USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 38
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THE SECOND CAVALRY.
A cavalry company was organized at Salem, by Solomon W. Rus- sell, Jr., of that village in September, 1861. The members were chiefly from the town of Salem, but Argyle. Cambridge, Easton, Greenwich, Hartford, Hebron, Jackson, Kingsbury, Fort Anne, Fort Edward and White Creek were also represented. The company was
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mustered in at Salem by Colonel John S. Crocker of Cambridge, special inspector, September 7th, 1861. Its commissioned officers were Soloman W. Russell, Jr., of Salem, captain; David E. Cronin, first lieutenant, and William Robertson of Salem, second lieutenant. In the spring of 1862, the War Department, concluding that there was too much cavalry in the field, this regiment was mustered out of service on the 31st day of March of that year. Captain Russell, again volunteered, being detached on the staff of his distinguished relative, Major-General Russell, also of Washington County, and being commissioned by the President as Brevet-Major for gallant and meritorious services, served throughout the war.
THE HARRIS LIGHT CAVALRY.
On the 7th of August, 1861, Clarence Buell came up from Troy to Fort Edward, being greatly desirous of raising a company of horse- men for the "Harris Light Guards," then being formed and named after the newly elected United States senator. Hon. Ira Harris. He spoke so enthusiastically that many of the young men of Fort Edward at once enrolled themselves under his banner and soon the ranks of his company were full. Most of the men came from Fort Edward, but there were a few from Kingsbury, Fort Anne, Whitehall and Argyle. The company from Washington County was designated as Company E, with the following officers: Clarence Buell, captain; John Liddle, first lieutenant and Andrew Londen, second lieutenant. The regiment did good service under Sherman, when the latter was engaged with Early's army, but was shortly after mustered out at New York City. Before, however, the mustering out, George E. Milliman, of Fort Edward, was promoted to second lieutenant.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY.
President Lincoln's call in 1862 for " three hundred thousand men" immediately upon the complete collapse of Mcclellan's campaign before Richmond, aroused the entire north to put forth the most her- culean efforts in behalf of the preservation of the Union. But, perhaps nowhere did his trumpet blast arouse more enthusiasm than among the people of Washington County. Accordingly, on the 22d of July, an immense war-meeting was held at Argyle, which was followed by others in different parts of the county. As a result of
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these meetings, " war committees " were appointed-one for the coun- ty at large and one for each town. These committees began work at once, and it was decided that Washington County should raise an entire regiment of her own. Recruiting began at once and a camp was established at Salem, called "Camp Washington." Indeed, so indefatigable were these committees, that, before the middle of August, the companies began to assemble, and by the 22d of that month, the regiment had received its full complement. The compan- ies (that there might be no delay) were mustered in as soon as full, and were made up from the different towns as follows:
Company A, Greenwich; Company B, Kingsbury; Company C, Whitehall; Company D, Fort Anne, Dresden and Putnam; Company E, Hartford and Hebron; Company F, Argyle; Company G, White Creek and Jackson; Company H, Salem; Company I, Cambridge and Easton; Company K, Granville and Hampton.
The following is the roster of the original officers of the regiment, which is here given in full-not because it is essential to this history, but because many of these officers may yet be living, and they, there- fore, may be glad to see that their names are preserved.
FIELD AND STAFF-Colonel, A. L. McDougal; lieutenant-colonel, Franklin Norton; major, James C. Rogers; adjutant, George H. Wal- lace; surgeon, John Moneypenny; assistant surgeon, Lysander W. Kennedy and Rich. S. Connelly; quartermaster, John King; chaplain, Henry Gordon.
NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF-Sergeant major, Walter F. Martin; quartermaster-general, Charles D. Warner; commissary-sergeant, Clark Rice; hospital steward, Seward Coming.
COMPANY A-Captaln, Abram Reynolds; first lieutenant, A. T. Mason; second lieutenant, James C. Shaw.
COMPANY B-Captain, George W. Warren; first lieutenant, J. C. Warren; second lieutenant, Samuel Burton.
COMPANY C-Captain, Adolphus H. Farmer ; first lieutenant, Walter G. Warner; second lieutenant, John C. Corbett.
COMPANY D-Captain, John Barron ; first lieutenant, Alexander An- derson ; second lieutenant, E. P. Quinn.
COMPANY E-Captain, Norman F. Weer; first lieutenant, George R. Hall; second lieutenant, Seth C. Carey.
COMPANY F-Captain, Duncan Robertson; first lieutenant, Donald Reid; second lieutenant, George Robinson.
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COMPANY G-Captain. Henry Gray; first lieutenant, James Hill; second lieutenant, Charles Archer.
COMPANY H-Captain. John S. Crary; first lieutenant, Benjamin Elliott ; second lieutenant, Josiah W. Culver.
COMPANY I-Captain, Orrin S. Hall ; first lieutenant, Marcus Beagle; second lieutenant, Albert Shiland.
COMPANY K-Captain, Henry O. Wiley; first lieutenant, Hiram O. Warren; second lieutenant, George W. Baker.
On the 4th of September, 1862, the regiment was mustered into the United States service as the 123d New York Volunteer Infantry, and the day after saw it on its way to the front. Reaching Washington on the 9th the men receiving in that city their arms and equipments -the regiment was at once attached to Paul's Brigade of Casey's Division. It participated in several hotly fought engagements, and was with Sherman in his memorable "March to the Sea." On its return to Washington, Sherman's army was reviewed on the 24th of May, by President Johnson and General Grant-at which time Gen- eral Sherman thus spoke of its appearance :
"It was, in my judgment, the most magnificent army in existence -sixty-five thousand men in splendid physique, who had just com- pleted a march of nearly two thousand miles in a hostile country. * * The steadiness and firmness of the tread, the careful dress of the guides, the uniform intervals between the companies, the tattered and bullet-riven flags, all attracted universal notice. For six hours and a half that strong tread of the Army of the West resounded along Pennsylvania avenue, and when the rest of the column had passed by, thousands of the spectators still lingered to express their sense of con- fidence in the strength of a government which could claim such an army."
After this review the 123d was encamped near Bladensburg until the 8th of June, when it was mustered out of the service of the United States. The next day it started for Albany, at which city it was paid off.
" Thus closed the career of the WASHINGTON COUNTY REGIMENT, which could inscribe upon its flag the names of more than a score of battles and almost innumerable skirmishes, that marched more than three thousand miles, and which bore an honorable part in five of the great campaigns of the war, viz .: the campaign of Chancellorville,
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the campaign of Gettysburg, the campaign of Atlanta, the 'March to the Sea,' and the campaign of the Carolinas."
The joyous anthems with which the return of the 123d was received on their return home, was, however, marred by a discordant note in the fact that, among many others, two were not there to receive these plaudits. These were Second Lieutenant John C. Corbett of Com- pany C, who was killed at Fredericksburg and Captain Norman F. Weer of Company E, who was also killed at the engagement of McAl- lister's Mill.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT.
Although this regiment was raised in the summer of 1863 in Rensselaer county, yet a part of one of its companies was from Eas- ton. It took part in the battles of Mine Run, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor, and it was also engaged in many of the minor skirmishes that finally culminated in the fall of Richmond. In the course of ser- vice Lewis H. Crandall of Easton, became successively, second lieu- tenant, first lieutenant and captain. It was mustered out June 5, 1865.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINTH REGIMENT.
Warren B. Coleman, captain; John H. Hughes, first lieutenant and Robert O'Connor, second lieutenant, were the officers of the single company, raised in Sandy Hill and vicinity, which represented Wash- ington County in the 169th New York Infantry. It took part in the battles of Drury Bluff, Cold Harbor, Dutch Gap and other conflicts around Petersburgh and Richmond. Lieutenant Hughes died Sep- tember 6th, 1863, of wounds received in action while gallantly lead- ing on his men to the attack of one of the enemy's breastworks. Cap- tain Coleman resigned in February, 1863, and was succeeded by Cap- tain and Brevet-Major Frank W. Tarbell, he, in turn being followed on his retirement, October, 1864, by Captain Emory W. Church. The regiment was mustered out on the 19th of July, 1865.
THE FIRST MOUNTED RIFLES.
In the month of July, a mounted battalion, known as " Wool's Body Guard," was raised in Rensselaer county, but there were thirty or
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forty men from Salem, Cambridge and vicinity enlisted in it, Cor- nelius S. Masten of Cambridge being one of its captains. This regi- ment remained on duty in Virginia until November, 1865, when it was also mustered out of service.
THE SECOND VETERAN CAVALRY.
In the summer and autumn of 1863, two regiments were organized from many of those soldiers who had been lately discharged from the two years' regiments and yet were desirous of enlisting into a cavalry command. One, under the name of the "Second Veteran Cavalry," was at once formed and contained one full company (D) from White- hall, commanded by Captain Thomas F. Allen. Parts of three other companies (A E and M) were also from Washington County. Duncan Cameron, ex-captain of Company G of the Twenty-second Infantry (of whom I have already spoken in affectionate remembrance) was Major of the regiment and Lucins E. Wilson, previously captain of Company D, of the Twenty-second Infantry (afterwards Brevet-Major) was captain of one of the companies of the Second Veteran Cavalry.
The regiment proceeded to Washington and thence to Louisiana, where it joined the Red River Expedition of General Banks, and in fact, it was on duty in Louisanna during a large part of 1864.1 It was mustered out in November, 1865.
THE SIXTEENTH HEAVY ARTILLERY.
In December, 1863, Thomas J. Strong of Sandy Hill, who had al- ready served in the Twenty-second Infantry, went to Albany with a view of obtaining authority to raise a new regiment. The time was inauspicious, as the war being then thought to be nearly at an end, no new regiments were being authorized. Colonel Strong, however, was favorably recommened to Colonel Morrison of New York City, who had for some time been endeavoring to raise a force to be known as the New York Heavy Artillery. An understanding was soon ar- rived at between these two officers and Colonel Strong returned to Sandy Hill with authority to raise a battalion of four companies for
1 For a full account of the Red River Campaign, in which this regiment and the 156th New York Volunteers participated, the reader is referred to my "History of the 156th New York Volunteers."
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the Sixteenth, of which he was to be major. Armed with this author- ity, he straightway proceeded to issue handbills inviting recruits, and on the 22d of December of that year (1863) he opened an office at Sandy Hill for the reception of names. Bounties were then high and many who had been discharged from other regiments-their terms of enlistment having expired-came flocking into the rendezvous by the hundred. Most of the men were taken to Elmira and there formed into companies without much reference to the localities from which they came. Company I, however, was organized at Sandy Hill, with the following officers: captain, Henry C. Sherrill; first lieutenants, Norman S. Kenyon and Rufus Gardner; second lieutenants, Charles C. Smith and Lew Washburn. There was also a detachment of some thirty men from Salem and Cambridge, which went into Company K. Thomas B. Fisk of Shushan and James S. Smart of Cambridge were first lieutenants. Recruiting also increased so greatly that by the latter part of January, 1864, the regiment had more companies than were required. Of this regiment Colonel Strong accepted the rank of major. In the battle of Dutch Gap Canal Major Strong lost a leg and on the 16th of September of that year he was promoted for bravery, to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment and afterwards to that of Brigadier-General. The regiment took part in the capture of Fort Fisher in January, 1865, and it was finally mustered out on the 21st day of August, 1865.1
There remains only to speak of the two great causes (or perhaps, sources) which have contributed more than any other to the develop- ment and present prosperity of Washington County. These were the opening of the Champlain Canal and the railroad from Saratoga Springs to Whitehall. We will first speak of the canal.
1 For this account of the different companies from Washington County Iam indebted solely to Johnson's History of Washington County, and for which I desire to make full acknowledgment.
Before leaving this subject, I wish to speak of one singular circumstance, to which so far as I am aware no attention has ever been called-perhaps, no one has ever noticed it save myself. It is this-and as an old follower of Sir Isaac Walton Fani competent to speak-that during the Civil War, the trout in the various streams of Washington, Warren and Essex counties increased fully from one to two hundred per cent. The explanation of this seemingly marvelous phenome- non is not far to seek, viz. : that so many of the tramps and farmers' boys had gone to the war, that the trout had a rest. This is a fact, and many of us fishermen would not repine if there was another war to take these " pot " fishermen again away !
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THE CHAMPLAIN CANAL.
Upon the termination of the War of 1812, a very vigorous effort, says Johnson, was made to improve the means of transportation in New York state by the opening of canals along the main lines of travel and freightage. In fact some movements had been made in that direction before the war, but were abandoned at the beginning of hostilities. On the return of peace, however, the desire for a system of canals awoke with renewed energy, and under the zealous leadership of DeWitt Clinton, it soon found voice in legislative enactments. Although, Clinton, who, with Washington in 1789,1 had early explored the present route of the Erie Canal, is deserving of all praise, yet the experiments both in Holland and in England had first directed his attention to the great commercial value of canals. Accordingly, with his far-seeing mind, he had recommended both the routes of the Erie and Champlain canals to the attention of the New York Legislature. In consequence of a special message of his to this effect, the Legislature agreed with his views, and one of the first canals provided for by an act passed by the Legislature- standing in respect to time with those of the Erie, Oswego and Cayu- ga-was the Champlain canal, the law for the construction of which was passed in February, 1817. All of these canals having been made by the state at the public expense, they yet remain under the admin- istration of the state government as public property. The Champlain canal follows in its peaceful course, the same route which had so often been followed by hostile armies (especially that of General Burgoyne) and which was selected, though not used, as before stated, by the "Northern Inland Lock and Navigation Company."
'The Champlain canal, which is seventy-three miles from Whitehall tc Albany and twenty-one from Sandy Hill, is forty feet wide at the surface, twenty-eight feet at the bottom and four feet in depth. It passes from Albany to Whitehall on Lake Champlain, connecting the Hudson river with the lake. This canal begins at Whitehall, at the head of sloop navigation on Lake Champlain, and, immediately ris- ing, by three locks, twenty-six feet, proceeds on a level five and one- half miles up the valley of Wood Creek, enters that stream, and fol- lows its channel for three miles, to a lock of four feet lift, which extends the navigation up the creek three and one-half miles further
' See my " Reminiscences of Saratoga " for an account of this tour.
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to Fort Anne village, where, after rising by three loeks twenty-four feet, it leaves the creek and proceeds twelve miles on a summit level, through the towns of Fort Anne and Kingsbury to Fort Edward. Here it receives the waters of the Hudson, above the great dam in that river, by a feeder of half a mile in length and soon after descends thirty feet by three locks, into the Hudson below the dam. The great dam is 900 feet long, twenty-seven feet high and throws back an ample supply of water for the summit level. From Fort Edward the navigation is continued, for the present, down the channel of the Hudson eight miles, to the head of Fort Miller Falls, around which it is carried by a canal on the cast bank of the river, half a mile long, and having two locks of eighteen feet descent. From Fort Miller, the river is made navigable for nearly three miles further, by a damn at the head of Saratoga Falls, just above which the canal leaves the river on the western side, and proceeds almost on a dead level for seventeen miles, through the towns of Greenwich, Saratoga and Still- water, Schuyler's Flats and over Fish Creek by an aqueduct, to a point two miles below Stillwater village. From this place to Water- ford, where the canal enters the Mohawk, and meets the Erie canal (a distance of nine miles) it descends eighty-six feet by nine locks, six of which are in the town of Waterford." From Waterford, the Hudson is now navigable for sloops to Troy (three and a half miles below) by a dam across the latter place-1100 feet in length, nine feet high and having a sloop lock at its eastern extremity, 114 feet long, thirty feet wide, with a nine feet lift. The cost of this lock and dam was originally $92, 270-not to speak of the many expenses which have since been added not only for great improvements on the original design but also for keeping it in repair. Still, the canal has been of such benefit to Washington County alone, that that county could well have assumed (had she been called upon to do so) the whole of the ex- pense.
1 It was at this point, it will be remembered that Burgoyne with his army, crossed over from Washington County to Saratoga County, preparatory to his march upon Albany.
2 As illustrative of what I have stated in the text a page or two before, the canal passes within sight of the fortifications thrown up by General Schuyler, when he retreated before the advance of Burgoyne. These earthworks, as before mentioned, can be plainly seen by the pas- senger on the railroad from Troy to Saratoga.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
THE RAILROAD FROM SARATOGA TO WHITEHALL.
The ground for the Saratoga & Whitehall Railroad was first broken in April, 1836.1 The initiation of this road was due to the late Gideon M. Davison of Saratoga Springs, who being most indefatigable in the statistics of travel and business, could prepare and lay them before the public in a concise shape. The charter of the road, therefore, through his instrumentality, being secured, the capital was subscribed for and the construction of the road begun, but the financial crash of 1837 came on before it had made much progress, and its managers were, accordingly, forced to suspend operations. Mr. Davison, how- ever, never lost faith in it, and kept steadily at work until he had secured its construction to the end of the route. The first year the road was carried through the "Upper Village" in Saratoga Springs, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, when it was stopped for want of funds. It remained in statu quo until ten years after, when it was completed to Whitehall. The late Mr. Robert Patterson of Saratoga Springs superintended its construction, and when in December, 1846, the first train went up the road to Whitehall with a load of iron, he took with him seventy laborers, each armed with an axe, with which
1 In this connection, it may be of interest to my readers to say that the first railway in the United States was one of two miles long from Milton to Quincy, Massachusetts. in 1826. The cars were drawn by horses. The Baltimore & Ohio was the first passenger railway in America, fif- teen miles being opened in 1830, the ,cars also being drawn by horses till the next year, when a locomotive was put on the track. It had an upright boiler and cylinder. The Mohawk & Hudson, sixteen miles, from Albany to Schenectady, was the next line, opened in 1831, and the cars were drawn by horses till the delivery of the locomotive "De Witt Clinton," which was built at the West Point founders, New York. This was the second locomotive built in the United States. The first was made at the same shop for the South Carolina Railway. The termini both at Schenectady and Albany were upon inclined planes with stationary engines. The first locomo- tive, however, was built in and sent from England in 1830 and named "The John Bull," and had its first trial at Bordentown, N. J. Joseph Wood who operated this locomotive died recently at Red Bank, N. J. On July 7, 1832, a railroad was first opened from Schenectady to Ballston. The time made on that day from Ballston to Schenectady was one hour and twenty-eight minutes, and the number of passengers on the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad, during the month of April, 1833, was 1,240, " being more," as Mr Davison's Saratoga paper says, "than four times the travel between Saratoga and the south during any former month so early in the season." The difficulty experienced in " Regatta " week at Saratoga in 1874, in carrying the crowds to the Lake -distant only three and one-half miles-shows how impossible it would be with no railroad to bring that number from Albany to Saratoga.
This speed-fifteen miles an hour-was considered extraordinary at that time. Indeed, fears were expressed at the prospect even of a greater rate being attained. Thus, Colonel Stone, writing from Saratoga at that time to his paper, The New York Commercial Advertiser, says: " Were the velocity of these to be doubled there would be continued apprehensions of danger, in addition to disagreeable sensations of dizziness. But such is not the case now, and the passen- gers are whirled along in commodious and elegant cars, withont jolting or any other annoyance, and without the remotest fears for the safety of life or of limb !"
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THE SARATOGA AND WHITEHALL RAILROAD.
to cut away any forest trees that might have fallen upon the track. Previous to the completion of the road (and, for that matter, for many years before) fine "Concord Coaches" ran to Whitehall, starting from " Montgomery Hall," in Saratoga Springs, under the proprietorship of the late General Joshua T. Blanchard.
At first the road was laid on blocks of stone, but these were soon found, by their not giving (i. e. their inelasticity) to rack the cars too much, and wooden "sleepers" were substituted. The rails first used were long strips of iron, nailed to horizontal timbers. Often, however, the wheels would rip them up where they were joined- driving them through the flooring of the cars, to the great danger of the passenger's lives. These dismembered rails were very appro- priately called "snake-heads." The cars, moreover, which are des- cribed at that time in the Washington and Saratoga county news- papers as "spacious and elegant (what would then have been thought of the up to date Pullman and Wagner Palace cars ?) had each like the present railway carriages in Europe, three compartments, cur- tained and cushioned to contain eight passengers. Outside was a platform running the length of the car for the convenience of the conductor, who, while the cars were in motion, would, with one arm thrown around a window-casing for support, with the other collect the fares-one of his hands (as there were no tickets in those days) being full of bank-bills. This, however, was not so hazardous a pro- ceeding as might be supposed, since the cars, which, the first year, were drawn by horses, travelled only at the rate of nine miles an hour. One of the first conductors on the railroad between Saratoga and Whitehall was Mr. Elisha Matthews. He remained in this employ -a zealous, gentlemanly and faithful man until his death about 1870.
Since 1846, there have been great extensions of railroad facilities in this county. The first ground was broken for the Greenwich and Johnsonville railroad in 1857, a road which was completed to Green- wich in August, 1870. The Glens Falls Railroad Company, organ- ized in July, 1867, was soon afterwards built from Fort Edward to Glens Falls, but was soon leased in perpetuity to the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad Company. The latter road, however, was subse- quently leased to the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, in whose hands it still is. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company also con- structed a road (1874-5) called the New York & Canada Railroad, which extends northward from Whitehall, along the west shore of
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