USA > New York > The Ninth New York heavy artillery : a history of its organization, services in the defe battles, and muster-out, with accounts of life in a rebel prison, personal experiences, names and addresses of surviving members, personal sketches and a complete roster, pt 2 > Part 11
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His youth had the educational advantages that his town afforded, while his early manhood was devoted to a broader and more exacting school, viz., that of the soldier. Leaving his young wife behind him, he became one of the best soldiers in the company, and went to Washington as a sergeant. By well earned and regular promotion he came home as brevet major. No officer was ever more thoroughly respected than the third and last captain of A Company.
When the war was over, he returned to his home and again became one of those who constitute the true back-bone of every nation, a farmer. While thus laboring at the very foundation of prosperity, his fellow citizens have recognized his merits re- peatedly in electing him to town office, and in 1891 sending him to the Legislature as Assemblyman for eastern Wayne. In Albany he was the same painstaking legislator that those who knew him as a soldier expected him to be. While interested in all the legislation of the session, perhaps his most conspicuous service was the securing of the abolition of fees for county clerks and sheriffs. At the present time, 1899, he is supervisor of the town of Wolcott.
To him and his wife, who was Maria Frost, sister of a fellow Company A man, have been born four children, Lester, Ernest, Eliza and Della. Entrenched upon his 200-acre farm, with his family and the proud recollection of duty done, what more coul he ask? In foreign lands such services and such possessio .. would suggest knighthood, but our country does better, sir in his quiet life, though alert and alive to the needs of the da.,
REV. REUBEN BURTON. COMPANY B.
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we dub him that proudest of all titles worn by any man on the earth to-day, viz., an honest American citizen.
Aldace W. Brower .- Comrade Brower is one of the promi- nent citizens of Sodus, having charge of the railroad-station at the Center; for twenty years he was postmaster.
Albert H. Bull .- A Huron boy, Comrade Bull did not see quite enough of army service in the Ninth, so after the war he enlisted in the U. S. A., and was a sergeant in Company B, 42d, and Company F, 6th Infantry. After years of arduous duty, he now resides in Warren, O.
Reuben Burton .- He has been so long and so favorably known as the Rev. Reuben Burton of Syracuse that his plain unhandled name may hardly be recognized. Born in Clyde, the son of Hiram Burton, a thrifty and respected farmer, he had the advantages of the local schools and then began a college pre- paratory course in the Red Creek Academy, from which he was summoned by the call to arms in 1862. He easily gained the grade of sergeant to begin with, and in that capacity served for more than a year, dividing his time among drill, clerical work at regimental headquarters and teaching in the school organized at Fort Mansfield. Later he received a commission as 2d lieutenant, and was assigned to I and then to B. While sery- ing with B at Monocacy and through the burning of the bridge, he fell into the hands of the enemy and endured a long imprison- ment. lasting into the following spring.
He was at first confined in the Richland county (S. C.) jail, and afterwards in the "Asylum Camp" of Columbia, S. C. Soon after his return to duty, he was assigned to staff service, and in this capacity reached the time of muster-out for the regiment. Meantime he had been commissioned 1st lieutenant, and urged by Major Lamoreaux, who was to command the 9th Battalion in the 2d Heavy, he consented to remain, and was again placed on staff-duty. The generals with whom he served regarded his work as most satisfactory, and General Whistler, commanding the brigade, wrote across the lieutenant's parchment, "A brave and competent officer." The duty given to Lieutenant Burton to perform was of the most arduous and exacting nature, and had before his assignment been performed by a major.
Coming home from the army, our lieutenant gave up his ministerial aspirations that had been his through his earlier years, and went into business, but the call that he had received
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was of a character that he could not ignore, and though he was married, having in 1867 been united to Miss Janette Waldruff of Galen, he determined to begin over again the work dropped when he enlisted. Accordingly he went to Rochester and pur- sued five years' course in the University and Theological School of that city, and was ordained in 1876.
Having been baptized in the Baptist Church of Clyde, in which his father had long been a deacon, he very naturally entered upon the ministry of that denomination, and his voice for more than twenty years has been one of the most popular in western New York. All his church-work has been in his native state, and for the most part in the western portion there- of.
In 1889 he began the organization of a wholly new enterprise in the city of Syracuse. He began his labors in a hired hall, but now the church numbers 525 members, and the Sunday- school has a membership of over 700. A new edifice has been erected with a seating capacity of more than a thousand; but there are victories yet to be won, and our reverend lieutenant is still pressing on just as manfully as in the days of his mili- tant career. It ought to be stated that no man in his vicinity is heard on patriotic and kindred theines more eagerly than Comrade Burton.
To Lieutenant Burton and wife have been born two children, Lena C. and H. Grace; the former is the wife of the Rev. How- ard I. Andrews.
Joseph B. Casterline .- He was born in Clyde, N. Y., June 21, 1839, and was married to Miss Mary E. Bassett of Wolcott Aug. 5. 1862. Then came his enlistment, or more properly his de- parture, for the scenes of hostilities; was wounded at Cold Har- bor, and did not return to the regiment till September following. He was mustered out as a sergeant of Company A.
In 1881 he moved from North Wolcott to Wautoma, Wis., where he now resides. His people have appreciated his abilities, for they have made him town clerk four years; justice of the peace five years, and supervisor two years; also he has been clerk of courts two terms of two years each.
This is a good illustration of the way veterans of the Ninth serve their country when the people recognize their good quali- ties.
T. J. Chaddock .- Lieutenant Chaddock is another of the vet-
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erans who quickly exchanged the garb of a soldier for that of a farmer, and resumed the occupation he left when he enlisted. His family has long been resident in the town of Rose, and as long prominent in the affairs of the Baptist Church, in which our lieutenant has been for several years a deacon. Indeed, in his immediate neighborhood, he is more frequently addressed by his church title than by that won in war-time.
Dwight S. Chamberlain .- This gentleman, who early joined the regiment as assistant surgeon and who succeeded Dr. Sabin . when the latter resigned, is one of the best-known citizens of Wayne county. He was born in Litchfield county, Conn .. Feb- ruary 22d, 1839, having ancestors who had borne their part in the War of the Revolution. His education was received at the Genesee Seminary and College of Lima, N. Y., and at the University of the City of New York, from whose medical depart- ment he was graduated in 1862. Then followed a professional trip to England, from which, in 1862, he came into the 138th as assistant to Surgeon Sabin. After the resignation of the latter. Dr. Chamberlain was promoted major and surgeon, and so con- tinued to the end.
Coming as he did, it was his fortune to see all the active service of the Ninth, and to impress himself on the men as a most vigorous and efficient officer. Following the war, he was for a time in charge of the Soldiers' Home and Hospital in Syra- cuse. but in September, 1865, he came to Lyons and formed a partnership with Dr. E. W. Bottume, at that time one of the oldest and most successful practitioners in Wayne county.
In 1868 he began the study of law, and was admitted to its practice in 1874, since which time he has largely devoted himself to that profession. His wife, to whom he was married in 1868. was Katharine M., daughter of the late D. W. Parshall, and they have long been prominent features in the social life of Lyons.
In all that pertains to the welfare and upbuilding of his adopted village, our ex-surgeon has been active and successful. The Parshall Memorial Building, erected by him, is an elegant edifice, containing one of the best-appointed opera houses in the state outside of the larger cities. Many of the finest busi- ness structures in the village are the property of himself and wife. They also possess other extensive real-estate and farming lands in the town and county. Major Chamberlain is, moreover,
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heavily interested in banking, and perhaps no one man did more than himself in a critical moment in retaining for Lyons the buildings of the county seat, then in imminent peril of going elsewhere. Then as at many other times he demonstrated his possession of leadership.
Much of the development of Sodus Point as a summer resort is owing to our ex-surgeon's care and foresight, and frequenters of that interior watering-place will acknowledge the justice of this statement.
After all, the survivors of the Ninth like best to think of him as the one whom they confronted when they responded to the doctor's call, and though these memories are, somehow, mixed up with quinine and castor oil, yet they recall him as one who would have made them whole and thus keep them up to the requirements of a healthy soldier's standard.
Alton E. Cobb .- Of all the boys who took in the winter in Danville, perhaps no one was better known than Cobb. All of us felt particularly thankful for the blow he dealt the Confed- eracy when the rebel officer came in to trade breeches during the giving out of clothing, in the month of February. The Johnny threatened to keep us there all the spring, but his forci- ble remarks did not bring back his Confederate scrip.
It was pleasant to note the luxuries that our comrade's party enjoyed on their way to Richmond. Again the adage, "All's fair in war."
Alton's address for some time has been Scranton, Penn.
William H. Coombs .- Comrade Coombs of Company H is one of the veterans who have found homes in the great Southwest. He is living now in San Angelo, Texas, but he has resided in other parts of the state as well as in Colorado. Though remote from his comrades of old, he keeps pretty well posted on our whereabouts.
John L. Crane .- Captain Crane was born in Butler, Wayne county, June 23d, 1836; fitted for college in Red Creek Academy and entered Union College, though he did not graduate; studied law in Port Byron, and was admitted to practice in 1859, locat- ing in Clyde. After his return from the army he went West, and died in Sauk Center, Minn., Dec. 8, 1874, from lung disease contracted in his army life.
John E. Dean .- The last sergeant major of the regiment re- sides in Newark, O. Of Scotch-Irish parentage, he was born in
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Locke, Cayuga county, Aug. 1st, 1844; was graduated from Auburn Public School No. 5, and remained in or near the city till his enlistment under Lieutenant Howard in Company I.
He began as private, and with the exception of a short fur- lough was on duty all the time to the end; was one of the 250 when in the valley the regiment was reduced to that number. Being detailed at headquarters for special duty, he followed Guy Brown as sergeant major when the latter was promoted lieutenant. The comrade acknowledges straggling once when we were making that rapid march to Danville, and the regi- ment covered 125 miles in four days and five hours. The ser- geant major writes most pleasantly of his memories of all the officers of the Ninth, particularly of Welling, Seward, Snyder, Comstock, Brown and Howard.
In 1867 he went to the West, and for two years was clerk of the District Court in Nebraska City, afterwards engaging in mercantile pursuits. Coming back to Ohio in 1874, he has re- sided there since, rearing four sons to perpetuate his name and memory. He is connected with the business house of P. & F. Corbin of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Walter Deuel .- He was born in Stanford, Dutchess county, July 14, 1824, and spent his boyhood on a farm, getting the usual amount of district school. In 1848 he took a westward trip as far as Frankfort, Herkimer county, where he was mar- ried to Miss Heziah M. Watson. Thence coming to Wayne county, he was on a farm till his enlistment in Company D.
After the muster-out of the 2d Heavy, to which he, with so many others, had been transferred, he came back shattered in health and finally located in Chittenango, where he managed a market-garden and greenhouse. There, March 27, 1887, he was stricken with apoplexy, from which he never rallied.
He left a widow and two sons, one, Dr. W. E. Deuel of Chit- tenango; the other, Charles S., recently graduated from a dental college.
John H. De Voe .- He was born Sept. S, 1846. in Butler; was living there when the 138th was raised, and it would appear that he was sixteen years old the day that he was mustered in as drummer of Company G. With the exception of a ten-days' furlough, was never absent from the regiment. In the winter of 1862 and '63 his company gave him a beautiful brass drum. which he used all the way through, and now retains, and whose
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picture is found in this book. It met with a sad mishap at Cold Harbor, where a cannon-ball mashed it fiat, but it was smoothed out, and now graces Memorial and other parade occasions.
Hardly more than a boy when the war was over, he went home to South Butler, and attended school in that village, hav- ing as principal that excellent scholar, Albert J. Davis. In 1867 the family went to Illinois and settled near Marseilles. Alternating between teaching and attending school, working on the farm between whiles, he was graduated from Grand Prairie Seminary, commercial department, 1869. The following autumn he entered Michigan University, remaining through his sophomore year. Then receiving an offer to teach in Bland- ville College, Ky., he accepted.
Later drifting to Chicago, for two years he was employed in the wholesale dry-goods house of J. V. Farwell & Co. Then he served the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company at Washington, Ills. Here he was married to Miss Emma Smith, a music teacher of Eureka College, who has in these later years acquired no little fame as a speaker for the National Woman's Suffrage Association.
In 1881 Mr. and Mrs. De Voe moved to Huron, South Dakota, near which they founded the town bearing their name in Faulk county. He was a very prominent factor in the campaign re- sulting in the division of the state.
In 1891 he returned to Illinois, locating in Harvey, a suburb of Chicago, and which is now his home. Soon afterwards he was elected police magistrate of the place, and in the period of holding this office studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1894. At present he is in mercantile business in Harvey.
Though long away from New York, Comrade De Voe retains the liveliest recollections of the former days and of his old associates in the regiment.
Stephen T. Devoe .- Our second chaplain clearly belongs to the church militant, for at the age of forty years he enlisted in Company G, and was its first sergeant, when on the resigna- tion of Chaplain Mudge, he was made his successor. Being a regularly ordained minister of the Free Baptist denomination, he had repeatedly preached while doing his duty in the camp. He fought well at Cedar Creek, and the boys always have a good word for the chaplain, who with the weight of years upon him is living in Wolcott. He writes these words: "Among the
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2D LIEUT. CHAUNCEY FISH. COMPANY B. Later, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, and Brevet Major.
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earliest of my recollections are the lessons taught me by my father and mother concerning my native land, America, and its government. I got the impression that this was the best gov- ernment in the broad world, and it thrilled my whole being to hear,
'My country, 'tis of thee.'
"So when the Civil War broke out, it became a serious study to know just what my duty was, when portending disaster threat- ened the very life of my country."
We are glad that duty seemed to call for his enlistment and that the mantle of Chaplain Mudge fell upon such excellent shoulders. While his sense of hearing is dulling fast and the shores of the silent sea are nearing, memory recalls the bugle sounds of other days, and his face lights up at thoughts of the time when he heard the clarion-notes of duty's call, and so heartily responded.
Walter G. Duckett .- There were those who liked Washington so well that they concluded to remain there. Among them was the young man who had served the 2d Battalion in the capacity of hospital steward. His merits in this line of duty were rec- ognized, and he was transferred to the U. S. A., remaining till April, 1866.
Locating in the Capital of the nation, he has continued to do a business in the pharmaceutical line ever since. Few veterans of the Ninth fail to call on him when in Washington, and they almost made his store their headquarters in 1892.
John F. Failing .- The long time efficient hospital steward of the Ninth is now an M. D. in Grand Rapids, Mich. It is a source of regret that more extended data are not at hand, but he lends a hand to the making of this book.
Chauncey Fish .- He is entitled to the rank of major, but somehow to a great many, it comes more natural to call him "captain," just a little nearer, for a captain is in close contact with those who follow, and when we look at the origin of the word, what is there higher than the head? and that is what the word comes from.
Of Massachusetts stock, Chauncey Fish has in his own life and in that of his sons fully exemplified the merits of his ances- tors, who repeatedly stood for what they deemed their rights. His parents, Thomas and Sarah (Gallop) Fish, settled in Wil- liamson in 1810, and there in 1828. January 22d, our captain 27
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was born, the second of nine children. His wife was Phoebe J. Cottrell, also of Williamson, and of New Jersey descent. They, too, have had nine children, of whom Myron and John were members of the same company with their father. Myron was killed at Winchester in 1864, and John died in 1869.
Captain Fish was one of the most active agents in the rais- ing of Company B, and he went away from Auburn as 1st sergeant. Every promotion was fairly earned, and to this day no officer of the Ninth enjoys a higher degree of respect than the captain, who gave time, his own blood and that of his son in the defense of country. Afflicted with infirmities, largely re- sulting from exposure in the field, he has tilled his farm since the war, save as he held the government position of collector of customs in Pultneyville, which place he filled for seven years.
No door in Wayne county swings open to an old soldier any more easily than that of the captain's house, and a G. A. R. button is an open sesame to the best that he possesses. Unless illness prevents, he is always present at the county and regi- mental reunions, and when he rises to speak he is sure of at- tentive listeners, for every one knows that he has something to say, and that he will say it. He belongs to the Post of the G. A. R. which bears the name of his boy slain in battle.
He is a brevet major, having received that title from Andrew Johnson on account of his bravery at Sailor's Creek. He retains with a deal of pride, every bit of which is pardonable, a letter from Governor Fenton transmitting the commission, and the same is reproduced here.
State of New York, Executive Department. Albany, Nov. 8, 1866.
Brevet Major Chauncey Fish.
Dear Sir: I have the pleasure to transmit herewith a brevet commission, conferred by the president in recognition of your faithful and distinguished services in the late war.
In behalf of the state, allow me to thank you for the gallantry and devotion which induced the conspicuous mention by the General Government. I feel a lively solicitude in all that re- lates to the honor and prosperity of the soldiers of the Union army, and especially those who advanced its renown while de- fending the cause of our common country.
Very respectfully,
R. E. FENTON.
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Perhaps the signature of Edwin M. Stanton affixed to the « ouinnis sion gives as much, if not more, pleasure than that of the president.
Mrs. Fish has preceded her gallant husband to the other world and to the society of the sons who went even earlier, but sven children are yet here to enjoy the favor in which their father lives. Whole-hearted, devoted, persevering, honest, Cap- tain Fish survives, a magnificent type of the American citizen soldier.
Cyrus E. Fitch .- One of the merry boys who kept the camp in good humor, or at least did his part towards it, was "Cy" Fitch of Company A, and when at later dates his brother, George, his cousin, Irving, and his uncle, Allen, appeared, "those Fitches" were frequently referred to. They were a good lot, from the youngest, George, up to Uncle Allen, who acknowl- edged to forty-four years. Irving was killed at Cedar Creek, and has the peculiar distinction of a headstone in Winchester National Cemetery, while his body, with another memorial, is buried in Wolcott. George and the uncle have both answered to the roll-call on the other side, since the war.
Cyrus, living in that part of Butler near the Wolcott line, where he runs a farm with fruit-growing and evaporating at- tachments, has affiliations with the latter town, but he has been an office-holder in his own town, being the supervisor for at least two terms.
He is one of the regular attendants at the Wayne county veterans' reunions, and if anything is to be done to help along streams of the Ninth, he is ever ready to assist.
Tennis E. Flynn .- There was no jollier officer in the regi- mynt than the lieutenant and later captain who first saw the balit in the city of Cork, Ireland, 1833. An aunt brought him ! America when he was but eight years old. He worked upon a farm near Auburn till he was about eighteen; then he went to Port Byron and clerked in a grocery till 1857, when he moved io c'hade. starting a grocery business for himself. The next srar he was married to Miss Mary Cavanaugh of Port Byron, and in Clyde. 1862 found him.
Il- raised a company for the 111th, but for some reason he did hot go. Then came the next regiment, and he went in, as we know. His merry laugh drove away many a fit of the blues, and if he himself was ever down in the mouth, he took good care
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that others should not know it. His presence was better than medicine. He got a little touch from a bit of a shell at Cedar Creek, but was not seriously hurt.
Coming home from the war he resumed business in Clyde, but was carried off by disease in 1873 at the age of forty. Mem- bers of his family continue to reside in Clyde, justly proud of the record made by the husband and father in the days when every man was expected to show his colors.
Charles A. Ford .- Resident in Homer, N. Y., our comrade has long suffered from an illness that makes him a member of the "Shut-in Club," but his brain is active, and he writes ex- cellent verse, bits of which are found in the history. He also has vivid memories of war-times and draws out on occasion very pleasant pictures of men and events of 1864 and '65.
He was born in Genoa, N. Y., Sept. 12, 1844, but came, when a child, with his parents to Homer. Had the privileges of Cort- land Academy, but at sixteen years of age began learning the harness-making trade. Resumed that work when he came home from the war. Was married in 1866, and has reared a family of five children. He has been a member of the village board and town clerk, and he says of himself,
"Am waiting now for orders To cross another stream; Whose further shore Shall know no more Of war's fierce lurid gleam."
Philip R. Freeoff .- This genial officer of Company I was born in Gimbsheim, Germany, May 21, 1820. He had had military experience in his native land, though he came to America in 1839 or 1840, locating in Auburn, which continued to be his home. He was a horticulturist, and his greenhouses and flowers at one time formed a great attraction. He was one of the directors of the Gas Company in 1850; was an alderman in 1853 and '54; was a member of the Willard Guard, and at the time of his enlistment was an officer in the state's prison in Auburn, his fellow keepers giving him a sword and equipments: the sword, beautifully engraved, was carried by him through- out the war. It is to-day a highly-prized object to his grandson and namesake.
During the campaign of 1864 he was injured in one eye, losing the sight of it. His military record is told in that of Company
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