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 52
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When we first came to this place, he was sick for near three weeks, but recovered, and seemed to be healthy again. I never saw him apparently so well as before he was taken sick.
Dear friends, you have my sympathy, knowing this will be sad news to you all. PHILIP was loved by all in the company, and I never have heard any ill of him since he has been with us.
Yours in sympathy, CAPTAIN H. CROUNSE.
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CORPORAL MARTIN SITTERLY.
LXXXVIII. CORPORAL MARTIN SITTERLY, OF GUILDERLAND.
MARTIN SITTERLY was born March 29, 1838. He enlisted in the Forty-fourth Regiment for three years, August 8, 1861, and was killed at Hanover Court House, May 29, 1862.
All the information that we have received concerning him, after his enlistment, is contained in the following letters to his mother, and a letter from Lieutenant ROBERTS, and a short notice taken from a Rochester paper :
CAMP BEFORE YORKTOWN, VA., May 3, 1862.
Dear Mother-As my time will allow me to write a few lines this pleasant morning, I do so with much pleasure, knowing as I do, that you like to hear from me often. To begin, my health is as good as I could possibly expect; for, as I have written before, we are laboring under a great many disadvantages. But the hardships we endure seem light as long as one has good health. There is a great deal of sickness in this regiment at present, but we all hope it will disappear soon. JESSE WHITE and I have made up our minds to stand together as long as life lasts, and you need not feel worried about us. We are making our works here as formidable as possible, but the rebels have annoyed us a great deal for the last forty-eight hours, and we do not get much sleep. We do heavy fatigue duty in the daytime, and at nights we go out and help support the field bat- teries. We lie on the ground all night witnessing the heavy shells, thrown by, and bursting inside of our entrenchments. Write soon and often to,
Your obedient and affectionate son,
MARTIN.
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CORPORAL MARTIN SITTERLY.
HEAD QUARTERS, FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. V., CAMP BEFORE RICHMOND, VA., May 22, 1862.
Dear Mother-We are on the march, and have been for the last three days, and such warm weather I never experienced before. JESSE and I are enjoying the best of health on this long and hard march; although JESSE came pretty near, yes- terday, giving out of the ranks on the road, and would have done so if we had marched half a mile further. As for myself, they can't tire me out, if my health is only good. This, indeed, is my only hope of seeing home again. When one can sleep on the cold ground, with only a thin blanket under him and one over him and take comfort, you would naturally think that we must be hardy. The heaviest of our marching is over, for we are within a few miles of the rebel capital. Within two or three miles of us there are one hundred and eighty thousand secesh troops, and they will give us warm work, I apprehend, when we attack them. The country through which we have been march- ing is the finest I ever saw. The wheat is all headed out, straw- berries are ripe, clover in blow, and the cherries almost full grown. If the weather was not quite so warm our marching would be very pleasant. Love to all.
Your affectionate MARTIN.
His character and the circumstances of his death are given in the following letter and notice of the battle in which he fell:
CAMP NEAR NEWBRIDGE, VA., May 30, 1862.
Mr. SITTERLY:
Dear Sir-It is with feelings of the greatest sorrow that I communicate to you the sad news of the death of your son MARTIN. Since he became a member of this company his bear- ing has been such as to enable me to place every confidence in him, and to rest with satisfaction over any duty allotted to him. In the engagement, he stood by me until death claimed him. He fell in the front of the battle. To you as a father, I can only
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CORPORAL MARTIN SITTERLY.
say your son nobly performed his duty, and died with his confi- dence and hope in God.
I offer you my warmest sympathy, and pray Heaven to sustain you and yours under this great trial. In his death I lose a good faithful soldier and friend.
I beg leave to remain yours, Lieut. McROBERTS.
" Macauley," the army correspondent of the " Rochester Demo- crat," thus speaks of MARTIN SITTERLY of Guilderland, who fell at the battle of Hanover Court House:
" The engagement soon became general. The Forty-fourth bore the brunt of the battle, and had a man flinched all would have been lost. We were badly cut up; sixty wounded and twenty killed. Among the latter was the gallant MARTIN SIT- TERLY, Corporal of Co. C, Forty-fourth Regiment; a man of noble size, vigorous, patient and resolute; a born soldier. He was worth a score of common men. He fell, as I thought he would, in the first action in which he was engaged.
664
CORPORAL LEWIS W. QUAY.
LXXXIX. CORPORAL LEWIS W. QUAY, OF KNOX.
LEWIS W. QUAY, son of DANIEL and ANNA B. QUAY, was born in the town of Knox, Albany County, on the 30th of November, 1841.
He was a member of the Sabbath school connected with the Lutheran Church in Knox.
Patriotism induced him to enlist in his country's service, and he joined the Seventh Heavy Artillery, Co. K, on the 6th day of August, 1862.
Ile was in no engagements, his regiment being stationed at Fort Reno, D. C., at which place he died of typhoid fever, on the 26th day of July, 1863.
Previous to his going into the army he was not a professor of religion; but he wrote several letters to his mother which indica- ted his readiness to die, and his earnest desire to meet his dear mother in Heaven.
His remains were brought home and he was buried at Knox, April 1st, 1862.
665
CORPORAL ISAAC J. ROACH.
XC. CORPORAL ISAAC J. ROACH, OF KNOX
ISAAC J. ROACH, was the son of JOHN and PHEBE ROACH, and was born in Knox, August 27th, 1837.
When a child, he was remarkable for his kind and obliging disposition, and was very fond of relieving the wants of the poor. Early in life he became hopefully converted, and united with the Methodist church in the town of Knox. When the war broke out he felt a great anxiety to have the union of the United States preserved, and he thought that the Government needed his services more than they were needed at home.
Like most of the noble men whose careers we have sketched, he received, on enlisting, no bounty money, but was influenced by the purest patriotism.
He joined Co. F, Forty-fourth New York Regiment, in August 1861, and his military life was very brief. While at Camp But- terfield, Hall's Hill, Virginia, he was taken with the typhoid fever, and died Dec. 29, 1861. His remains were brought home to Knox and buried.
The two following letters were received, addressed to his brother, which furnish all the information that I have been able to obtain concerning his last hours.
CAMP BUTTERFIELD, Jan. 29, 1862.
Mr. ROBERT D. ROACH:
Dear Sir-Your kind note, dated January 7th, is at hand. It appears that you and myself have alike been sick, and are both recovering. Would to God that your brother, who was my best friend, had also been preserved. But I think, judging from
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CORPORAL ISAAC J. ROACII.
what I have seen of him, that he is happier now than when among us.
Ile was with us some two weeks previous to his going to the hospital, after he was taken sick. He was taken to the hospital on Friday, and on Sunday I was taken down with a fever, and confined to my tent. After he entered the hospital, he appeared to grow better. In fact, so much so, that he talked of coming over to see us in camp. But, alas! he never came. He soon grew rapidly worse, until death ended his sufferings.
How gladly would I have been with him more than I was, that I might have administered to his wants. But I was not able to leave my tent until within a few days previous to his death. On the Friday previous I went over to see him. My surprise was great to see how changed he had become. I saw plainly the impress of death marked upon that noble brow. I felt that my esteemed friend and camp chum, he who had been my companion on our southern march, and who had promised to stand by me in the time of need, must surely die. Never shall I forget that meeting. He partly arose in his bed as he extended his hand to me, and as our hands were thus grasped, he acted as though he would have me join him, in his heavenward journey. Owing to the nature of his disease, his mind wandered at times, until within a day or two of his death, when he became rational. He frequently spoke of the different members of your family, calling each of you by name.
Truly yours, JOHN A. RAMSEY, 4th Sergeant Co. F, 44th Regt.
Mr. ROBERT ROACH:
Dear Sir-You have already been informed of the much lamented death of your highly esteemed brother. You have indeed laid a costly and most precious offering on the altar of our much loved common country-the altar of civil and religious liberty. I sympathize deeply with you in the loss, and feel his death like the loss of a brother. His tent was close by mine, and he was always so kind, so brotherly, so ready to assist me when- ever I wanted anything done, that I shall feel his death very
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CORPORAL ISAAC J. ROACHI.
much. Besides, it was so unexpected to me, and he seemed, as I thought from his apparently vigorous frame, to give such pro- mise of long life and great usefulness, that I find it hard to feel reconciled. And then for the last few days, he was more or less delirious, so that when we began to fear that he would not recover, there was no opportunity of communicating with him or he with us.
But terribly painful as the trial is, it is all right. For it is all by His specific appointment and arrangement, who never made a mistake; who is too wise to err, and too good to be un- kind: who loves us better than we love ourselves, and who will cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
I believe, however, that with him the sting of death was taken away, and that our loss is his infinite and eternal gain. Though we have not in his case the evidence of death-bed religious expe- riences, we have, I think, what is far preferable-the evidence of a life of piety.
I deeply sympathize with you, and with his parents, and pray that God will be unto them better than sons and daughters, and to you a friend, that sticketh closer than a brother. I hope that neither you or they will ever regret sending him forth, or feel that he has lived in vain, or that he would have been spared, if he had remained at home. I pray you, do not regret that he died away from home. He died not alone or unattended, and the Saviour was as near him while here, as he could have been if he had been at home. The road to Heaven is as straight and short from hence as from your own home. And he could not have died in a more glorious cause, or filled a more honored grave, or leave behind him a more fragrant and enduring remem- brance. And he being dead, speaketh, and will speak many years to come, to multitudes, and thus, I hope, like Sampson, accomplish more by his death, than he could have done if he had lived to the longest period allotted to man.
Thus did SAM. I. MILLS, and HARRIET NEWEL, and HENRY MARTYN, and HENRY KIRK WHITE, and many others in earlier and later times. And why should it not be so with him? It is
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CORPORAL ISAAC J. ROACH.
true the battle was soon over with him. But if he has fought the good fight, he has come off more than conqueror.
Let us, then, each prepare to follow. And let us remember,
" Hearts, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave."
I may never meet you, perhaps, on earth, but I hope to meet you where sickness and sorrow, pain and death, are felt and feared no more. In the mean time, please accept the sympathies of a stranger, but a friend, and present my sympathies to your greatly afflicted parents.
Yours truly, L. H. PEASE, Chaplain 44th N. Y. S. V.
HALL'S HILL, VA., Dec. 30.
669
CORPORAL JOHN E. BAILEY.
XCI. CORPORAL JOHN E BAILEY.
JOHN E. BAILEY, Corporal of Company B, One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Regiment, N. Y. S. V., was born in Schoharie county, and was the son of HIRAM and CAROLINE BAILEY.
He received a good education in early life, and then labored for a time on his father's farm. Becoming tired of farming he went to Long Island, where he taught school. There he was married, and then returned to Schoharie county. He next removed to Albany, and became a clerk in the grocery store of Messrs. T. LAWRENCE & SON. Soon after settling in this city, he joined Company B as a private, and became a very active member.
When the war broke out, his patriotism was greatly excited, and without bounty or promise of promotion, he left his wife and family and marched away with his comrades to save his country. His regiment arriving at Baton Rouge, La., he was taken sick and was not permitted to be in but one skirmish, where, with a few others, he withstood the onslaught of the rebels in vastly superior numbers, until relieved.
At the taking of Port Hudson, he could not be restrained from taking a part in the action, and arose from a sick couch, and against the doctor's orders, marched with his company to partici- pate in its downfall. But becoming weak and exhausted, he fainted by the road side, and was carried back again. Upon the return of the regiment from Baton Rouge for home, although very feeble, he was taken on board the vessel, and with no care except such as a few of his comrades could give him, he died just before the regiment reached Cairo.
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CORPORAL JOHN E. BAILEY.
There he was buried, but his remains have since been brought home, and buried in the family burying ground at Schoharic village.
At the time he went away he was a member of the Middle Dutch Church of Albany. In his death, his comrades mourn the loss of a faithful and earnest soldier; his wife, of a devoted husband; his mother, of a dutiful son, and society, of a respected and useful member.
671
CORPORAL ERASTUS H. HOLMES.
XCII. CORPORAL ERASTUS HAMILTON HOLMES, OF WESTERLO.
MR. HOLMES was a native of the town of Westerlo, and was the son of JOHN and SARAH HOLMES, who were connected with the Methodist Church.
Influenced by a sincere and carnest desire to serve his country, he enlisted on the 5th of August, 1862, in Company K, Seventh Regiment, under the gallant Col. LEWIS O. MORRIS. He was stationed with this noble officer at Fort Reno, and was afterwards engaged in the assault on Petersburg. His bravery carried him in the thickest of the fight, and on the 16th of June, 1864, he was wounded in the hand, and was taken prisoner with many others. He was conveyed to Andersonville prison, where he, in common with multitudes of others, suffered everything, which the fiendish passions of their persecutors could heap upon them.
When Gen. SHERMAN marched through Georgia, Mr. HOLMES, with about fifteen hundred others, was removed to the Savannah prison. Here he encountered new forms of wretchedness and horror, and lingered until the 9th day of October, 1864, when he expired.
He leaves, in entire destitution, an interesting family, consist- ing of his widow, Mrs. SARAH ABIGAIL HOLMES, and five little children. The children are all under twelve years of age. Though left with no other inheritance but poverty, yet as they advance in years they will learn to appreciate the private virtues and public services of their noble father, who suffered and died a martyr for his country, and for the cause of human liberty.
672
CORPORAL ALONZO G. LUDDEN.
XCIII. CORPORAL ALONZO GROVE LUDDEN.
OF BERN.
The following sketch is taken from the " Lutheran Observer," published in Baltimore, Maryland:
On the 16th February, 1865, the angel of death entered the Lutheran parsonage at Bern, Albany county. New York, and laid his blighting hand upon the youthful form of ALONZO GROVE LUDDEN. ALONZO was the eldest son of the Rev. A. P. and CAR- OLINE LUDDEN, and was born in Augusta county, Virginia, on 28th February, 1846, and had, therefore, attained not quite nine- teen years when his young life was quenched by the great destroyer.
The subject of this memoir was of a naturally amiable and affectionate disposition, and, almost from infancy, exhibited a religious tendency. Nurtured in a Christian home, his intellect- ual and moral natures were, in their first developments, brought under the moulding influences of a genuine and fervid piety, as exhibited in the daily lives of those, to whose parental training God had committed him. Watched over with all the solicitude which parental affection, quickened by a sense of Christian obli- gation always excites, he was early taught the great truths of our holy religion and was daily made the subject of earnest and faithful prayer. Under these circumstances we need not wonder, that the principles of Divine grace were very early implanted in his soul, and that, like BAXTER, "he could not remember the time when he did not love the Saviour."
At the very early age of nine years, he connected himself with the Lutheran Church at Madison Court House. Va., then under the pastoral care of his father. This step was taken voluntarily,
CORPORAL ALONZO G. LUDDEN. 673
with great circumspection, and, as his conduct always afterwards proved, from an enlightened sense of the obligations which a Christian profession imposes. His piety exhibited very little of the emotional; it was the piety of principle, of thorough con- viction of duty. Hence he never seemed to act from momentary impulse or mere excitement; never exhibited any excesses, either in language or action, but was always calm and self-possessed, and at the same time was fervid, thoroughly conscientious and ever consistent.
When only fifteen years old, he commenced to maintain the family altar, in the absence of his father, whose ministerial duties very frequently called him from home. About the same time he became a teacher in the Sabbath school, and was also appointed to lead the choir in the Lutheran church at Bern. He also took an active part in the prayer meeting. In every position he , seemed to realize his responsibility, and acted with a prompti- tude and fidelity which indicated how deep and thorough were his convictions of duty.
In 1864, when only sixteen and a half years old, he entered the army as a volunteer in the One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Regiment New York State Volunteers. This step he did not take without the consent of his parents. He had made his duty to his country, in the present crisis, the subject of earnest prayer, and told his father that he felt a conviction that he ought to volunteer his services. His regiment was ordered to join Gene- ral BANKS in his expedition against Port Hudson, and was engaged in two fierce and bloody, but fruitless assaults upon that strong- hold of the enemy. After these repulses, General BANKS called for one thousand volunteers to act as a storming party; they were known as the " one thousand stormers." When the call for these volunteers was made, ALONZO, with three others, stepped forward to represent his company. Whilst, however, this storming party was drilling for the assault, the city surrendered.
As a soldier, as well as in private life, his virtues were equally conspicuous. Amidst all the temptations and corrupt influences of "camp life," he maintained a consistency of deportment and a purity of character which secured the confidence of his supe-
43
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CORPORAL ALONZO G. LUDDEN.
riors and the esteem of his associates. His Captain, in a letter to a friend, says: " I think Corporal LUDDEN is the most perfect of any representative of cool, quiet daring my eye ever saw. He, my dear sir, is a perfect stranger to fear. He calmly obeys every order, regardless of the risks it may involve. No man can surpass him in all the elements of a true soldier, and of a consistent Christian." The chaplain of his regiment bore testi- mony to his uniform propriety of life. He never, under any circumstances, deviated from the path of Christian rectitude. After the return of the regiment, the Chaplain remarked to his father: "I did not have a more faithful Christian than your son in my whole regiment."
After having been honorably discharged from the army, he spent some time at home recruiting his health, which had been „very much impaired by his long and perilous campaign in the insalubrious climate of the south. As soon as he felt himself sufficiently restored to engage in business, he secured a situation as clerk in Mr. GRAY's book store, in the city of Albany. Before he had been there three months, he had so far won the confidence and esteem of his employer, that his salary was nearly doubled, and he was promoted to be book-keeper and bank clerk, the most responsible position in the establishment.
Ilis constitution, however, had become greatly enfeebled by disease, contracted amidst the arduous campaigns of the army. Twice he was compelled to ask leave of absence to go home and endeavor to regain his health. In this he partially succeeded, and returned again to his business. But, alas ! the seeds of fatal consumption, which had been planted in his system, began to develop themselves, and on the 10th of November he was com- pelled once more to return as an invalid to the parental roof. On entering the house he said to his mother, in a plaintive voice, but with a calm resignation: "Dear mother, I have come home to die."
For three months he lingered under the wastings of disease, uncomplainingly enduring much bodily suffering, and submitting to the Divine will with so much patience and resignation, that
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CORPORAL ALONZO G. LUDDEN.
even his physician was moved to tears, and said: " I have never, in all my practice, attended such a patient."
A short time before his death, it became the melancholy and painful duty of his affectionate father to inform him of his approaching dissolution. The sad announcement did not move him. With perfect composure he replied: "I, too, have thought my end was nigh; this intelligence does not alarm me at all; I feel fully resigned to God's will. I trust in my Saviour, and He is precious to me. I can hardly wait for the time of my depar- ture. My faith in Christ enables me to talk calmly of my coffin and my burial place." His younger brother being alone in the room a few hours after, he called him to his bedside and said: " LUTHER, I want you to be a good boy, obey your parents, love your Saviour, and meet me in Heaven." On a subsequent occa- sion, he gave a like charge to each of his sisters.
A few days before his death he divided his effects. To his kind physician he gave his gold pen, saying: "Doctor, it is a good pen, keep it to remember me. You have done all that could be done to save me; I thank you for all your kindness, and hope to meet you in Heaven." To his eldest sister he gave his gold watch, and to each member of the family some token of his affection, that each might have some memento of him when they should see his face no more.
Having disposed of his earthly treasures, and spoken a word of affectionate counsel to his brother and sisters, he meckly com- posed himself to meet the final conflict. He was greatly reduced by disease, and his voice was feeble and trembling, yet his faith was firm and soul-sustaining. In gentle whispers he was heard to pray: " Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly." A scripture promise being repeated by his father, he seemed strengthened as by divine energy, and exclaimed in a loud, clear voice: "Lord Jesus, I thank thee that thou hast come. The holy angels are coming to carry me home. Oh! what sweet, delicious music I hear, such as no earthly instrument and no human voices ever made." As the hour of his departure drew near, his spiritual nature seemed to be endued with unearthly vigor, and several
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CORPORAL ALONZO G. LUDDEN.
times he exclaimed with great strength of voice; " Glory be to God in the highest; bless the Lord-oh ! my soul."
To his deeply afflicted parents and friends he frequently said: " Weep not for me, for I shall soon be at rest." With a full, strong voice, he sung part of the hymn: " When I can read my title clear, &c.," and then requested that he might be turned on his back and his limbs composed. Calling his sisters and brother to his bedside, he reminded them of his admonitions, and gave them a farewell charge to meet him in Heaven. He took an affectionate leave of his parents, saying: " Kiss me, father; father, good bye. Kiss me, mother; mother, good bye. I want you all to kiss me." After all in the room had complied, he remarked: "I hope you all love the precious Saviour." In this happy, exulting, heavenly frame he continued for about half an hour, when he gently and quietly "fell asleep in Jesus," and the redeemed and disenthralled spirit went up to meet its Saviour and its God, amidst the bliss and glory of its heavenly home.
" Servant of Christ, well done ! Rest from thy labors now ; The battle fought, the victory won, Enter into thy Master's joy.
" The pains of death are past- Labor and sorrow cease- And life's stern warfare closed at last, Thy soul is found in peace."
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