very promptly has the response been inade in this State that New York city alone will be ready to furnish the whole quota demanded of the State.
" Recruiting offices are opened all over the country, and companies and regiments are fast filling to the war comple- ment, giving emphatic evidence of the patriotism prevalent in the country.
" We have devoted considerable space to paragraphs denoting the feeling in different sections of the country ; and likewise under its special head will be found the feeling at the South.
" In our own village and vicinity, the patriotic feeling is everywhere apparent, and the determination to stand by the Union is unanimous."
From the Palmyra Courier of April 19, 1861. THE RUBICON PASSED.
"The intelligence of the surrender of Fort Sumter will produce a mingled sensation of surprise, indignation, and
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mortification among all loyal citizens ; but, at the same time, it will impress all to whom the honor of their country is dear, with the imperative necessity of sustaining the Federal Government in its effort to repel the fierce and aggressive assaults of the Revolutionists, and to vindicate authority.
" It is now fearfully apparent that too much leniency has been shown to the conspirators, and that pity for their weak- ness and an intense feeling of aversion to a resort to arms, have been carried to a point which has endangered the best interests of the nation. Months have passed by, during which the traitors have been doing everything in their power to prepare for vigorous and determined war, while we have exhausted all our energies in vain efforts to pre- serve peace. Since a contest has become inevitable, it is time that the whole American people should be thoroughly aroused to the necessity of complete preparation for it, and though the first battle has been won by our antagonists, it has not been fought in vain. It has exhibited in vivid colors their unscrupulousness, their vindictiveness, their inhuman- ity, their audacity, their utter disregard for all memories and associations, which should be dear to every citizen of our country, and taught us in a manner which none can misunderstand, that we must prepare at once to deal with them as envenomed and implacable enemies.
"Sad as this necessity may be, and dilatory as we have been in appreciating it, it is now a stern reality which it would be egregious folly and weakness to ignore. Though slow to anger, and exceedingly anxious to concili- ate, we cannot longer idly await the assaults of those who are resolutely bent upon the total destruction of our govern- ment, and who do not scruple to inflict upon ·us every injury in their power.
" It will be seen that the President has issued a proclama- tion which will show the whole land at a glance how the case now stands. The very forbearance which has so long pre- vented a resort to the resolute measures that are now mani- festly unavoidable will only increase the unanimity of feeling in favor of sustaining them.
" Accustomed and attached as we are to peace, since war has become inevitable the enthusiastic thousands who will array themselves upon the side of their country have the proud satisfaction of knowing, that since the world began, no nobler cause was defended by an army than that which aims at the preservation of our Confederacy and the chas- tisement of those who are endeavoring to destroy it and who have added every imaginable insult to the deadly injuries they have inflicted upon the peace, prosperity and fair fame of our nation.
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" Henceforth each man high and low must take his position as a patriot or a traitor, as a foe or a friend of his country, as a supporter of the flag of the stars and stripes or of the rebel banner. All doubts and hesitations must be thrown to the winds and with the history of the past spread before us, we must choose between maintaining the noble fabric that was reared by our wise and brave ancestors under which we have enjoyed so much liberty and happiness, and openly joining the rash, reckless, despotic, cruel and villainous band of conspirators who have formed a deep-laid and des- perate plot for its destruction.
" The contest which is impending will doubtless be attended with many horrors, but all the facts show that it has been forced upon us as a last resort and war is not the worst of evils.
"Since the startling events of the last five months have been succeeded by a brutal bombardment of a fort erected at vast expense for the defense of Charleston harbor which would have been peaceably evacuated if the rebels had not insisted upon the utter humiliation of the government, and since the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy has threatened to capture Washington and even to invade the Northern States, while a formal declaration of hostili- ties is about to be made by the Confederate Congress, we should be wanting in every element of manhood, be perpetu- ally disgraced in the eyes of the world and lose all self- respect if we did not arouse to determined action to reas- sert the outraged dignity of the Nation."
The Columbian, a few numbers of which were published at Sodus, by Leighton & Woodworth, in the spring of 1861, had the following editorial in its second issue :
OUR NATION'S PERIL.
" For the first time in our national history is the existence of the government seriously in danger. In truth this may be called the dark day of our free institutions. Every one is asking what is to be the end of this southern rebellion. To our peace loving citizens this formidable conspiracy wears an appalling aspect. War is ever a terrible calamity, and a fratricidal one like ours is full of horrors.
" But there are evils worse than war, and they are march- ing swiftly onward, and, unless speedily arrested, will destroy our nationality, and with it our cherished institutions. Ours is a mighty nation, a glorious republic, and from this dark hour of her peril she will yet emerge stronger and purer and more glorious. The largest liberty of conscience, of
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speech and of action has been so long guaranteed by our government and enjoyed by a hardy race of freeman, that any real or threatened infringement of those priviliges is regarded as a sacrilege so enormous, a tyranny so oppres- sive that every true man will sacrifice fortune and life if necessary to redress the wrong. For this reason the treach- ery of our great officials, the attack by the cowardly trai- tors of South Carolina upon a noble band of patriots at Sum- ter, rung from the heart of every lover of his country such a cry for vengeance as shook the North from the Granite Hills of New England to the shores of the far Pacific. And the boast of the traitors that they would possess themselves of the federal capital and dictate to a nation of freemen what they shall do and say and think, rekindled the old fires of patriotism and fanned them into a mighty flame. To-day the world is witnessing in the North one of the sublimest scenes ever enacted upon earth ; hundreds of thousands of peace loving citizens, rushing almost unbidden to arms in defence of their government.
" The watch fires of liberty are burning brightly from every hill-top, a beacon-light to our triumphant armies. Our noble sons and brothers who have gone to the scene of conflict will do valiant service and shed new lustre upon their ancestrial names. Woe to the traitors who shall meet these mighty champions of our nation's liberty."
Philo Leighton, of the above paper, signalized his own devotion to these eloquent truths by three months later entering the service, in which he lost his life.
UTTERANCES FROM THE PULPIT.
The pulpit responded to the call in words solemn with the sanctions of Holy writ and stirring as those uttered by the warrior poet of old who wrote " Blessed be the Lord, my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight."
At that time the Presbyterian ministers preaching in the county were : T. R. H. Shumway, Newark ; R. E. Willson, Clyde; Wm. N. McHarg, Lyons; Wm. Young, Rose; L. M. Shepherd, Huron; D. Chichester, Wolcott ; H. Eaton, Pal- myra ; A. H. Lilly, East Palmyra ; Chester Holcomb, Joy ; Armon Spencer, Williamson ; Abram Blakely, Sodus ; L. Manly, Ontario ; J. C. Smith, Red Creek.
It is believed that all or nearly all of them alluded to the subject, Sunday, April 21st, urging in strong terms the
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duty of sustaining the government against the attack of the rebels.
Extracts are given below from several of their discourses. The Rev. Chester Holcomb afterwards had four sons in the army, and Rev. Abram Blakely two; the latter both lost their lives. Mr. Blakely in writing back from Kansas to some one who addressed him a letter of sympathy, replied in words of high Christian patriotism. Of his utterances in Sodus and Wolcott which had been thought decidedly strong and had been somewhat criticized, he said :
"With both my sons in their graves I have no word to recall ; I take back nothing."
The Methodist ministers were : Andrew Sutherland, New- ark; Daniel D. Buck, Lyons; John N. Brown, Clyde ; R. Harrington, Fairville; George H. Dubois, Sodus; Joseph Ashworth, South Sodus; K. P. Jervis, Palmyra ; Porter Mckinstry, Walworth ; Henry T. Giles, Macedon ; William Potter, Pultneyville; Wesley Cochrane, East Palmyra ; B. Allen, Red Creek; L. B. Wells, Rose; G. H. Salisbury, Wolcott; Charles Baldwin, Butler ; S. E. Brown, Savannah. The Methodist habit of extemporizing is not favorable to the preservation of discourses in print or in manuscript.
Several paragraphs are, however, given below. Three of the ministers entered the service : D. D. Buck became chaplain of the 27th Infantry ; John N. Brown, chaplain of the IIIth ; and William Potter sought service in the ranks, and became Captain of Co. A, 160th Infantry. The utterances of others were strongly patriotic and many of them were favorite speakers at the war meetings that nightly met in all parts of the county.
The Baptist ministers then laboring in the county were the following : Arcadia, J. B. Vrooman ; Butler and Savannah, R. S. Dean; Clyde, M. Hayden; Lyons, William Putnam; Macedon, L. Hall ; Marion, T. J. Williams; Ontario, G. A. Simonson ; Palmyra,.W. Mudge; Red Creek, A. P. Draper ; Rose, J. Halliday ; I Sodus, William H. Stegar; I Wal- worth, E. F. Maine; 2 Walworth, L. C. Bates ; Williamson, William McCarthy ; Wolcott, P. Irving; Ontario, Truman Gregory.
20
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The Baptist Association that spring met at the old Brick Church in Sodus, on Tuesday, April 28th, comprising nearly all the pastors in Wayne County. A report of the meeting says :
" One main feature of the meeting last Tuesday was the full, outspoken, earnest spirit of patriotism which found utterance in all the proceedings of the meeting. Our coun- try and our government at this fearful crisis were on every tongue; and in prayers, sermons and addresses the theme was dwelt upon in a most characteristic and decided man- ner. The mind and heart of every minister especially was full to overflowing with the most ardent loyalty, and the unanimous cry was :
"'Sustain the Government. Stand for Liberty. Down with the Rebellion.'
" The spirit of our denominational fathers like Roger Williams and many others who suffered and fought for free- dom in the first struggles of our country is by no means ex- tinct in the Baptist ministers of the present day. They are all ready for their duty whatever it may be."
Rev. William Putnam became especially active, as will appear in subsequent chapters; and Truman Gregory also entered the service.
The Episcopal clergy then officiating in the county were as follows: At St. Johns's Church, Clyde, the Rev. A. E. Bishop; at Grace Church, Lyons, Rev. Sidney Wilbur ; at St. Marks, Newark, Rev. Jno. H. Rowling ; at Zions, Pal- myra, Rev. George C. Gillespie ; at St. John's, Sodus, Rev. J. E. Battin.
Extracts from several discourses of the Episcopal clergy appear below. Rev. Mr. Batten of Sodus shared on several occasions with the other pastors of Sodus in public servi- ces, the most noted being the imposing funeral ceremonies of Lieutenants Granger and Proseus, when the sermon was preached by Rev. James Ireland.
Ministers of other churches were also prompt and posi- tive in their statements of duty and their vigorous appeals for heroic sacrifices to save the Union. Rev. Mr. Short, of the Congregational Church, Marion ; Rev. Amasa Stanton, of the Christian Church, Marion; Rev. Mr. Burghdorf, of the Christian Church, Newark; Rev. Abram Pryne of the Union Congregation, Williamson ; Rev. Mr. Linebacker, of
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the Free Will Baptist Church, Walworth ; Rev. Mr. Cooke, of the Protestant Methodist Church, Wolcott; Rev. Mr. Randolph of the Universalist Church, Newark ; the Pastor of the Disciple Church, South Butler, and others-Catholic as well as Protestant-are all remembered for their earnest words of encouragement. Mr. Cooke had two sons in the service. One who suffered the horrors of Andersonville and barely escaped with his lite, (the late School Commis- sioner, Sidney G. Cooke), and the other, Dr. Edward H. Cooke, now a practicing physician settled at Rose.
The unfortunate difficulty that arose in Lyons over the action of Rev. Sidney Wilbur, upon which it is unneces- sary to enlarge, forms it is believed the only exception to the unbroken record of all the ministers of all denomina- tions in favor of a prompt resort to arms for the defense of the government ; and in patriotic love and loyalty to the flag that had guaranteed religious liberty upon this continent.
We give the following extracts from such discourses as we have been able to find. They must be considered as samples rather than anything like a complete presentation :
Rev. W. Mudge, of Palmyra, April 21st, 1861, said :
" The dreadful uncertainty of the future is the painful anxiety of the present; and nothing is more painful than suspense. The interest felt is the gauge by which the pain is meted out for its uncertain pending. And what can be more important and interesting this side of Heaven and the Cross than ones own country. Few, indeed, are the words that hang with greater pride upon the lips of utterance than these, 'My country !! ' It includes our friends and relatives ; our liberties, property, rights and holy religion ; in short, it includes our earthly all. And when such an interest is threatened, when a foe dare enter such precincts, patriotism in spite of rule will well up in every true heart.
" The sacred desk in its elevating mission may justly lift its voice and fan the flame; arouse the arm to strike, if need be, the foe of our common country.
* * * *
" The Rebel force of the South may withstand long our arms, they may vie well in shell and shot, they may slay yet thousands of our sturdy sons and send the wail of mourning into a thousand pleasant homes ; but in defense of blood-bought institutions with a spirit of recognition of the Giver and fervent prayer to Him for our Country's perpe-
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tuity, and for His own glory, success will yet stamp its broad seal upon the flag of our noble country-long to wave proudly before the breezes of a propitious Heaven ; and each stripe and star in the wane of yet unreached centuries shall glow brighter in the sure etherial atmosphere of universal freedom.
" May God speed the day. May God save our nation."
Extracts from a sermon preached by Rev. Horace Eaton to volunteers at Palmyra, N. Y., June ist, 1861 :
" Romans 11:22 .- ' Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God.'
" In giving a correct view of a landscape, the two pictures of a stereoscope must be blended, not separated. The true character of God is seen in the union of mercy and justice. A God all mercy is a God unjust. A God all justice is a God unmerciful. 'Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God.' The same elements blend in the true man. Mercy is tender of individual welfare, justice is jeal- ous of right and the public safety. Some look so exclusively at divine goodness as to recoil at divine severity against wrong. This effeminate good nature may sprinkle rose water upon a bed of flowers in June, but it shrinks away before the sleet and blasts of winter. The times of peril that try men's souls, the present moment of our country's fate, call for firmer stuff. The vile egg of secession, so long hatching, has now broken out into a viper. Sumter has fallen. Our flag has gone down and the rebel flag has gone up in its place. Union soldiers, hastening at the call of the President to the defense of the Capital and the archives of the Nation, have found the bridges burnt, telegraphic wires cut, they themselves insulted, stoned, butchered in the streets of Baltimore. A hundred and thirty thousand trea- sonable bayonets bristled at the life of the Republic before a single soldier was summoned to defend it. The rebels be- gan the war ; they mean war to the knife ; they are terribly in earnest. The momentous question of the hour is, what can we do to arrest this blow against the supreme authority of the land ? The enemy have thrown down the gauntlet. All peaceful negotiations have failed. There is no alterna- tive. We must accept the arbitrament of arms. 'To arms, to arms,' is their cry.
" But he is twice armed who has his quarrel just. We fight to save a government wrought out by successive gen- erations of martyrs, baptised in the blood of Revolutionary heroes. We fight for the fame of Washington, Bunker Hill, Mt. Vernon. We fight for the star-spangled banner that fans the spirit of freedon, wherever unfurled. We fight not for revenge nor conquest, but to sustain the best government
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in the world. We need harbor no hatred against those wicked men that would break up this Union. Washington dropped tears as he signed the death warrant of the guilty, thus illustrating the doctrine of the text, 'Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God.' We have a single object, We would save the country. We cannot draw a line of separation between the Lakes and the Gulf. We cannot divide the Mississippi. We cannot divide the living child. The Nation's life is worth more than any individual life, and did not age forbid I would be with you on the tented field and in the deadly strife."
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