USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The heroes of Albany. A memorial of the patriot-martyrs of the city and county of Albany, who sacrificed their lives during the late war in defense of our nation 1861-1865 > Part 31
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At the early age of twenty-eight, RICHARD M. STRONG died, far away from home and kindred. We knew but little of his days of sickness and suffering, or of the last hours of his life, save that an unrelenting disease, in an ungenial clime, wasted him away; and in his last moments his thoughts were turned to loved ones at home, and his lips faintly murmured a brother's name; and with this last effort of affection, his spirit passed to " God who gave it."
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The story of his life is brief and simple. It is not marked by uncommon incidents, which will attract the attention of the great world. He did not live long enough to achieve the high honors of the profession to which his life was to have been devoted, and which his talents, his industry, his mauly and modest deportment, his spotless character, his love of truth and justice, entitled those who knew him best to predict for his career. So much of pro- fessional life as he was permitted to pursue, gave assurance that all which would have followed could not have
" Unbeseemed the promise of his spring."
He began the study of the law in an office with which I was connected; and I shall always remember him with affection as a devoted, industrious, intelligent and faithful student; full of hope, and earnest in the pursuit of all that learning which marks the progress of a true lawyer, and gives dignity to a noble profes- sion. He brought to that pursuit a mind capable of reaching a high rank among men, who never fail to appreciate learning, to reverence intellect, and to love and cherish all the higher quali ties which adorn human nature. His early training, where his superiority had always been acknowledged, fitted him to com- mence his professional career under circumstances more favorable to success than is common to most who enter upon a pursuit where real merit is seldom unrewarded, and where few ever attain a permanent position without severe labor and solid acquire- ments. His practice at the bar, although not of long duration or extensive in its character, illustrated the qualities of mind and heart which commanded the respect and regard of all his brethren, . and which step by step, would have led him to high honors.
In early life he was frail and delicate, and he was nurtured with tenderest affection. At school he was patient, and diligent; and not only won the regard of his associates, but attained a position of acknowledged merit; and when his schoolboy and col- lege days were over, he left behind him the marks of a superior mind. and the remembrance of an exemplary character. To this, all his early friends bear willing testimony. He sought our profession as best adapted to his tastes and talents, and entered
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upon it with all the enthusiasm of youth, and with all the hope and confidence which youth and conscious talents inspire. Sur- rounded by every comfort which wealth and affection can give, stimulated by every motive of honorable ambition, he saw the future bright before him, and, with just reliance upon himself, looked forward to a useful and an honorable career in the pro- fession of his choice. But an imperiled country called him to other duties. He was among the first, when the sound of con- flict reached us, to lay down the profession of the law, and assume the profession of arms; and he has followed it with fidelity to the same end to which we are all hastening. With the brave men who have gone to the field of strife he sought danger as a duty; and, if opportunity had presented, he would have proved himself as brave in battle as he was patient and sub- missive when disease wasted his life away. He was a Christian gentleman and a Christian soldier. He followed with unfalter- ing trust, the path of duty to his God, to his country, to his kindred and his friends. He leaves no enemy behind him. All who knew him loved him; for his nature was gentle and genial. He was firm in honest purposes, quick to discern and defend the right, and incapable of wrong. When such men die early or late in life, there is a melancholy pleasure in bearing testimony to what they were ; and to do so is a sacred duty to the living and the dead.
The circumstances under which our deceased brother closed his brief but honorable career, are peculiarly painful and impres- sive, although death now meets us in so many startling forms that we scarcely notice it until it comes very near. The stories of blood and battle, of suffering and death, are daily brought to our view, and yet scarcely arrest our attention. We look with interest to scenes of conflict and carnage, where brave men struggle and die amid the roar of cannon and the shouts of vic- tory, but scarcely remember the unhappy patriots who, in a distant clime, struggle with relentless disease, and who, upon beds of suffering, turn once more to their early homes and kin- dred in all the agony of loneliness and desolation. They are far beyond all those consolations which attend the dying when sur-
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rounded by the endearments of home. Death is always a mer- ciless visitor; but to one suffering amid strangers, in a strange land, becomes robed in his most ghastly form-terrible to the victim, and agonizing to those who are nearest and dearest to him. We cannot turn aside the veil that hides the grief of the afflicted household in which our lamented brother grew up to manhood. The father's, the mother's, the brother's and the sister's agony is all their own. We may sympathize but cannot alleviate. We may speak a word of kindness, and drop a tear of sympathy, but we only add our sorrow to theirs. God grant that this household, and the many others that have, in these unhappy days, suffered a like bereavement, may find consolation from the only source that can give lasting comfort to the afflicted.
And let us who here grieve over the carly dead, be ever mind- ful of the admonitions which these mournful occasions give us. Death meets us in all forms, in all conditions of age and station, and on all occasions.
" Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither in the north wind's breath, And stars to set; but all- Thou hast all seasons for thine own, oh Death!"
This tribute of the Hon. Mr. REYNOLDS was followed by other addresses, also most appropriate and eloquent, from the Hon. LYMAN TREMAIN, Mr. RUFUS W. PECKHAM Jr., Hon. DEODATUS WRIGHT, Gen. JOHN MEREDITH READ Jr., and Mr. ORLANDO MEADS.
WILLIAM A. YOUNG, Esq., offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted :
Another member of the Albany County Bar has died in the military service of the country. RICHARD MARVIN STRONG, a gentleman of much professional ability, of amiable manners and strict integrity, beloved by his companions in arms, and by all who were associated with him in the pursuits of civil life, in the flower of his age, has gone from among us forever. His worth as a citizen and a lawyer, his valor and patriotism, have conse-
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crated his name and his memory in the hearts of his brothers of the bar. In view of this mournful dispensation.
Resolved, That while contemplating with admiration and pride the example furnished by the deceased, of conscientious devotion to the Union and the supremacy of the laws, we deeply lament the too early death of one whose cultivated mind and pure char- acter gave promise of so much usefulness and distinction. His intercourse with his brethren of the bar was marked, at all times, by kindness and courtesy. Among his fellow-citizens, his daily life was eminent for that uprightness and manly bearing which are the outward manifestations of a heart imbued with the prin- ciples of justice and right. His literary attainments and scholar- like tastes were the graceful and fitting ornaments of his virtues. Knowing the magnitude of the sacrifices at which he entered upon the career of arms, we venerate the heroism and constancy of one who was capable, when his country demanded his services, of exchanging the delights of a home, where he had ever been an object of the tenderest affection, the charms of study and the rewards of professional industry, for the hardships, the perils, and the sufferings of the camp and the field.
Resolved, That we tender to the parents and friends of the deceased our heartfelt sympathies in the affliction which this mel- ancholy event has brought upon them; and that we invoke in their behalf the consolations which enabled our departed brother to meet death with Christian fortitude and resignation.
Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the news- papers of the city, and that a copy, signed by the officers of this meeting, be presented to the family of the deceased.
In an eloquent sermon commemorative of Adjt. STRONG, the Rev. A. S. TWOMBLY, his pastor, spoke as follows:
" In the prime of manhood, God has taken him away. With many earthly hopes yet unfulfilled-a thousand manly aspira- tions all unmet-just as the promise of his early culture ripens towards its fruit-before life gives its best rewards-he dies ! But who will say that life in him, in any sense, was incomplete ? Who will say that death has broken from the stem a life whose summer time has not yet come ? This church, which owes much
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of its strength and its success to him whose name alone is left to it, may seem all incomplete without him. We, his associates and friends, among whom he appeared pre-eminent for genial good- ness, strength of judgment, and simplicity of character, may be obliged to leave unfinished his share in the work which we together had assumed. The Sabbath school-his pride and care - that class which he took with him to the war, may never find a substitute for the place he occupied. And in the private circle of his dearest friends, the years he would have filled with happiness for them, may seem all incomplete and vacant; even as to all whose lives and interests his peculiar qualities seemed to supply that which he only could supply, his career may seem but the fragment of an earthly course. And why God called this useful servant home so soon, why all this ripening power for good should be so soon dissolved in death, we cannot tell; but this one thing we know, in him, when God's eye searched, it found the full condition of a finished mortal life.
" The earthly dates that limit his career between the times of birth and death, are not God's boundaries; and the meanness of our human computations, God makes manifest, in giving a far grander finish than that of years or circumstances to his life.
" For although on all life's ordinary relationships, his memory sheds a fragrant beauty, yet our thoughts invest him with far richer usefulness, and his name will have far greater eloquence for good, because religion lent her lustre to the fair graces which adorned his life. That his life was rich in things that win the hearts of friends, and touch the finer springs of feeling, none who witness the universal lamentation at his death can doubt.
" The touching reminiscences preserved of him at home; the lonesome feeling there without him, together with the last word on his dying lips (his brother's name), tell well enough of him as son and brother. While for that trying relationship, existing so seldom in perfection between a young church member and his careless friends, let those to whom his presence was an admoni- tion, and at the same time a delight, bear witness. Let the power of his life and death on them attest his genial, unobtru- sive, but consistent character as a friend.
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" So, too, the record of his business life, for thoroughness, fair- ness and ability, may challenge scrutiny. This, the resolutions published by his associates of the bar full well attest. And let our own church records show the value of his professional advice. Let this goodly edifice, in which to-night we worship, speak, not only from the accuracy of all its financial formula, of his legal skill, but also from its chaste adornments, of his care and taste; thus proving that while apt and able in professional acquire- ments, he was likewise talented and tasteful in all other branches of a liberal culture.
" But above all signs like these, who to his record as a Chris- tiun would wish to add more signs of full-orbed life ? who most anxious for assurance, could desire more signs of faith, humility and sacrifice by which the Christian's earthly state is made com- plete ? Not that all possible signs appear in him; but that enough appear, to show that by God's grace the germ of true Christianity was in his soul, who that has heard him pray, who that has watched his manly, Christian life ; who that has heard of his pure motives in responding to his country's call, ean for a moment doubt ? Are not these outward indications of complete- ness, clustered over and about his memory like flowers that tell of a prolific soil ? And were all other indications wanting, would not the last great witness of his life; would not the count- ing of his life a willing offering, be sufficient testimony to the full completion of this trial-epoch of his soul ?
" His fellow soldiers send back loving messages of his devotion to the sick and suffering in that dreary hospital beneath the southern palm, thus telling us where the seeds of his own fatal malady were sown. They tell us how he sympathized with others in their sorrow; how in camp he talked and prayed with men (some of them from his old Sabbath elass), when to indite a prayer or sing a psalm, cost something more than time or talent .*
* A tonching incident occurred to-day, in connection with this class. A pupil who had volunteered for two years in another regiment, being at home on a short furlough, entered the school and asked the superintendent for his former teacher, not knowing that the class had all enlisted, and that their teacher was no more. What could more forcibly illustrate our beloved brother's influence and power as a faithful teacher in the Sabbath School ?
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They tell us that the " Cross at any time in his deportment could be seen;" so that we needed not to hear the tidings of his death, to know assuredly that life was not accounted dear to him, if that he might complete his course with joy. If therefore in addition to the Christian impulse by which he was hurried to the field; if anything above that sense of Christian duty, for which he gave our land his life, were wanting to attest the fullness and com- pleteness of his earthly course, these last days with the sick and the disabled-his last words, all of which were breathed, not for himself but for another, would announce with unmistakable authority how truly he had counted all things loss, that he might win the crown.
" When we think of him, let not our eyes be dim with tears- but let our hearts rejoice that God has made him able, thus to finish his career with joy. Let his memory seem to us like some perfected crystal formed from the agitated cooling of the ore; each side reflects its own peculiar lustre, while together all the rays perfect a starlike form, whose gleams conceal all imperfec- tions; and within whose heart a crystal germ of purity waits but the master hand to be made fit for coronets of kings.
" But yesterday our friend was like ourselves, imperfect, frail and liable to temptation; upon his life the finishing touch had not yet come. To-day, by Jesus's handling, he is shining in perfection in the diadem of God ! His mortal life was gladly given for this end; then why should we begrudge it! Everything was laid for this at Jesus's feet ; and why should we be sorry for the sacrifice ! A joyous home, great hopes, strong friendships, happy tics,-all counted loss, so that he might end his course with joy! These are the signs of its completion, what can we ask for more !
"Not merely do the tears of all true patriots fall upon his "tomb; not only does a star-lit and perfected manhood shine from heaven upon us to inspire with hope; but as a spirit, leaving in its flight sure signs of its redemption, his memory sheds a glad assurance down. With Paul, his strength on earth through Christ, was in the words : 'I count not life dear unto me, so that I finish my career with joy,' and with the Apostle he has proved
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those words sincere; therefore to-day, with all the ransomed hosts above, he finds ecstatic pleasure in that song of songs : ' The Lamb was slain.'
" My fellow-Christians of this church, he for whose loss these tears of mingled grief and joy are falling, was, as you know, one of the first enrolled among our members. He is among the first to leave this membership for the Church Triumphant in the skies. He who greeted me so cordially one year ago when first I came to live among you as your pastor, will extend to me and you no further proofs of his affection; he can offer now no further acts of love; but may he not still live about us, radiant upon us from that upper sphere? May not his death be like a cheerful light upon our way, revealing to us what the Christian has to suffer and to dare, and showing us the glorious crown he hopes to wear ? May not this early gift of life to God nerve us as worth- ily to finish our career ? Assisted by him, to look beyond him to a greater sufferer, may we not in holy emulation also strive to leave behind us equal proof, that Jesus will present our souls upon His bleeding heart before the throne? Then shall the name of him who has departed become a sacred memory within our souls; our loved and honored dead will touch us from the past, and fill us with an ever-present and inspiring joy! He was ours once in full companionship; he may be ours forevermore in that far higher intimacy which death and a divine communion can establish between kindred souls. Although his worthiness makes our immediate loss the heavier, yet for this very reason is his gain and ours the greater. He has finished his career with joy-we in that completion may find all we need; may find the very impulse that we lacked for giving up our life in true sur- render unto God. Draw near, then, ye that mourn and be ye comforted. We have no cause for grief; and surely he whose requiem we chant needs not our tears!
" In that resplendent lustre of perfected souls, the spirits of the just made perfect seem to listen as I speak! I seem to speak of one among them, as if he heard me still! His voice comes gently, like an echo from the skies, entreating us to get our lives
ADJT. RICHARD M. STRONG.
in readiness to come. He tells us of the rest above; he chants the glory of his now perfected life.
. Thus would he hush our murmurs, quiet all our fears, and draw us sweetly to the love of Him whose life was freely given, that whosoever loseth life for His sake on the earth may find it unto everlasting joy."
The following hymn (a favorite with Adjt. STRONG, among the songs of the Sabbath School), was sung by request on the eve- ning of the delivery of this discourse :
Come sing to me of heaven When I'm about to die; Sing songs of holy cestasy To waft my soul on high.
When cold and sluggish drops Roll off my marble brow, Break forth in songs of joyfulness, Let heaven begin below.
When the last moments come, Oh, watch my dying face To catch the bright seraphic glow Which in cach feature plays.
Then to my raptured car Let one sweet song be given;
Let music charm me last on earth And greet me first in heaven.
Then close my sightless eyes, And lay me down to rest, And clasp my cold and iey hands Upon my lifeless breast.
When round my senseless clay Assemble those I love- Then sing of heaven, delightful heaven, My glorious home above
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ADJT. JOHN II. RUSSELL.
XXIV. ADJUTANT JOHN H. RUSSELL.
From Rev. A. A. FARR, late Chaplain of Eighteenth N. Y. Regiment.
Adjutant JOHN H. RUSSELL was the son of Mr. WILLIAM and Mrs. CATHARINE A. RUSSELL, and was born in the city of Albany, on the 21st day of July, 1836. His name is remembered by hundreds here, who lamented his early death while they honored him for his love for his country, and his devotion to her cause, in the time of her great peril. On the breaking out of the rebellion, in 1861, he was one of the first to offer his services to the government, and was ready to leave home and friends, if he could do something towards rolling back the dark cloud that hung over the land, and threatened us with the loss of all our cherished institutions.
When the Eighteenth Regiment of N. Y. State Volunteers was organized, on the 14th day of May, 1861, he was unani- mously elected the Adjutant of the regiment; and on the 17th of the same month, was mustered into the service of the United States. By applying himself to the work, he soon became an accomplished officer. He was, in many respects, a model Adju- tant. Being a good scholar and a very fine penman, and withal very particular that every thing should be just right, he sue- ceeded in securing the commendation of officers high in com- mand.
Adjutant RUSSELL was rather retiring in his manners, and had but few intimate friends; yet, such was his general conduct, that he commanded the respect of all.
He had never made a public profession of religion, yet he was a firm believer in the doctrines of Christianity. He used often
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to speak of his mother as a woman of deep piety, and he believes she was at rest in a better world.
In the month of April. 1862, we were ordered to the Penin- sula to join Gen. MCCLELLAN. Soon after we arrived there, Mr. RUSSELL began to feel the effects of that climate, in impairing his health. And for some weeks before his leaving the field, he was much of the time really unfit for duty. Yet he was unwilling to give up and be called a sick man, and, under these unfavorable cir- cumstances, he continued to do his duty. As I was, at that time, occupying the same tent with him, I know how much he suffered.
The battle of Gaines' Mills was fought on the 27th day of June, 1862. Our regiment, with others, was formed in line of battle about twelve o'clock, noon, and soon after we were ordered to cross the Chickahominy, with the expectation of going into the fight, which had already commenced. We crossed the river, according to orders, and were soon in sight of the contending forces. At about five P. M. we were ordered into the battle, at, double quick. Adjutant RUSSELL was at his post, and without flinching did his duty. But he was not permitted to remain long with his comrades. He was wounded in the ankle by a Minnie ball, yet it was probably a spent shot, as it did not break the ankle. He was ordered to the rear, when the surgeon extracted the ball, and thought the wound was so slight that he would soon be at his post again. That night, about twelve o'clock, the regiment was ordered back to our camp, and, as we were return ing, we overtook Mr. RUSSELL, as he was being carried back to his tent. He was very cheerful, and thought he would soon be in active service again. I took care of him for the rest of the night, and he was very comfortable. The next morning, as we were expecting another battle, the Adjutant, with other wounded and sick men, were sent to Savage's Station, where they might be more secure, and receive proper attention. On Sabbath mor- ning, June 29, we commenced our retrogade movement, and when we arrived at Savage's Station all the sick and wounded that could be moved were put into ambulances and sent over to the James river. Mr. RUSSELL was of course one of the number. After putting him into the ambulance with Capt. MONTGOMERY,
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of Gen. NEWTON's staff, I saw no more of him until the next Tuesday. Then I found him at Carter's Landing, on the James river; and this proved to be our last meeting. At this time he was in good spirits, though very much fatigued, having remained in the ambulance for two days, and the most of that time they had been on the move. From this place he was taken to Harri- son's Landing, where he was put on board one of the transports and sent to the north. He thought if he could get home, where proper attention could be secured, he would soon be well again. But, when he arrived at Philadelphia, he was so much exhausted that he could go no further. He was taken to the house of Capt. MONTGOMERY, his fellow sufferer, where everything was done for him that human kindness could suggest. But his system had become so much debilitated by disease that he did not rally, but continued to fail, till the 28th day of July, 1862, he passed away from earth-just one month and one day from the time that he received his wound. Thus lived and died JOHN H. RUS- SELL, Adjutant Eighteenth N. Y. Vols.
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CAPT. JOHN D. P. DOUW.
XXV. CAPTAIN JOHN DEPEYSTER DOUW.
JOHN DEPEYSTER DOUW was born in Albany, on the 10th of March, 1837, and was the son of VOLCKERT P. and HELEN L. Douw. Reared amid the influences of refinement, intelligence and Christian culture, he early developed traits that endeared him to all with whom he was associated. Ile early manifested a frank and generous spirit, and was a respectful and dutiful son, a kind brother, and a warm hearted friend.
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