USA > New York > Dutchess County > The "Dutchess county regiment" (150th regiment of New York state volunteer infantry) in the Civil War; > Part 22
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David B. Sleight was born May 1, 1838, of a promi- nent family, being the son of Peter R. and Catharine (Barnes) Sleight, of Lagrange, Dutchess County, N. Y.
He entered the regiment October 6, 1862, being mus- tered on that date as Second Lieutenant of Company I. In 1863 he was promoted to First Lieutenant, with rank to date from November 25th of that year. During Sher- man's campaigns of 1864 and 1865, from Chattanooga and Atlanta to the Sea and through the Carolinas, he commanded his company. He was killed in battle near Averysborough, N. C., March 16, 1865, in almost the very last conflict of the war.
He was a young man whose connections, whose per-
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sonal qualities and whose prospects gave unusual promise of a happy and useful life. In the sermon preached at his funeral, when his body had been brought home after the war, Rev. Sumner Mandeville said of him:
" Few have fallen in this bloody strife so endeared to the hearts of friends, so beloved by all who knew him. He was one of the few whose characters are so lovely, whose ways are so winning that they are universally loved and esteemed. There is here and there one such respect- ing whom no amount of eulogy seems misplaced. They seem to be examples to the world of those excellencies of which human nature by the grace of God is capable, and all feel their death to be a public calamity."
This was entirely true, for Lieutenant Sleight was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him before he went into the military service of his country, and his death was a shock to the whole community in which he had lived.
He was active in seconding the effort to raise a regiment in Dutchess County, and the company to which he was attached was made up largely of his neighbors and fel- low-citizens, nearly every member of it being personally acquainted with its officers. His record is a part of that of the regiment, for he was with it during its entire fight- ing career. When it was supposed that all danger was practically over and he and his associates were about to march home, when his friends and relatives were count- ing the days ere he should be with them again, he was suddenly stricken down.
During nearly two years of almost constant fighting and marching he had not received the slightest wound. The fight at Averysborough was the very last one in which
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JOSIAH H. BUDD.
his regiment was engaged, and one of the very last bullets that was fired struck him, causing almost immediate death. He calmly gave a few directions in regard to his effects, and died while being borne from the field by his men.
The high regard in which he was held by his friends and associates in the regiment was well expressed in a series of resolutions adopted at a meeting of the officers of the regiment which was held soon after his death at Goldsborough, N.C. Lieutenant-Colonel A. B. Smith was chairman of that meeting, while Captain Obed Wheeler was its secretary. Captain William R. Woodin was chairman of the committee appointed to draft the resolu- tions, which were unanimously accepted by the meeting.
All who came in contact with Lieutenant Sleight recognized that he was a brave man and a good officer, representing in a worthy manner in his own personality those qualities of the race which count for elevation of character and a betterment of the world, and though he never made a public profession of religion, yet those that were nearest to him felt the influence of his sincere Christian character.
JOSIAH H. BUDD.
Josiah H. Budd was born September 11, 1842, the son of William H. and Ellen M. (Rogers) Budd. He was born in the Town of North East, in Dutchess County, N. Y., so very near the border of Connecticut that he narrowly escaped being a Yankee. From there the family removed to Manchester in the same county, and finally to Poughkeepsie; he receiving his education in the public schools of those towns.
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He seems to have come of a military stock, his grand- father having been a soldier in the Mexican War, and his father's only brother a soldier in our regular army, though the latter died just as the Civil War broke out. Mr. Budd was in Poughkeepsie when the Dutchess County Regi- ment was organized, and enlisted September 6, 1862, in Company I.
He served with the regiment until the action at Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 1864, when he was one of seventy- five men who volunteered for a hazardous task, and they being placed under command of Captain Scofield went into action. In the engagement which followed Mr. Budd was cut off from the rest of the company, but, shoot- ing the rebel color-bearer at close range, he ran to a wooded ravine, under cover of which he finally escaped to our own line again. But he was not unscathed, for a shot struck his rifle, shattering the stock and lock, and soon afterward another bullet plowed through his left leg. Though crippled he finally managed to join his company, where he had been reported as having been taken prisoner.
He was sent back to the hospitals, first at Chattanooga and then at Nashville, but did not recover in time to join the regiment on its subsequent campaigns. He was finally mustered out at Albany, N. Y., June 12, 1865.
Since the war Mr. Budd has taken a course in East- man's Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., after which he followed clerking for a time, but eventually entered the grocery business. In 1877 he was married to Gertrude E. Standford, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., daughter of Thomas and Ann E. (West) Standford, and four sons have been born to them: Fred R., married to
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PLATT C. CURTISS.
Mabel DeVoe, Frank S., married to Mary E. Stengel, Harvey W., and Warren H.
Mrs. Budd's father was also a soldier in the Civil War. At the present time, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Budd, with their two unmarried sons, reside at Matteawan, N. Y.
PLATT C. CURTISS.
The subject of this sketch was born in the Town of Stanford, Dutchess County, N. Y., December 4, 1836, of good patriotic stock, his father being a veteran of the War of 1812, and both his grandfathers having served with honor in the War of Independence, 1776-1783.
Platt C. Curtiss attended the district schools, and also several terms at the Amenia Seminary, in Amenia, N. Y., and previous to the war he was engaged in farming. Enlisting in our regiment September 19, 1862, in Com- pany I, as a private, and mustered into the United States service with the regiment, he was promoted to Corporal, and subsequently to Sergeant.
He was wounded in the head at the battle of Kolb's Farm, near Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., June 22, 1864, and was in the hospital at Jeffersonville, Ind., nearly four months, returning to his regiment in time to follow the fortunes of Sherman's army in that memorably triumph- ant march, "from Atlanta to the Sea." He has always regarded that grand strategic movement as one of the greatest events of the whole war, and the one that did the most toward breaking the backbone of the Confed- eracy, often saying that he was proud of the fact that he was one of the men that participated in that famous march.
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The twenty miles between Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta, Ga., are the only ones that were not marched by him, he being absent in the hospital, disabled by his wound, at that time. He was mustered out with the regi- ment, and his complete diary, kept during the war, has been of more use to the editors of this history than any other reference book in completing the story of the Dutchess County Regiment, and more than all other reference books combined.
Since the close of the war Mr. Curtiss has been con- tinuously engaged in the trucking business in New York City. January 4, 1868, he was married to Josephene Field, who died January 1I, 1906. He has four chil- dren, Josephine L., Lotta A., LeRoy F., and Harold C.
Mr. Curtiss looks forward with pleasure to the annual reunion of the survivors of his regiment, and is proud to meet his comrades in arms, yet realizing that there is a profound depth of pathos in the fact that in the course of natural events these reunions will soon cease, and the last survivor will soon have been " mustered out."
EDWARD L. FLORENCE.
Edward L. Florence was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., April 8, 1842, the son of G. W. and Caroline H. (Smith) Florence. He received his education at the public schools of Washington and Union Vale, in the same county, his father having removed to those towns.
He enlisted August 30, 1862, in a company which was never completed, and for that reason was transferred to Company I of the 150th New York Volunteers, in which company he served as private and corporal until the close of the war, being mustered out of the service June 20,
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CHARLES H. SMITH.
1865, at Albany, N. Y. The experience of Mr. Florence in the war was for the most part the experience of the regiment, for he was in all of its battles except that of New Hope Church, at which time he was confined by sickness in the hospital at Chattanooga, Tenn.
Just before he enlisted he was married to Mary J. Kown, of Lansingburg, N. Y., and six children have been born to them: Frederick, George, Frank, William, Anna Caroline, and Chester E. The eldest of these, Frederick, died in childhood, but the others are living.
CHARLES H. SMITH.
The subject of this sketch was born January 22, 1835, in the Town of Washington, Dutchess County, N. Y., the son of Joseph and Susan (Marshall) Smith. After completing his education at the district schools of that town he followed the occupation of farming.
The romantic ardor of patriotism which played such a large part in the organization of the Dutchess County Regiment, was well illustrated in Mr. Smith's case. Sep- tember 5, 1862, while plowing in the field, he was accosted by two friends, Seneca Humeston and Gilbert Seaman, who told him they were about to enlist, and asked him to join them. Like Cincinnatus of the Roman Republic, and Israel Putnam of a later Republic, Mr. Smith left his plow standing in the furrow and responded to his coun- try's call. The party of three was soon joined by two more friends, George Sackett and Platt C. Curtiss, and the five drove together to Poughkeepsie, where, on the day following, they enlisted in Company I of our regiment.
Mr. Smith was immediately made a corporal in the company, and afterwards promoted, first, January 18,
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1863, to Sergeant, and January 1, 1864, to First Ser- geant, and May 12, 1865, to Second Lieutenant, with rank from April 1, 1865.
His record of service in the war is bound up in the record of the regiment, for he was a part of it, and was with it from the march down Main street, Poughkeepsie, in 1862 to the return march up the same street in 1865. That his service was faithful and efficient is evidenced by his successive promotions.
Soon after the war he went to New York City, at first engaging in the grocery business, which he followed until 1870, since which time he has been engaged in teaming.
In 1866 Mr. Smith returned to his native town in search of a wife, and in April of that year was married to Elizabeth T., daughter of Jeremiah and Hannah Sherman. They have one son, Luman W. Smith.
ISAAC T. SWEEZEY.
Isaac T. Sweezey was born in Newtown, Queens County, N. Y., April 18, 1845. He was the son of John and Sally Ann (Titus) Sweezey. In 1853 the family moved to Dutchess County, settling on a farm in the Town of Washington, and here our comrade grew to manhood, or rather to his later boyhood, for he was but a boy when he enlisted.
His education was received at the public schools, being completed at the Nine Partners Boarding School, and at the age of seventeen, August 30, 1862, he enlisted in the Dutchess County Regiment and was mustered in as Cor- poral in Company I.
Until December 13, 1864, he was with his company, sharing in all of its marches and battles, but on that date,
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LANDON OSTROM.
while skirmishing with the enemy in front of Savannah, he was shot through the left thigh, and the wound proved so severe that amputation was resorted to in order to save his life.
Though incapacitated by the loss of his limb from further activity in the field, his gallant service was recog- nized by his being promoted to Sergeant, and he was afterward brevetted First Lieutenant. He was finally discharged from the service at the Ira Harris General Hospital at Albany, N. Y., July 20, 1865.
After his discharge he entered the business college of Bryant & Stratton at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and after a brief course received an appointment to a clerkship in the New York Custom House. At present he is chief clerk of the second division in the collector's office. He has been continuously in the customs service for over forty years.
February 16, 1869, Mr. Sweezey was married to Mary E. Pinkham, of La Grange, N. Y., and two children have been born to them: Edwin C., now a civil engineer in Brooklyn, N. Y., and Robert C., who is practicing law in New York City.
LANDON OSTROM.
Landon Ostrom was born January 12, 1838, at Rhine- beck, N. Y., the son of John G. Ostrom, from which place he enlisted September 5, 1862, in Company K of the Dutchess County Regiment, serving to the close of the war, when he was mustered out with the regiment. He was mustered in as First Sergeant of his company, and September 16, 1864, was commissioned Second Lieu- tenant of Company F, with rank to date from July 30th
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of that year, vice Samuel H. Paulding promoted, and it speaks well for his ability and faithfulness that he was deemed worthy to be promoted to the position of com- missioned officer.
Soon after his discharge he went to San Francisco, Cal., a part of the company which accompanied General Hal- leck at that time. After three months' stay there he returned to Rhinebeck. He is a carriage maker, a trade which he still works at.
In January, 1868, Mr. Landon was married to Annie Baker, and ten children have been born to them, of whom five are now living, Mrs. Ostrom also having died. Two of his sons were in the late Spanish-American War, and one of them was wounded at one of the very first battles. Both of them were honorably discharged at the close of the war, and one of them has since enlisted in the navy.
STEPHEN R. TATOR.
Mr. Tator was born in the Town of Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N. Y., March 29, 1839, the son of Edward and Margaret A. Tator. He received his edu- cation in the public schools, after which he learned the mason's trade. He has not been a "rolling stone," but has steadfastly applied himself to the work nearest at hand to be done, having been, with the exception of the time spent in the army, a life-long resident of his native town.
He enlisted September 9, 1862, in Company K of the 150th New York Volunteers, was mustered into the United States service with the regiment, served with it continuously until the close of the war, and was mustered out with it June 8, 1865. He also had a younger brother,
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STEPHEN R. TATOR.
Frank, who served in Company C of the 128th New York Volunteers. After the war he again took up his trade and has followed it ever since.
Mr. Tator is married, and seven children, three sons and four daughters, have been born to him, of whom five survive. Margaret is now Mrs. C. O. Emory, and Dora A. is Mrs. W. T. Jones. Of the three sons, Wil- liam H. and Stephen A. are following the vocation of masons, while Charles S. is a Presbyterian clergyman. The latter served in the Spanish-American War.
Speaking of himself as a mason, Mr. Tator says : " Once during the war did I take up a trowel for the sake of construction in the midst of war's destruction, and that was at Atlanta, Ga. I say 'trowel,' but it was a piece of board whittled into shape. The job was a chimney for the Colonel's 'shack.' This crude piece of work might aptly be called the beginning of the South's 'material reconstruction.' "
Once during his service he was under arrest for refus- ing-on principle-to carry whiskey for the company commander, but later he was released and his action sus- tained by the commander of the regiment.
Though somewhat broken in health by the hardships of his army life, yet he does not regret having obeyed the patriotic impulse which led him to enlist. He recalls the conflict at Gettysburg as well as the ghastly scenes after the close of the battle, where he assisted in burying the dead, as well as many other tragic scenes, but like most old soldiers, after the passing of nearly half a cen- tury he is more fond of relating the humorous incidents of the war.
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THE DUTCHESS COUNTY REGIMENT.
BENJAMIN STAGG BROAS. By CATHARINE TITUS BROAS.
The subject of this sketch was born in the City of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., September 21, 1837, the son of William and Catharine (Field) Broas.
His primary education was received in private schools, and later he attended the school for young men on Col- lege Hill,-as it was then and is still called,-in Pough- keepsie. This school was afterward discontinued, and the property with its beautiful surroundings has since been presented to the city for a park by Smith Brothers, a prominent business firm of the town.
Mr. Broas' business before the war was that of a dry goods merchant, but when, August 21, 1862, an appeal for a Dutchess County Regiment was published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle, he was one of fifteen patriotic young men who at once gave in their names to Governor Mor- gan's War Committee, with the request that they be per- mitted to recruit volunteers and enter the service. His proffered services were accepted, and he was mustered into the regiment as Captain of Company I.
Captain Broas passed unscathed through the battle of Gettysburg, but the hardships of that and the Virginia campaign bore heavily on him, bringing on a sickness which finally caused his discharge for disability, at Tulla- homa, Tenn., November 25, 1863.
After a time he again engaged in mercantile pursuits, and later became a broker. He was married, April 19, 1859, to Catharine Titus, of Washington, Dutchess County, N. Y., and one child, Mary Titus Broas, was born to them. She was married in 1887 to Rupert B. Thomas, now residing in Flushing, N. Y., and they have
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HENRY PEARCE.
four children : Rupert B., Gerald P., Katharine R., and Ina M.
Captain Broas died September 22, 1896, at Pough- keepsie, N. Y.
HENRY PEARCE.
By STEPHEN G. COOK, M. D.
Henry Pearce was born in the Town of Pawling, N. Y., November 1, 1833. He received his education, first at the public schools of Pawling, and later at the Michigan University at Ann Arbor, Mich., from which he gradu- ated with the degree of M. D. in 1857. He practiced medicine two years in Pennsylvania, and then returned to his native town, where he met with good success in the practice of his chosen profession.
Upon the organization of the Dutchess County Regi- ment in the autumn of 1862 he joined it, being mustered in as Assistant Surgeon. Once we were a part of the Army of the Potomac it did not take the Medical Depart- ment of the 12th Corps long to ascertain that he was a very skillful surgeon, and at Gettysburg he was placed in charge of one of the operating tables at the Field Hos- pital, with the customary number of assistants, some of whom outranked him. This was a great honor, as such detail is usually given only to those of full rank.
In the autumn of 1863, after crossing the Cumberland Mountains as the regiment was en route towards Look- out Mountain, and while crossing a small stream, his horse fell, injuring his right knee so badly that he had to be sent back on the cars to Tullahoma, Tenn. From this injury he never recovered.
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After remaining under treatment a few months he was detailed to a military hospital at Albany, N. Y., where he remained until April 7, 1864, when he was discharged for disability, though he remained there in some capacity until several months after the close of the war. He then returned to Pawling and resumed the practice of his pro- fession, which he continued until within a few months of his death.
For many years of this time he was the chief consulting physician and operating surgeon for Eastern Dutchess County and the Harlem Valley.
Becoming satisfied that his knee would never be better, and that it would be a continual source of danger to his " life, he gathered at his residence a few of the most noted surgeons of Dutchess County (of which Dr. Campbell was one), for the purpose of having his leg amputated. After a consultation it was a question with them whether the disease of the knee could not be cured. They expressed this opinion to him, when he made this characteristic reply :
"Gentlemen, I did not send for you for the purpose of devising means to save my leg, but to amputate it and relieve me of my suffering. I know more about that leg than you do. Take it off."
The leg was amputated, but this did not relieve him. A neuralgic affection developed in the severed nerve, which gave severe pain, seemingly located in the heel of the amputated foot, and this made the remainder of his life miserable, requiring the strongest narcotics to hold it in check. To the non-professional reader the location of this pain may seem ridiculous, but similar phenomena have been well attested in many cases.
At the first reunion after the death of Dr. Campbell,
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WILLIAM R. WOODIN.
when several had expressed their lament at his loss, Dr. Pearce was called upon, which call became so pronounced that he had to respond. He arose finally and said: "I don't know why you should call on me, for you all know very well what I thought of Dr. Campbell,"-and then took his seat.
Some accounted Dr. Pearce to be cynical in disposition, for he was blunt of speech and captious in his opinions, despising cant and hypocrisy wherever they were found, but those who knew him most intimately learned that beneath his rough address he was warm of heart and true as steel.
He was married three times, first to Sarah Hall, second to Augusta M. Stark, and third to Julia E. Travis, but his only surviving child is George S. Pearce, M. D., the son of his second wife.
WILLIAM R. WOODIN. By GEORGE H. WILLIAMS.
William R. Woodin was born at Pine Plains, N. Y., June 26, 1839. He went to school at the old Dutchess County Academy, and then to Trinity College at Hart- ford, Conn., where he graduated, and then after studying law in the Albany Law School came to Poughkeepsie to enter upon his practice. But before getting settled as a lawyer he entered upon, and went through an experience on a more stirring field that was the most important of his life. He heard the call for men to defend the Union, and when it was determined to raise a Dutchess County Regiment, he enlisted himself, and went into the business of raising recruits with such energy and success that upon the organization of the 150th Regiment he was placed at the head of Company D and went to the front.
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The privations of the camp, the toils of the march, and the perils of the battle could not break nor change his buoyant temperament. From the departure of the regiment till its return again, he took up most faithfully, and performed the task of keeping himself and his com- rades in touch with the people at home, by writing a series of letters to the Eagle. There was hardly a week with- out one and they were often more frequent. They were always sprightly, spirited, full of wit and humor, and with never a dull or a despairing line. Probably no series of articles ever published in this county were read with such absorbing interest, for they told in the most graphic style how the boys at the front fared, what they were doing, how they felt, what they had to undergo, their trials, their triumphs and their hopes.
It was no wonder that when he returned he was received with acclaim and accorded a high place in the favor and esteem of his neighbors. He was in request as a political speaker, and delighted many an audience and many a social circle with his reminiscences and his wit. But he aspired only to success in his chosen profession, and asked for no office but that of district attorney, to which he was twice elected, serving with ability and success for six years, and afterwards as city attorney. He was a Republican, a leader among men of his party, and there was probably no other member of the bar whose voice was more fre- quently heard in public or with more satisfaction to those who heard him.
He died May 29, 1903, mourned for by all who knew him, leaving a widow and two daughters, the Misses Mary and Dorothy.
CHAPTER XXI.
By JOSEPH H. COGSWELL.
ROSTER OF REGIMENT.
EXPLANATION OF THE ROSTER.
In order to abbreviate the Roster and still give all the material facts of every soldier's record, it will be under- stood that after each name follows age, date of enlist- ment, residence and rank, but "private " is understood when no rank is mentioned.
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