USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 48
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The following men were paid the commutation of three hundred dollars, under the Conscription Act, and made their own bargains with substitutes, at their own risk :
William Holdredge, James Cordial, William Searing, Charles Kane, John L. Brown, Ferdinand Holm, Michel Donohue, Jacob Grubb, Jacob Reinhardt, Christian Geissman, Patrick Scott, John Mullaly, Samuel B. Lyons, John Muller, Otto Weigand, John Hinz, Charles Bock, Stephen Bogart, Thomas McConnel, John Stinard, William Gor- don, George Robinson, William Hagemeyer, Theodore Holly, Daniel Kane, Samuel Bertine, Ferdinand Haag, William Doolittle, William Tribent, Cornell Valentine, John Kennedy, Abram M. Bennett, Philip Haag, Thomas Dooling, Thomas Donaldson, Frances Schleicher, Philip Flood, William Hickey, William B. Jones, William Deverman, Walter
Bronx-27
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H. Manning, John Pugmire, Thomas Barker, Frederick Von Garrell, Thomas Hunt and Louis Behr.
The following men in Eastchester furnished their own substitutes at a cost of four hundred dollars: Charles Leland, Aaron R. Haight, Isaac Richards, A. M. Hungerford, George Ferris, Samuel Horton, Robert Hall, Gideon Mead, Warren Ackerman, Timothy Bennett, Samuel Burpo, W. H. Hustis, Constantine Weiss, Edgar Schiefflein, John Boda, Alex- ander Masterton, Henry A. Bowerman, James Hay, Aaron M. Diederer, John M. Masterton, B. F. Bowerman, S. Purdy Carton, David Dunham, Robert M. Masterton, S. Moore, George King, Thomas W. Atkinson, Edward Kendrick, John Ostrander, O. L. Underhill.
The following men in Eastchester had substitutes furnished by the town at an expense of four hundred and twenty dollars: William M. Harward, Frederick Knolling, John T. Underhill, Samuel Trelese, Henry Hargrave, John Casey, Frederick Sargent, Henry Lins, John W. Coburn, John S. Yorke, M. B. Valentine, Christopher Wintler, John W. Coombs, Edward Hoole, John A. Bowerman.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of four hundred and twenty-five dollars: John Duffy, William Preston, James Joy, August Donges.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of four hundred and ten dollars: Patrick Garvin, Andrew Kapp, James Waddock, Andrew Clark.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of four hundred dollars: Timothy Rain, Lawrence Daniels, Nicholas Bowden, Sanford Fleming, Henry Grant.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of four hundred and forty-five dollars: Carl Moser, E. A. Phelps.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an ex- pense of four hundred and fifty dollars: William Traband, Bernard Hufnagel, Lawrence Clemens, William E. Howe, William Purcells, Charles V. Morgan, Frederick Boda, John King, G. W. L. Underhill, Isaac Secor, Joseph D. Disbrow, Samuel B. Wiley, Stephen Higgins.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an expense of four hundred and seventy dollars: Josiah Zabriskie, William H. Oakley.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an ex- pense of four hundred and seventy-five dollars : James Murray, William P. Sleight.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of four hundred and ninety-five dollars : John Donlin, Lawrence Horton.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of five hundred dollars : Walter B. Comstock, Isaac Weeks, John Coyle,
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Henry Linderman, John Mulloy, William Rickert, Theodore Horr, John Farley, James Crottey, Henry Lohman, Michael Jackson, Lewis Gale, George P. Sinn, Anthony Beebe.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an ex- pense of five hundred and twenty dollars: Tillman Holly, John Knapp.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an ex- pense of five hundred and ninety dollars: Charles Lamar, Ernest Erbert, William Murphy, Jacob Putney, John Williams, David Jones, Joaquin Jones, Charles E. Manning, William Brown, George Francis, Patrick McNulty, John Starr, John P. Minnich, Edward Dill, Thomas Davis, John A. Hutchinson, Hugh Callahan, Philip H. Harsinger, Henry Hamill, Carey P. Poplin, John Rigby, Tobias Akers, John Jolly, Charles Stewart, Michael Fanning, Timothy G. Lumb, George W. Dullion, John West, John Smith, Frederick Kline, James Cameron, Lorenzo Cavaglio, Wolsley Baxter, Theodore Handy, David Bowen, James Hughes, James Fisher, John Nichols, and Morris Earle.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at an ex- pense of seven hundred and fifty dollars: John F. Jarvis, Joseph Harper, Amos Cheney, Tim Crowley, Charles Helwig.
The following men had substitutes furnished by the town at a cost of eight hundred dollars: Francis Seber, Sanford Hallock, John G. Satterlee, Michael Quinlan, Charles Weeks, William H. Duff, George H. Archer, Joseph S. Gregory, Darius Lyon, Joseph Harper (second call), Oliver R. King, D. Lamoureaux, Henry Skidmore, S. G. Vredenburg, David Quackinbush, Christian Stark.
The following had a substitute furnished by the town at an expense of eight hundred and twenty dollars: Michael McCormick.
The following men were drafted and entered the service, receiving the sums set opposite their names: Edward Barnum, $450.00; Christian Knapp, $310.00.
The only item in the account which is perplexing is one which says that "one recruit" was furnished under the second call for five hundred and ninety dollars, this being probably at a time when the draft was nearly over and matters carelessly managed.
The Grand Army Posts-It has been considered that an important part of the history of the Civil War in its relation to the neighborhood of The Bronx and to Westchester County in general deals with the account of the "Grand Army of the Republic" insofar as it is included in the history of the county.
An accounting made twenty years after the close of the war showed that there were five hundred and forty-one posts in the State of New York, with an average of fifty members or over. Of these the county of Westchester counted as her own the following: Post Kitching, No.
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60, of Yonkers; Post Vosbrugh, No. 95, of Peekskill; Post Powell, No. 117, of Sing Sing; Post McKiel, No. 120, of Katonah; Post Morell, No. 144, of Sing Sing; Post Stewart Hart, No. 169, of Mount Kisco; Post Farnsworth, No. 170, of Mount Vernon; Post H. B. Hidden, No. 330, of City Island; Post Charles Lawrence, No. 378, of Port Chester; Post Cromwell, No. 466, of White Plains; Post W. B. Burnett, No. 496, of Yonkers; making a total of twelve posts at that time.
The H. B. Hidden Post, No. 330, of City Island, was organized by Comrade James H. Jenkins, of Farnsworth Post, on January 27, 1883. The charter members were: George E. Pinckney, first lieutenant, 131st New York; Oswald Bergen, U. S. S. "Santee"; Joseph H. Glazier, 84th New York; William Sconsborough, U. S. S. "Wissahickon"; Henry Bahre, 25th New York; Theodore Bishop, U. S. S. "San Jacinto"; Eugene Reed, 32nd "Maine"; S. T. Graham, U. S. N .; William B. Miller, 5th New York; George W. Banta, 176th New York; and Jerome Bell, 1st New York Cavalry. Following the organization the following members were in the next year mustered into the post: Richard Sher- wood, 135th New York; E. H. Gurney, 8th New York Cavalry; John S. Secord, 6th New York H. Art .; William McGloin, U. S. S. "Vincennes" .; Michael Egan, 4th New York; John McNamara, 1st New York M. Rifles; Robert Brown, Ellsworth Zouaves; Thomas McCarty, 1st New York Cavalry.
The Cromwell Post, No. 466, of White Plains was organized on March 19, 1884, by Comrade James H. Jenkins, of Farnsworth Post. The charter members were Valentine M. Hodgson, Edward B. Long, John C. Verplanck, George W. Brown, Edward W. Bogart, Henry I. Williams, Berlin K. Palmer, David P. Barnes, George W. Coventry, James S. Snedeker, Richard Roach, Charles Whiston, and George Lewis.
Horatio Seymour Post, No. 590, of Yonkers, was mustered in at Yonkers on Tuesday, June 29, 1886, by Comrade John C. Shotts, of Kitching Post, with the following membership:
Commander, Frederick Shonnard, major, 6th N. Y. H. A .; Senior Vice-Commander, Fisher A. Baker, lieutenant-colonel, 18th Mass. Vol .; Junior Vice-Commander, Edward J. Maxwell, first lieutenant, 63rd N. Y. Vol .; Surgeon : Dr. Galuska B. Balch, assistant surgeon, 2nd N. Y. Vet. Cavalry ; Chaplain : John Forsyth; Officer of the Day: James V. Lawrence; brevet-major, Gen. Staff ; Officer of the Guard : Augustus W. Nichol; Quartermaster : William Welsh, captain, 68th N. Y. Vol. (by proxy of Comrade Matt Ellis, formerly of Kitching Post) ; Adjutant : James F. Farrell, captain, 5th N. Y. Art .; Sergeant-Major: George W. Farnum, corporal, 23rd Conn. Vol .; Quartermaster-Sergeant : Thomas Ewing; brevet major-general, Army of the Frontier.
Riker's Island, lying towards the mouth of Flushing Bay, Long Is-
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land, was used during the Civil War by the United States Government for the encampment and drilling of recruits, and also for hospital pur- poses, as well as other parts of what is now the territory of The Bronx. Franz Sigel, or Cedar Park, as it was originally called, derives its later name from General Franz Sigel, a conspicuous leader in the political disturbances in Germany in 1848, who came to this country in con- sequence of the failure of the movement for popular rights and settled in the West. During the Civil War he did good service for the Union, and during the latter part of his life he lived in the borough of The Bronx, not far from Cedar Park. He died in 1902 and in order to pre- serve his memory, the Board of Aldermen changed the name of Cedar to Franz Sigel. The West Farms Soldiers' Monument was erected by the subscriptions of a few patriotic citizens, in the West Farms Cemetery, adjoining the graveyard of the old Presbyterian Church. A Mrs. Cunningham, the widow of a soldier, was the first to draw at- tention to the neglected and desecrated graves of a number of soldiers, who were buried there. She was passing the graveyard when the street was being widened and saw a number of bones thrown into a cart by the laborers. An examination of one of the grass-covered and decrepit tombstones showed that it was over the grave of "William J. Rasberry, Captain Co. C, 6th Heavy Artillery, killed October 19, 1864, at Cedar Creek, while leading his men up the hill." Other graves were found, and the matter of erecting a suitable monument was taken up by the committee of which Captain Charles Baxter was chairman. The monument was erected in the fall of 1909, and was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on May 29, 1910. The remains of eleven soldiers, two of them of the War of 1812, are within the plot near the monument. Three brass howitzers are used for ornamental purposes, and a flag is kept flying from the staff erected for the purpose.
Volunteers and Copperheads in Draft Riots-Venerable men living in The Bronx today recall the disturbances to which what is now the borough was subjected, by the acute differences of opinion which prevailed there. Some of the citizens on the banks of the Harlem volunteered for the defence of the Union, some remained passive, and others were "Copperheads" of the usual kind. Apart from the in- dividual soldiers who enlisted in various regiments and companies there was the 6th Artillery, Company C, which was wholly, and Com- pany K, which was partially, recruited at West Farms. Company H was recruited in Morrisania. The Fifth Infantry (Duryea's Zouaves), Company F, partially, was recruited in Fordham; the 17th Infantry, Company C, was recruited in Morrisania. The 176th Infantry (Iron- sides) Company G, was recruited in Pelham. Mobs during the disturb- ances visited the draft offices at Morrisania and West Farms and destroyed the lists. At a meeting in the town hall at Tremont
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at which a large crowd was present John B. Haskin and P. C. Talman managed the mass of excited men with diplomacy, mol- lifying them with the assertion that they were right in their re- sistance to the draft and the government wrong in enforcing it, and then appealing to their sense of self-respect and order. The ground of the argument used was that the draft was unconstitutional and that the Federal Government overstepped its right in invading the municipal rights of a sovereign State before the courts of that State had decided whether a Federal Act was constitutional or not-in fact, using the old idea of nullification. The meeting adjourned after the appointment of a committee of seven citizens "to wait on Moses G. Sheard, Esq., Federal provost-marshal of the district, to insist that the draft be stopped till the State court could decide whether it was constitutional." The reign of terror that had existed for two days thus came to an end as this move appeared to satisfy the leaders of the crowd. It is question- able, as at Mount Vernon and in New York City, whether it would have done so if the news had not come the next day that the troops were returning from Gettysburg, and that those that had already arrived had come in contact with the mob. Under the circumstances the leaders of the working men involved came to the conclusion that peace- able means would serve their cause better than violence, and order throughout The Bronx territory was once more restored. So events moved themselves in the region of the Harlem at that critical time when the territory which later became organized as the borough of The Bronx formed an indefinite area that partook alike of the wash of oc- currences in Westchester County and in New York City.
CHAPTER XI THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
The Spanish-American War took place at a date a year or two after the eastern part of The Bronx was annexed by New York City and about the time when the charter of the Greater New York was going into effect, and the whole annexed section north of the Harlem River was becoming officially known as The Borough of The Bronx. The participation of the borough in the war became therefore merely an element of the participation of New York City as well as of New York State. There were a good many Bronx men in the First, Second and Third Regiments of the New York Volunteers, in the Sixty-ninth Regiment, and in the Seventy-first Regiment. At that time The Bronx had not made the phenomenal gains in population which later were to characterize its progress. The density of the population a quarter of a century ago was nothing like what it is today. But the new borough had a considerable number of residents, and those eligible among them responded to the call for volunteers with a spirit not in- ferior to that of any other borough of the greater city.
The origin and progress of the war belongs to the history of the United States. After a consideration of the conditions in Cuba, which had existed in the island for a century and had resulted in violations of the laws of humanity and in disregard of the rights of American citizens, the United States determined to intervene. The Cuban up- rising of 1895 had been suppressed with severity by Spain. Devastation, famine and death were the lot of the natives, and the lives and property · of foreigners were not safeguarded. On April 6, 1896, Secretary of State Richard Olney offered in rather vague terms the friendly offices of the United States to save Cuba from "absolute impoverishment" and to ameliorate the condition of foreigners in that country. Spain declined, and President Cleveland in his annual message to Congress in Decem- ber, 1896, spoke of "higher obligations" than those due to Spain, which would devolve upon the United States if Spain should be unable to cope with conditions. In the early part of the Mckinley administration Congress appropriated $50,000 for Cuban relief. Sagasta, the new Prime Minister of Spain, perceiving the trend of affairs, recalled Cap- tain-General Weyler and sent out General Blanco in his stead. Spain promised to establish civil order in Cuba and to give it local autonomy when the American Minister to Spain, Stewart L. Woodford, an- nounced that his country could not view with indifference indefinite
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prolongation of existing conditions. In the meantime the United States Government began to strengthen its naval forces. Relations became further strained when a letter written by the Spanish minister criticising President Mckinley was stolen from the mails and published. His resignation followed the disavowal of any knowledge of the affair by the Spanish authorities. The critical point was reached when the United States battleship "Maine" was blown up on the evening of February 15, 1898, in Havana harbor with a loss of two hundred and sixty-six men. Boards of investigation were appointed by both coun- tries. The American commission reported that the catastrophe was due to the explosion of a submarine mine. This was supported by an investigation in 1911. On March 8, Congress appropriated $50,000,000 for national defense, and on March 11 the War Department began mobilization of the regular army. President Mckinley had again tendered the good offices of the United States before the report of the investigating committee, but not satisfied with Spain's reply, determined to lay the whole matter before Congress. In anticipation of war, American citizens left Cuba, the Cuban Junta demanded recognition before interference, and Spain declared a general truce on April 10. In his message (April 11) President Mckinley described the situation, declaring intervention necessary, advising against recognition of the Cuban government, and requesting Congress to take action. Eight days later Congress declared the people of Cuba free and independent, demanded the surrender of all Spanish authority over the island, and empowered and directed the President to enforce this recognition by the army and navy. The President signed this ultimatum on April 20 and gave Spain until the 23rd to make satisfactory reply. The Spanish Minister almost immediately demanded his passports, and the American Minister was handed his at Madrid. Formal declarations of war were issued by Spain and the United States on April 24 and 25 respectively.
Course of the War-The first naval action occurred on April 27, when Captain W. T. Sampson (in charge of the blockading squadron, Cuban north coast) bombarded Matanzas. Spain sent a fleet to Cuban waters and had another in Philippine waters. Commander George Dewey, who was at Hongkong, was ordered on April 25th to "proceed to the Philippine Islands; commence operations at once against the Spanish fleet; capture vessels or destroy." On April 30, under cover of the darkness, he entered Manila harbor with nine vessels, a hundred and thirty-one guns, and sixteen hundred and seventy-eight men. The next morning he attacked Admiral Montojo, whose ten more or less helpless vessels, carrying one hundred and twenty guns and seventeen hundred and ninety-six men lay at anchor in Cavite Bay. After a four- hour fight he destroyed the enemy's fleet and silenced the local fortifi-
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cations with a loss of only six wounded. The whereabouts of the Spanish fleet in Cuban waters, under the command of Cervera, puzzled the Americans for some time until it was discovered in Santiago Bay. The harbor was rigorously blockaded by Admiral (then Captain) Sampson. A daring attempt by Lieutenant R. F. Hobson to close the harbor channel by the sinking of the collier "Merrimac" was unsuccessful. On Sunday morning, July 3, Cervera's ships emerged. The United States fleet immediately pursued and in four hours destroyed or drove ashore the six Spanish ships. The Spanish losses were about three hundred and fifty killed and seventeen hundred officers and men captured. The Americans lost one man and had ten wounded.
President Mckinley had issued a call for 125,000 volunteers on April 23, 1898, and a second call for 75,000 more on May 25. Spain had about 197,000 men in Cuba, of whom 155,000 were regulars. On June 13, General W. R. Shafter, U. S. V., left Tampa, Florida, with eight hundred and fifteen officers and 16,072 men, composed almost entirely of regulars. His instructions were: "Go with your forces to capture garrison at Santiago and assist in capturing harbor and fleet." He landed on June 20 at Daiguiri, the Spaniards withdrawing to their entrenchments near Santiago, protected by barbed-wire entanglements. General Joseph Wheeler dislodged the Spanish troops at Las Guasimas after a sharp engagement in which he lost sixty-eight men, killed and wounded, the Spanish loss being twenty-eight. On July 1st, the United States troops, with the aid of Cubans, under General Garcia, began the general assault on the Spanish positions. Two really separate actions were fought, El Caney and San Juan.
San Juan Hill was captured at 1.30 P. M .; El Caney carried by storm at 4.30. On July 3, General Shafter notified the Spanish commander, Toral, that unless he surrendered by the morning of the fourth, the city would be shelled. The truce which followed was ended on the tenth and the hostilities, under the form of a siege, resumed. On the sixteenth articles of capitulation were signed. All forces, material, and territory of the District of Santiago were to be surrendered and all Spanish soldiers to be transported to Spain. The Spanish losses are not ac- curately known; those of the Americans were 1,156. On July 25, General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A., landed on the island of Porto Rico. His skillfully conducted campaign was terminated on August 13 by the news that an armistice had been concluded. On August 13, Ad- miral Dewey and General Wesley Merritt made a combined attack on the city of Manila, which surrendered. Final capitulation was con- cluded on August 14. About 13,000 Spanish soldiers yielded to the Americans, who had lost only five killed and forty-three wounded.
Spain sought peace through the French Ambassador late in July. On August 12, the peace protocol and preliminary arrangements were con-
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cluded. The treaty was signed on December 10 in Paris; by this Spain withdrew from Cuba and ceded Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States, which in return agreed to pay her $20,000,000 and to yield temporary commercial privileges in the Philippines. The political status of the inhabitants of the new possessions was to be determined by the new government. During the war a high death rate in camps brought out charges of maladministration against the War Department.
There were Bronx men in all the five regiments which went from New York in the Spanish-American War, and a note or two regarding each of them will be in order.
First New York Volunteers-The field of operations of the First Regiment, Infantry, New York Volunteers, was in Honolulu. · In ac- cordance with Section I, General Orders No. 8, General Headquarters, S. N. Y., dated A. G. O. Albany, April 27, 1898, the Commanding Officer of the Third Brigade, N. G., Brigadier-General Robert Shaw Oliver, ordered to organize two regiments from organizations of his brigade, formed one of these two regiments of the Tenth, Twelfth and Seventeenth battalions and the Forty-fourth Separate Company of his brigade, and designated it the "First Regiment, National Guard, com- posed of organizations of the Third Brigade." The regiment thus or- ganized consisted then of Companies A, B, C, and D of the Tenth Bat- talion, the 5th, 14th, 16th and 24th Separate Companies of the 12th Battalion, the 3d, 20th and 33d Separate Companies of the 17th Bat- talion and the 44th Separate Company. It appearing that the 16th Sep- arate Company would find it difficult to recruit the required number of men, it was relieved and replaced by the 15th Separate Company. Gen- eral Thomas H. Barber and Major H. T. Stacpole were appointed colonel and lieutenant-colonel of this regiment. The organizations of which this regiment was composed left their home stations and went to Camp Black at Hempstead Plains, Long Island, remaining there till June 11, 1898. While at its garrisons the regiment received 301 recruits.
The regiment was later ordered to Honolulu, and Colonel Barber, with other officers, sailed from San Francisco on the "St. Paul" to Honolulu to select a camp for the regiment there, and to choose a site for the New Hawaiian Post. They arrived on August 14th and established a temporary camp upon the grounds of the race track, Kapiolani Park, about five miles from Honolulu. Three vessels, the "Mariposa," the' "Alliance" and the "Sandia," brought the regiment to the island, and the camp was named "Camp Mckinley." On August 12th Colonel Barber, with other officers, represented the army at the annexation ceremonies of transfer of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States. Owing to the prevalence of malarial and typhoid fever in the command it was
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deemed advisable to move the regiment to a camp more remote from the unsanitary conditions of and in the immediate vicinity of Honolulu. Officers and men were given leave of absence and furlough until Feb- ruary 26, 1899, when the regiment was finally mustered out of the serv- ice of the United States.
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