The Brotherhood of Battle: The Civil War Soldiers and Families of Newark Valley, New York

By Jerald L. Marsh

Stories of generals and battles of the American Civil War have been told and retold but relatively little has been written about the common soldiers who fought in the war.

In his thoroughly researched history of the Civil War soldiers and families of the upstate New York town of Newark Valley, Jerry Marsh sheds light on the lives of three hundred and nineteen soldiers of the town. He tells of the preacher's son who prayed to be a faithful soldier under the "Stars and Stripes" and the "Banner of Jesus," the eleven families who sent their father and son(s) to the war, the seventy sets of brothers who served, the youths and older men who misrepresented their ages to enlist, the seventy-four men killed or wounded in battle and thirty-nine who died of disease, the families who brought their dead or dying sons back to be buried at home, and the veterans who became productive citizens in New York and across the expanding nation.

Marsh's narrative is enhanced by photographs, letters, diaries, and anecdotes from descendants of the courageous soldiers who fought to save the Union and ensure the freedom of all citizens of the "new nation."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469174969

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Jerald L. Marsh.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012903667

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4691-7495-2

Softcover 978-1-4691-7494-5

Ebook 978-1-4691-7496-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Dedication

To my paternal great-grandfather Patrick Finn and my maternal great-great-grandfather John Connelly, both of Company H, 109th NY Volunteers. Their loyal service, along with that of 150,000 or more other Irish American soldiers, helped to save the Union of States and aided in gaining full inclusion of those of Irish descent as citizens of the new nation of Americans.*

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part I

From a Wilderness to a Township

The War Begins

Rallying Around the Flag

The Third NY Infantry, Big Bethel, and George Boyce

The Twenty-seventh NY Infantry and First Bull Run

Death by Disease

The Seventy-sixth NY and Newark Valley’s First Death in Battle

Recruits of the 109th and 137th to the Rescue

The 109th Goes to War in Virginia

The 137th Holds the Union Right at Gettysburg

The 137th in Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas

The Fiftieth NY Engineers—Building Bridges to the Enemy

Riding with the Fifth NY Cavalry

The Sixteenth NY Independent Battery Light Artillery

Other Regiments, Other Casualties

French Leave and Desertion

Sacrifices of Fathers, Mothers, Sons, and Brothers

Invisible Wounds

Grand Army of the Republic

Veterans Reunite at the Trout Ponds

Part II

The Soldiers and Their Families

Part III

At Rest with Honor in Our Hills and Valleys

Hope Cemetery 

Hope Cemetery Mausoleum 

East Newark Cemetery 

West Newark Cemetery 

Ketchumville Cemetery 

Pleasant Valley Cemetery 

Bushnell Cemetery 

Hollenbeck Cemetery 

Zimmer-Clifford Cemetery 

Settle Cemetery 

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Illustrations

Map of Tioga County, New York 

General Isaac S. Catlin 

Wounded Union Soldier Receiving Water from a Comrade 

Captain Oscar C. Williams 

Water Street, Newark Valley, 1872 

Battle of Big Bethel 

The 109th NY Planting Their Colors on the Rebel Works in

Front of Petersburg, April 2, 1865 

Harvest of Death 

Temporary Battlefield Graves 

Lookout Mountain, Tenn. 

Pontoon Bridges 

General Sherman’s Battery of Light Artillery 

Barracks at Bath Soldiers’ Home 

Newark Valley Trout Ponds Park 

General Benjamin F. Tracy 

Levi Anson 

137th NY Sons of Union Veterans Reenactors 

Chadiah Arnold 

Samuel Avery 

Andersonville Prison 

Graves of Henry Bieber Jr. and Ezra S. Williams,

Chattanooga National Cemetery 

Wallace B. Bolles 

Chauncey A. Bradley 

Jacob Brougham 

William J. Burr 

Halsey Morgan in Front of Burr House 

Horace Butts with Maine GAR Post 474

Dr. Seymour Churchill 

Enos M. Clark 

Headstone of John Connelly 

James DeGaramo 

Water Street, Village of Newark Valley 

William Elwell 

Nelson Gibbs 

William Pern Hover 

Letter Invalidating Desertion Charge Against William P. Hover 

Headstone of Henry Hovey 

Lincoln Hotel 

Village Green, Newark Valley 

South Main Street, Newark Valley 

Charles W. and Katherine Keith 

Benjamin and Sophia Kenyon 

Charles Kenyon 

Clarinda Zimmer Kenyon 

President Lincoln at Antietam after the Battle 

Skeletal Diagram of Wound Suffered by Ephraim Lainhart 

GAR Post Transfer Document Regarding Ephraim Lainhart 

William Wallace Lamb 

Henry Lason

Mausoleum Crypt of Thomas May 

Newark Valley Hope Cemetery Mausoleum 

Headstone of David Merrill 

Albert and Martha Moore 

George B. Muzzy 

Dining Hall, Bath Soldiers’ Home 

Marion Rich 

Henry H. Rouse 

Settle Cemetery 

Marietta National Cemetery 

Confederate Cemetery at Resaca 

Henry W. Sears 

Newark Valley Railroad Depot 

Edwin Slosson 

Arthur Terpenning Family 

John Tidd Jr. 

James Rogers Tracy 

Renselaer Vanderpool 

Eli F. Westfall 

Headstone of Alfred T. Williams 

Plaque at City Point National Cemetery 

General Grant’s Cabin, City Point, Virginia 

Harrison and Francis Zimmer

Hilltop View of Hope Cemetery and Southward 

East Newark Cemetery 

Zimmer-Clifford Cemetery 

Settle Cemetery 

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Original map courtesy of Tioga County Historical Society Museum

The Brotherhood of Battle

The title is from a speech by General Isaac Swartwood Catlin during the annual reunion of the 109th New York Infantry Regiment at the Newark Valley Trout Ponds on Tuesday, August 27, 1889. General Catlin was a native of Owego and a former commander, 109th NY Volunteers. He lost a leg as result of a wound suffered during the Petersburg Mine Assault, July 30, 1864.

General Catlin began his talk by stating he intended to participate in future 109th NY reunions as long as possible. He said he had made a resolution not to speak at the gatherings but was unable to resist the urge to address the veterans after meeting them and looking into their faces. He then remarked, Was there ever such a tie as the brotherhood of battle. No home patriot can realize it. No fireside companionship can equal it. It grows stronger and sweeter as year after year rolls around.

Image%203.jpg

General Isaac S. Catlin

(Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

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Wounded Union soldier in Zouave uniform being

offered a drink of water by a comrade after a battle.

(From the Brady Collection. Courtesy of the National Archives.)

The French Zouave uniform motif was popularized before the Civil War by Elmer Ellsworth of Albany, New York. A friend of Abraham Lincoln, Colonel Ellsworth became a Union hero when he was shot and killed by a Confederate sympathizer after Ellsworth removed a Confederate flag from the roof of a tavern in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 24, 1861.

Subsequently, several regiments including the Forty-fourth NY Infantry were raised to avenge Colonel Ellsworth’s death. The Forty-fourth NY was made up of men from each town in New York State. One soldier representing Newark Valley in the Forty-fourth Ellsworth Avengers was Oscar Clinton Williams. He was wounded in the Peninsular Campaign, became seriously ill, and was sent home on disability. In 1862, while still recuperating, he began recruiting men from Newark Valley, Berkshire, Richford, Caroline, Groton, and Danby for the newly formed 137th NY Volunteer Infantry and was selected Captain of Company G. Less than a year later, the heroic Oscar Williams was shot dead at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1863, while leading his men in the nighttime Battle of Culp’s Hill.

Image%204.jpg

Capt. Oscar C. Williams

(Roger Montgomery Collection)

Foreword

I learned many years ago from my father about great-grandfather Patrick Finn’s service in the Civil War with the 109th NY Volunteer Infantry. Pvt. Patrick Finn, Company H, was wounded in action at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia on May 6, 1864.

Later, while researching my mother’s family, I discovered my Zimmer relatives who served in the war and my great-great-grandfather John Connelly, Company H, 109th NY Infantry, who fought alongside Private Finn at the Wilderness. In another battle, a few days later, at Spotsylvania, Virginia, Private Connelly carried wounded comrade Henry G. Hall of Owego off the battlefield with assistance from Corporal Barton L. Bennett, also of Owego.†

During further research, I learned my great-uncles Aaron and Washington Marsh were in the war, Aaron with the 109th NY and Washington with the Seventy-sixth NY Infantry and the First NY Veteran Cavalry. John Connelly is buried in Newark Valley, Patrick Finn and Aaron Marsh in Berkshire, Washington Marsh in Richford, and the Zimmer soldiers in cemeteries in upstate New York and Michigan.

But this book is not about my Civil War ancestors. As my research evolved, I discovered there were hundreds of men of Richford, Berkshire, and Newark Valley who were soldiers in the Civil War. I was keen to learn not only about the war service and lives of my ancestors, but also became intrigued about their fellow soldiers of Northern Tioga—friends, neighbors, and strangers alike—who endured the same hardships, suffered from the same diseases and deprivations, and fought in the same bloody battles. I decided to research the soldiers and families of all the three towns.

I could find no single reliable listing of soldiers from each town and discovered very little had been written about them and their families. I identified soldiers during visits to area cemeteries, through examination of cemetery records, review of New York State Adjutant General Office (AGO) reports, in Town Clerk Reports of 1865, in census records and through review of other historical documents at the New York State Archives, the National Archives, the U.S. Army Military History Institute (USAMHI), in museums, libraries, and elsewhere.

I decided it would be too restrictive to include only men who were residents of the three towns when they enlisted. My goal is to identify and honor all the Civil War soldiers associated with the towns, including those who were citizens of the towns before the war but had moved elsewhere before enlisting, those who became residents of the towns after their war service, veterans buried in the towns, and the men who came to the towns to enlist but may never have resided in the towns. I also seek to recognize the soldiers’ families who supported them during that long, cruel war with letters, prayers, and boxes from home, nursed their physical and mental wounds, and helped them readjust to civilian life when their fighting days were over.

Initially, I planned to report the results of my research in a single publication, but my list grew to over seven hundred soldiers in addition to their families. The project became too unwieldy for a single book. I decided to produce a separate work for each town, and I began with Newark Valley.

Introduction

The reader will find information about individual soldiers and families of Berkshire, Richford, Candor, Spencer, Owego, Caroline, Lisle, Maine, Nanticoke, Barker, Harford, Vestal, Barton, Binghamton, Union, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and other communities and states throughout this great country. It was not unusual for men who lived in one town to enlist in another. Further, then as now, Americans did not always stay in one place. Although scores of Civil War veterans made their homes in Newark Valley, an untold number sought greater opportunities elsewhere. Numerous Newark Valley soldiers who ended up residing in all parts of the country are included in this book, but they all have a direct connection with Newark Valley.

The 1865 New York State Census (NYSC) identified 125 Civil War soldiers of Newark Valley. An additional fifty-two soldiers credited to Newark Valley were listed in the History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler Counties and in Our County and Its People. Another soldier was identified in a Muster Roll Abstract (MRA) as an enlistee credited to Newark Valley. Further, in his Report of 1865, the Union Town Clerk listed another recruit (Ira Gager) as a resident of Newark Valley when he joined the army. Undoubtedly, additional soldiers would have been identified in the Newark Valley Town Clerk Report of 1865 if that report could be found. I obtained copies of Town Clerk Reports of the towns bordering Newark Valley to the east, north, and west but was unsuccessful in locating the 1865 Town Clerk Report for Newark Valley. The local report may have been lost in a fire or a flood, but the records of the New York State Archives show that the copy of the report the Town Clerk was required to send to Albany also is missing.

In addition to the 179 men credited to and identified in the records as Newark Valley Civil War soldiers, this book reports on another 140 soldiers—men who moved from Newark Valley before the war and mustered into the military from other communities or states and veterans who did not become residents of Newark Valley until after the war ended. Further, information is reported on a few soldiers who do not fit the foregoing criteria but whose descendants have had a significant impact on the communities within the town of Newark Valley.

This project helped me connect with several of my ancestors and learn about the ancestors of others in the town and region who fought so valiantly, endured incredible hardships, struggled with insufferable wounds or diseases, and sacrificed and died to make this a greater nation indivisible with true freedom and justice for all.

This is not another of the thousands of books about the causes of the American Civil War, the history of the war, the battles, armies, or generals. Rather, this work profiles and honors individual soldiers of Newark Valley and environs who sacrificed so much in the war and the families who supported and suffered along with them. It was a war that preserved our nation but at the loss of the lives of more than 620,000 Americans.

Included are many photographs of soldiers, some in uniform and others as they appeared later in life. Extracts and transcripts from previously unpublished letters and diaries are also provided. Much credit goes to descendants and others who willingly shared their photographs, letters, diaries, other documents, and family oral histories.

Part I

From a Wilderness to a Township

The Northern Tioga County, New York, towns of Richford, Berkshire, and Newark Valley have been inextricably connected since the beginning of the settlement of the lands of the Boston Purchase. The first settlers of the wilderness came from Massachusetts in 1791. They made their primitive homes along the East Branch of the Owego Creek that runs southward through the towns to Owego in the wider and more populous valley of the Susquehanna River.

The settlements that became Newark Valley, Berkshire, and Richford were connected at the beginning by rough, rudimentary roads traversed at first by oxen-pulled carts and sleds, then by horsepower, with the settlers astride the equines or riding behind them in wagons, buggies, carriages, sleighs, and stagecoaches. The three towns were joined together by the Southern Central Railroad soon after the Civil War. Another uniting factor was the Northern Tioga Agricultural Society and its annual agricultural fair. The site of the fair was across today’s Route 38 from what has become the Newark Valley Historical Society’s Bement-Billings Living Farmstead. The agricultural fairs were held annually for more than thirty-five years from 1880 until World War I and were organized and managed by residents from all the three towns. Since 1931, the towns of Northern Tioga also have been united by the Newark Valley Central School District, drawing students from the three towns. But foremost the three towns have always been linked via family relationships, complemented by the infusion of immigrants from other lands and settlers arriving from all parts of the country. Through the decades, many sons, daughters, cousins, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of the early pioneers remained in the towns and welcomed newcomers who settled among them.

The initial community of what was to become Newark Valley was known as Brown’s Settlement until 1800. During that time, it was a part of the town of Union in Tioga County. From 1800 until 1808, it was within the town of Tioga, initially in Tioga County but from 1806 to 1808 in Broome County when it was known as the Society of Western. From 1808 until 1822, it was a part of the town of Berkshire, Broome County. In 1822, it was returned to Tioga County although still a part of Berkshire. It became the separate town of Westville in 1823, Newark in 1824 and, finally, Newark Valley on April 17, 1862.¹

As the valley became increasingly populated, settlers moved into the hills and hollows to the east toward the Broome County towns of Nanticoke, Maine, and Union and over the western ridge to the valley of the West Branch of the Owego Creek. The sun would rise on the township of Newark Valley settlements of New Connecticut, Ketchumville, and East Newark and cast its setting shadows on the homes at Jenksville, West Newark, and Weltonville. All three of the latter hamlets were closely connected with the residents across the creek in the town of Candor. The folks of the small community of Weltonville who live on the west side of that branch of the Owego Creek are actually residents of the town of Candor as West Owego Creek serves as the western boundary of Newark Valley and the neighboring towns of Berkshire and Richford to the north.

Life was harsh for Northern Tioga settlers in the first half of the nineteenth century, but it was a period of relative tranquility for the communities. The nation was involved in numerous conflicts during those decades but only one or two of them directly affected individual families of Tioga County.

A few Northern Tioga men, to include Newark Valley’s Lawrence Schoolcraft, served in the War of 1812 and the father of Civil War soldier John Connelly left home to fight in the war against Mexico (1846-1848). But research developed no information that any Northern Tioga men were involved in the Texas War for Independence from Mexico (remember The Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, 1836), in abolitionist John Brown’s murderous raid in Kansas (1855) and his futile but momentous attack at Harper’s Ferry (1859), or in the numerous wars waged against American Indians as they were uprooted from their homelands to include the Seminole Indian Wars (1817-1818 and 1835-1842) and the Black Hawk War in Illinois (1832, with militia Captain Abraham Lincoln commanding a company of soldiers).

In the spring of 1861, however, the peaceful lives of the men of Newark Valley, indeed, of the entire nation, became horribly violent with the advent of the American Civil War.

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Water Street, Newark Valley, 1872

(Lena Bushnell Scrapbook, Newark Valley Town Historian)

The War Begins

South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed soon after. The seceding states committed numerous aggressive acts against the Union before April 1861. On January 9, 1861, artillery batteries at Charleston, South Carolina, fired on an unarmed merchant vessel flying the Stars and Stripes that was attempting to provide reinforcements and supplies to Fort Sumter situated on a small island at the entrance to the harbor at Charleston. Major Robert Anderson, commander of the Federal Fort, did not return fire. After one Confederate round struck the supply ship, the civilian captain of the vessel reversed course and sailed away. ²

In February 1861, before Texas voters approved secession, one thousand armed Texans forced the surrender of all United States military forces in the state.³ By the time Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, seven slave states had seized all Federal properties and munitions within their borders except Fort Sumter and three other forts.⁴

The foregoing and other acts by the Confederates were indeed provocative, but as we know, the terrible and perhaps inevitable War of the Rebellion was ignited early in the morning of April 12, 1861, when South Carolina forces launched a bombardment of undermanned and poorly provisioned Fort Sumter. This time Major Anderson fired back, but his troops were able to launch only a thousand rounds of artillery at scattered general targets in response to the Confederates’ four thousand rounds of concentrated fire. After thirty-three hours, the courageous Maj. Anderson and the equally brave soldiers of the Federal garrison were forced to surrender. The Civil War had begun.⁵

The Owego Gazette, Owego, Tioga County, New York, Thursday, April 18, 1861, prominently proclaimed WAR! WAR! OUR UNION FOREVER! The article reported, War has been waged against the Government of the United States by enemies within its boundaries, the destruction of our National Government is threatened and greatly endangered; the Flag of the Union has been insulted and trailed in the dust, and the Nation’s Capital is about to be besieged.

Another article on the same page of the paper, headlined THE WAR BEGUN, told of the Bombardment of Fort Sumter, and stated, Civil War has begun! Gen. Beauregard, in accordance with instructions received on Wednesday from the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy, opened fire upon Fort Sumter yesterday morning, at twenty-seven minutes after four o’clock.

The day after Fort Sumter fell to the Rebels, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand militiamen to serve for three months to quell the insurrection. One day later, New York’s Governor Morgan issued orders for all available militia units to begin a march to defend the nation’s capital. The New York legislature and military departments took emergency steps to organize the state’s quota of seventeen regiments. On April 25, Governor Morgan issued a call for volunteers for an additional twenty-one regiments to serve two years.⁶

Communities throughout the state responded with patriotic fervor with an overwhelming number of volunteers eager to sign up to put down the rebellion. There was one possible exception—a little place in western New York called Town Line in Erie County. In 1861, residents of Town Line voted eighty-five to forty to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. Reportedly, five men from Town Line went south and joined the Confederate Army. As time went by, folks forgot about that act of secession until about eighty years later.⁷ On January 26, 1946, the Schenectady, New York, Gazette reported with a photograph and a caption that the citizens of Town Line had officially voted to rejoin the Union.⁸

There was no secesh movement in Newark Valley. The citizens of Newark, as the town was known at the time, responded with unbridled patriotism and determination to defend the Union.

Rallying Around the Flag

Like other communities in the Free States, the citizens of Newark Valley rallied to the defense of the Union after the fall of Fort Sumter. On May 16, 1861, the Owego Gazette heralded The War Spirits in Newark, and reported: The war spirit is working upon the minds of the people. Men of all parties are coming to the support of the Government, and seem determined that this war shall be prosecuted with energy until the nations of the earth shall see that ours is in reality a Government—and that it is able to defend itself as well against treachery and rebellion at home, as against a foreign foe.

The Gazette continued, In Newark Valley a company is being organized, and on Sunday last war sermons were preached by Rev. Dr. Rounds of the M. E. Church, and by Rev. Samuel F. Bacon of the Congregational Church, at that place. At the close of his discourse, Rev. Mr. Bacon made known to his congregation his determination to go into the army as Chaplain if invited to do so . . . . Plans were made to meet the following Thursday afternoon, at which time a Liberty Pole is to be raised at Newark Valley, and the Stars and Stripes thrown to the breeze.

A Liberty Pole was raised, a brass band played martial music, and the Stars and Stripes waved resolutely in the soft wind. Prominent Newark Valley businessman and community leader Royal Clinton served as president of the ceremony during which several resolutions were read to include the following:

27784.jpg Resolved—That if there ever was a time when patriotism should manifest itself in American hearts, it is now when the liberties of our country are assailed and endangered by rebel enemies and the glorious flag under whose protecting folds constitutional freedom has been so long maintained is most shamefully insulted and dishonored.

27786.jpg Resolved—That in view of the rebellion against the Government, we will show our love of country by sinking the politician in the patriot—and ignoring the past, we will make a united effort to put down the rebellion wherever it exists.

27777.jpg Resolved—That if there should be no partiality shown—that traitors should be known and be treated as traitors wherever found, that when the flag of Washington is attacked all men not willing to defend it should be suspected of treason.

Those and similar resolutions announced that day were adopted unanimously. The citizens of Newark Valley were rallying in support of the war to preserve the Union. Men young and old responded bravely to the call to arms.

A few weeks later, there was another raising of a Liberty Pole, this time at West Newark. At the top of the pole was a miniature cannon pointed south and bearing the motto—Death to Traitors and no concession with treason. The Newark band led a procession of dignitaries and local citizens in a march to the house of Squire Richardson where a large group of ladies emerged bearing the national flag. The group then marched back to the pole where the ladies raised the flag to the rousing cheers of the enthusiastic throng. A meeting was called to order under the fluttering flag. Following lengthy patriotic speeches urging the citizens to support the Union and to encourage the soldiers who were fighting against treason, three hearty cheers were given for all the volunteer soldiers of Tioga County and three more specifically for Company H of the Third Regiment of NY Volunteers.⁹

Few citizens believed the war would last long. Men of the North and South were eager to enlist in their respective armies lest they would be too late to participate in the fighting. Both sides were convinced they would achieve a quick and decisive victory. They soon learned it would be neither.

The Third NY Infantry, Big Bethel, and George Boyce

Theoretically, an infantry regiment in the Union Army consisted of ten companies of one hundred men each. A colonel commanded a regiment and a captain commanded a company. Each company also was to have one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one first sergeant, four sergeants, eight corporals, two musicians, and one wagoner. The balance of a company consisted of privates.

The Third NY Infantry was one of the initial regiments to be formed. It was accepted by the state on April 25, 1861, and mustered into United States’ service for two years on May 14. Company H was recruited at Owego, Halsey Valley, Richford, Spencer, and Tioga. Its commander was Captain Isaac S. Catlin of Owego.¹⁰

George Boyce was one of the first Newark Valley soldiers to join the Union Army and was the only soldier from the town who served in the Third NY Regiment. The 21-year-old enlisted as a private just ten days after the fall of Fort Sumter. George had ties with the other two Northern Tioga towns of Berkshire and Richford as well as with neighboring Harford in Cortland County. A hero in the truest sense, George was wounded during the Battle of Big Bethel near Yorktown, Virginia, June 10, 1861, the first land battle of the Civil War. Although some historians referred to Big Bethel as only a skirmish, to George and his fellow soldiers who were jolted by the explosions, smelled the gunpowder, witnessed the bloody, shattered bodies of their comrades and enemies, and felt the pain of shot and shell, it surely was a battle.

George Boyce experienced rushes of adrenaline, moments of fear, and unimaginable horrors of other battles. The gallant combat veteran was one of the last soldiers to be killed in action in the war. While serving with the 157th NY Infantry on April 12, 1865, George Boyce was felled by Rebel gunfire near Statesburg, South Carolina.

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Battle of Big Bethel, VA., June 10, 1861 (Author’s collection)

The Twenty-Seventh NY Infantry and First Bull Run

The Twenty-seventh NY Infantry was another regiment formed early in the war in which Tioga County men and other Southern Tier soldiers served. Privates Lewis W. Ballard and Clark J. Cone of Newark Valley mustered in when the regiment was organized at Elmira on May 21, 1861. After six weeks of army camp life and drilling, the men of the Twenty-seventh New York left Elmira by train for Washington, DC, on July 10. On July 15, Clark, Lewis, and their comrades practiced target shooting in a vacant lot about a mile from their Washington, DC camp. Each man fired twenty rounds. It was the first and only time the neophyte soldiers fired their weapons until they marched into battle six days later at the First Battle of Bull Run fought nearby at Manassas, Virginia. ¹¹

Union commanders had argued that their inexperienced troops were not yet ready for battle, but the Washington politicians pressured the army to begin the march on to Richmond and quickly end the war. The brave men of the Twenty-seventh NY Regiment and their 28,000 or so fellow soldiers marching toward the shallow creek called Bull Run, surrounded by farmland in northern Virginia, were excited and eager to confront and defeat the Rebels. The opposing forces met on the morning of Sunday, July 21.

Although they fought valiantly and effectively in the fierce day-long battle, the green soldiers of the Twenty-seventh New York experienced the agony of defeat. The retreat back to Washington by the thousands of Union survivors began in an orderly manner. But it soon became a stampede as soldiers fleeing to the safety of the Capital were joined by scores of panicked civilians and congressmen who had traveled on their horses and carriages to witness what they had presumed would be a quick and easy defeat of the Confederate forces.

After regrouping and marching solemnly through that dark and sad night, survivors of the Twenty-seventh NY Volunteers reached their camp in the Capital at Franklin Square. The Twenty-seventh Regiment had lost one officer and twenty-six enlisted men killed and two officers and forty-two men wounded. An additional sixty men were reported missing in action, the majority of them taken prisoners.¹² Lewis Ballard and Clark Cone survived that initial battle. But they and their fellow soldiers and most citizens of the Union began to realize that it was to be a long and bloody war.

The Union soldiers had fought bravely but, with some exceptions, were led by officers with little or no military expertise. Eight of the thirteen senior Union officers at First Bull Run (or First Manassas) had never been in combat; twelve of the fifteen senior Confederate officers in the fight were experienced battlefield commanders who acquired their combat experience while serving as sworn officers in the United States Army. Most of those dozen Rebel officers had received their training at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.¹³ Many of the Union officers early in the war received their commissions through political influence. Further, it was common for company commanders of volunteer units to be elected by the men who were to serve under them. Those practices began to change after Bull Run. But the Union soldiers suffered for months until a greater number of competent officers could be identified and appointed to leadership positions.

One of President Lincoln’s most pressing tasks was finding a general who could organize and train the army and be willing to confront the Confederate forces in battle. He believed General George B. McClellan was his man for the job. But the overly cautious McClellan proved to be a disappointment. McClellan was skilled at organizing and training the troops, but when it came to engaging the enemy in battle, as President Lincoln remarked, McClellan had the slows.

Another great challenge for President Lincoln was to bring aboard the soldiers needed to fight the battles. On July 22, 1861, President Lincoln signed a bill calling for 500,000 three-year enlistees. On July 25, he signed another bill calling for 500,000 more. The governors and citizens of the Union rallied in support.

Death by Disease

Tens of thousands of volunteer soldiers, young and not so young, were transported from the cities, towns, and farms of the North to the nation’s Capital and crammed into camps ill prepared for such large numbers. Throughout the war, twice as many Union soldiers died in the crowded and diseased environments than by combat. Many of the deaths early in the war resulted from measles, mumps, and smallpox. Later, the soldiers were plagued by camp illnesses such as typhoid, malaria, diarrhea, and dysentery. Woeful sanitary conditions including contaminated water were primary causes of death for many soldiers. Soldiers became more fearful of dying from disease than losing their lives on the battlefield.

Inadequate and improperly prepared food, especially while on the march, often contributed to illnesses. While at Harpers Ferry on November 9, 1862, Private Luke Searles of the 137th NY wrote to his older brother Griffin:

Jane said that you talked of inlisting now I as your brother advise you not to vollenteer I do not want you to take this as an imposition I have had a Small taste of it myself it is not the toil that kills but it is the fodder and a fellow could live on that well enough if it did not give us the diarrhea but that is the trouble and our miserable Doctors cant cure nothing.

Griffin Searles did not heed his teenage brother’s advice. The 22-year-old farmer joined the 137th in January 1864 and died of disease in Atlanta, Georgia, nine months later. (Diarrhea affected 54 percent of the Union soldiers and nearly 100 percent of the Confederate men. By the end of the war, a hundred thousand soldiers had died from the disease, representing roughly 15 percent of all deaths.)¹⁴

The first Newark Valley soldier to die in the war was 18-year-old Adelbert C. Belcher of the Forty-fourth NY Infantry, whose death in Virginia was caused by inflammation of the lungs on November 20, 1861, less than two months after he joined his regiment. The second Newark Valley soldier to die was Stephen Matteson who mustered in the Fiftieth NY Engineers, September 11, 1861, at age 20. Stephen succumbed to disease less than three months later, on December 3, 1861, at Washington, DC, leaving behind a young widow and an infant son.

Disease killed twenty-six more of the 179 soldiers credited to Newark Valley during the years indicated:

27780.jpg 1862—Andrew J. Allen, age 22; Edwin B. Chamberlain, age 21; Daniel Farrell, age 42; and Edwin Prentice, age 28.

27782.jpg 1863—William H. Allen, age 19; Charles H. Bradbury, age 21; Joseph E. Brown, age 22; Alvin Cole, age 30; William H. DeGaramo, age 23; Henry Johnson, age 27; Charles Wanzer, age 35; and William Young, age 21.

27788.jpg 1864—Amos Bailey, age 41, at Andersonville Prison, Georgia; Erastus Benton, age 20, at Salisbury Prison, North Carolina; George W. Cole, age 18; Theodore Guyon, age 27; William Lum, age 19; Edgar T. Perry, age 19; John Spencer, age 19; Sylvester Swan, age 18; John J. Westfall, age 18; Alfred T. Williams, age 39; and Alanson Zimmer, age 17.

27790.jpg 1865—Mortimer L. Manning, age 19; David W. Merrill, age 32; and Samuel G. North, age 47.

An additional eleven soldiers are included below because they lived in Newark Valley before the war or had direct family connections with the town. They died of disease during or immediately after the war:

Amos Ballard, age 45; William Borthwick, age 44; Henry H. Chamberlain, age 20; Seymour Churchill, age 53; Adam Folts, age 51; Napoleon B. Nelson, age 21; Samuel Perry, age 28; Griffin Searles, age 23; Elias Shoultes, age 27; William H. Smith, age 26; and John E. Tidd Jr., age 26.

The Seventy-sixth NY and Newark Valley’s First Death in Battle

The first Newark Valley soldier to be killed in action was Private George J. Harris who enlisted in the Seventy-sixth NY Volunteers at Newark Valley on October 11, 1861. The Seventy-sixth NY Volunteers, sometimes referred to as the Cortland Regiment, left New York State in January 1862. The regiment fought in numerous major battles including the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, the Siege of Petersburg, Cold Harbor, and others.

George Harris, age 22, was killed at Gainesville on August 28, 1862, during Gen. Pope’s Virginia Campaign that ended with Pope’s defeat in the Second Bull Run at Manassas. Twenty-year-old Pvt. Orville Dickinson, also of the Seventy-sixth NY, was wounded in the hard fighting at Gainesville on the same date.

Sixteen Newark Valley soldiers enlisted in the Seventy-sixth. Three of them, John J. Evans, Henry B. Kenyon, and George W. Lason, were wounded in the furious fighting on July 1, 1863, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. (Corporal John Evans later transferred to the 147th NY Infantry and was wounded in action a second time on February 6, 1865, at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.)

The Seventy-sixth had been in camp near the Pennsylvania border outside of Emmitsburg, Maryland. The regiment left camp early in the morning of July 1, 1863, and marched northward toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Shortly before reaching Gettysburg, the regiment turned slightly to the west and began taking up positions on the right of the Union line of battle. The Seventy-sixth incurred the first fire of the battle from the Confederates hidden in the uneven terrain. The soldiers of the Seventy-sixth Regiment suffered grievously from those initial enemy salvos, losing in killed and wounded eighteen officers and approximately two hundred enlisted men.¹⁵

Nelson Brooks was wounded in action on June 18, 1864, while the Seventy-sixth was engaged in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia. The regiment’s total losses during the war included 118 officers and enlisted men killed in action, 57 died from wounds and 166 died of disease and other causes.¹⁶

Recruits of the 109th and 137th to the Rescue

The war was not going well for the North in the early summer of 1862. McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign against Richmond (March-July, 1862) was a failure and General Stonewall Jackson scored successes against Federal forces in the Shenandoah Valley. President Lincoln decided many more men were needed to replace the numerous soldiers killed, wounded, and missing in action and the large numbers lost through desertion. On July 2, the president issued a call for 300,000 more volunteers to serve three years.

The Owego Gazette reported on August 14, 1862,

A large and enthusiastic war meeting was held at Newark Valley on Wednesday, August 6. General Elijah Belcher was chosen president . . . . Henry Bieber was one of the twelve local citizens appointed as vice-presidents, and Robert B. Miller was designated as one of the two secretaries of the war meeting. Several prominent personages made rousing patriotic speeches in support of the war and called upon every loyal man to come to the rescue of the Union. The meeting was an entire success, and eighteen good and true men enrolled their names and were sworn into Captain [Robert H.S.] Hyde’s company [Company B, 109th] . . . .

In that summer of 1862, two regiments—the 109th NY Infantry and the 137th NY Infantry—were raised in the Twenty-fourth senatorial district that included the counties of Broome, Tioga, and Tompkins in the southern tier of New York. Prominent Owego lawyer Benjamin Franklin Tracy led the effort to recruit the two regiments. Tracy was commissioned as colonel and given command of the 109th, which was the first of the two regiments formed. The 109th was mustered in at Camp Susquehanna in Binghamton, New York, on August 27, 1862, and departed soon after to join the Federal forces to save the Union.

Combat veteran Captain David Ireland of New York City assisted in the recruiting of men for the two regiments. He was selected as commander of the 137th NY Infantry and promoted to colonel. David Ireland had significant military experience as an officer in the Fifteenth US Infantry and as a trainer of new recruits in Kentucky. Ithacan Koert S. Van Vorhees also had previous military experience and was appointed as lieutenant colonel of the regiment.

Three companies of the 137th NY were raised in Tioga County. Lieutenant Oscar C. Williams of Newark Valley was instrumental in recruiting men to form Company G. He was promoted to be a captain and assigned as commander of the company.

The 137th NY was mustered in at Camp Susquehanna in Binghamton on September 25, 1862. Two days later, the regiment started by railroad for Washington, DC.

The 109th Goes to War in Virginia

May I be a faithful soldier not only under the Stars and Stripes, but also under the banner of Jesus. (Diary entry by Henry Curtis Leach the day after he enlisted in the 109th NY Infantry.)

Thirty-six men credited to Newark Valley joined the 109th New York as did another twenty-three recruits who resided in Newark Valley before or after the war or had close family connections with the town. The 109th served its first twenty months guarding the railroads between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and performed other noncombat related duties. But from the time the regiment was thrown into battle in the spring of 1864, the men of the 109th endured tough marching and hard fighting day after day, in battle after battle until the end of the war.

James H. Reese, age 27, was killed on May 6, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness at the beginning of Grant’s campaign against Lee in Virginia. Alonzo B. Moreland suffered wounds on that day in the same fighting. George Brumghein and John King died in action six days later at Spotsylvania Court House while Jacob Saddlemire, John Clifford, Edwin Slosson, John O. Ballard, and Alexander Zimmer were wounded. Zimmer was shot in his shoulder and left arm in the battle and was captured by the Rebels near the Ny River but was soon released. A month later, on June 17, William Lamb suffered fatal wounds in action near Petersburg.

In the Battle of the Wilderness, Colonel Tracy demonstrated extraordinary leadership and courage under fire for which he was later awarded the Medal of Honor. During the battle (May 5-7), Tracy twice was carried from the field suffering from heat prostration. He later was diagnosed with a heart condition that prevented him from further service as a field commander.

Colonel Tracy was succeeded as the regimental commander by 109th Lieutenant Colonel Isaac S. Catlin, who was promoted to colonel. Catlin, from Owego, was Tracy’s brother-in-law and had combat experience early in the war as commander, Company H, Third NY Infantry.

On June 25, 1864, Union soldiers who were former Pennsylvania coal miners were stationed in trenches in front of Petersburg. A proposal was made through the chain of command to dig a mine under the opposing Confederate fortifications and set off a massive charge. Although General Grant was not particularly enthusiastic about the plan, he ultimately gave his approval. The Union miners covertly began digging a tunnel more than five hundred feet long under the unsuspecting opposing Confederate forces. The tunnel was completed over a month later and 320 kegs of black powder were placed at the end. The powder charge was successfully detonated early on July 30, creating a crater one hundred and seventy feet long, about seventy-five feet wide and thirty feet deep, and killed or wounded nearly three hundred Confederates.¹⁷

The follow-up assault at the Battle of the Crater was woefully mismanaged by the Union senior leadership resulting in a dreadful loss of men. Among the 109th NY casualties were Alexander King and David Millen who were killed instantly, Rial Hardendorf wounded and died from the wounds a month later, and Charles Snapp wounded but recovered.

Colonel Isaac Catlin bravely led the 109th in the Battle of the Crater. He too became a casualty and lost his leg in the fierce and bloody fight. Catlin later was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage and leadership in the battle. David W. Merrill, 109th, and Clark J. Cone, Fourteenth NY Heavy Artillery, were taken prisoner in the action. Both men were paroled, dates not known. David Merrill would never return to his loving young wife Semira and their two surviving little daughters in East Newark. Private Merrill became gravely ill and died of disease at the Union Parole Camp Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland, on March 22, 1865, and there he was buried.

Other 109th Regiment’s casualties during Grant’s relentless Virginia campaign against Lee included Edward L. Ballard, killed in action at Weldon Railroad on August 19, 1864. At that very instant, his father, Gardner Ballard, was wounded and incapacitated just ten feet away and unable to go to his fallen son. In the fighting at Weldon Railroad on that same date, Erastus Benton was captured in action and held by the Rebels as a POW until his death at Salisbury Prison, North Carolina, on November 5, 1864. Further, on April 2, 1865, Lemuel Like was killed in action at Petersburg. Additional Newark Valley soldiers of the 109th who were wounded in action on dates and at locations not currently known during Grant’s costly, albeit successful, Virginia Campaign were John Brumghein, Anson J. Partridge, John Lawrence, Enos Clark, and George D. Moreland.

During its service, the 109th lost five officers and 160 enlisted men killed in combat and 164 men of disease and other causes.¹⁸

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The 109th NY Volunteer Infantry, Planting their Colors on the Rebel Works in Front of Petersburg, VA, April 2, 1865 (Courtesy of Thomas C. McEnteer)

The 137th Holds the Union Right at Gettysburg

Thirty-one soldiers credited to Newark Valley joined the 137th NY Infantry. Six of those men died of disease as did two other members of the regiment who were also identified with Newark Valley.

Captain Oscar Clinton Williams, commander of Company G, 137th, was a native son of Newark Valley and a true hero. He was wounded in action while serving early in the war with the Forty-fourth NY Infantry, became critically ill and was home recuperating in the summer of 1862 when he began recruiting men for the 137th.¹⁹ In the early morning darkness at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, Captain Williams was killed while leading his men in the defense of Culp’s Hill.

Twenty-four-year-old William Van Valkenburg was the first Newark Valley soldier of the 137th to die in that battle, just a few hours before Captain Williams was killed. On July 2, 1863, William was pierced through with seven Rebel bullets at Culp’s Hill while the 137th held the Union right on the second day of the battle. Ira Lipe and Van Valkenburg’s cousin Jacob Brockham were shot dead as the close fighting continued through the night and into the next day. (Alonzo Mix of Caroline, Tompkins County, was killed in action at Gettysburg while serving with the 104th NY Infantry; his brother, Squire Collins Mix, of the 157th NY Infantry, was captured in the battle and paroled ten months later.)

Aaron Benn and Samuel Perry were both captured at Gettysburg and were held by the Rebels as POWs. Each was paroled but the dates are not known. Samuel suffered from disease thereafter, was gravely ill when discharged from the Parole Camp Hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, September 11, 1863, and died a week later at the town of Maine, Broome County.

Newark Valley soldiers of the 137th who were wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg included John Dooley, David Lipe, and Edward S. Lovell. David Saddlemire also suffered a wound in action at Gettysburg and soon after became seriously ill. After spending nearly a year in hospitals in deteriorating health, David expressed the desire to die at home. His father traveled south to his son and carried David home to East Newark in a long, arduous and painfully sad journey. Three days after arriving home, his agonizing suffering ended, and young David Saddlemire was laid to his final rest.

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A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, PA

(Alexander Gardner photo, courtesy of Library of Congress)

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Temporary battlefield graves (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

In his acclaimed history of the 137th Regiment, Fields of Fame & Glory, author David Cleutz records in authentic and vivid detail the valor of the officers and men in the pivotal fight at Culp’s Hill. Vastly outnumbered and attacked on three sides, the 137th withstood repeated Rebel assaults and helped preserve the army of the Potomac at a crucial time in that epic battle. But the men of the 137th New York had much more fighting ahead, and Cleutz reports it all.

The 137th in Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas

On October 28, 1863, the 137th New York was at Wauhatchie Valley below Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee. About midnight, Rebel General Longstreet commenced an attack against the Union forces. Henry Bieber Jr., was killed in action during that assault and Smith B. Benjamin Morey, George Vandemark, and William L. Gould were wounded. Twenty-one-year-old Maurice R. Baird was also wounded in the battle and died of the wounds five weeks later. Theodore Guyon was taken prisoner on October 29 and was held as a POW until he died six months later in a Rebel prison at Richmond.

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At the top of Lookout Mountain (Photo by Sara Marsh, author’s collection)

Union regiments, including the 111th PA, 60th NY, 149th NY, 137th NY,

and others scaled Lookout Mountain in the Battle above the Clouds, driving

the Rebels from the precipice overlooking Chattanooga, Tenn.

On November 24, during the Union victory in the Battle above the Clouds at Lookout Mountain, Sgt. Seneca Schoolcraft and Pvt. Marion F. Rich were among the seventeen members of the 137th who were wounded. Pvt. Alonzo Whiting of Richford was one of the five 137th Regiment’s soldiers killed in the battle.

Men of the 137th had no time to rest for they quickly moved on to fight at Ringgold Gap, just across the Tennessee border in Georgia. Colonel Ireland’s brigade made a significant contribution to yet another Union victory.

During the Battle of Ringgold at the end of November, Luke Searles received a gunshot wound to his left wrist while charging a Rebel battery. Luke survived and returned to fight in other battles.

In 1864, the 137th marched and fought in the Army of the Cumberland during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. On June 21, William Mahar was wounded in a daylong firefight near Marietta, outside of Atlanta. The 24-year-old died from the wounds two days later. On June 22, while Pvt. Mahar was suffering from his mortal injury, George Harvey was wounded in action nearby in the Battle of Pine Knob. Nineteen-year-old Harvey died thirty days later. During the continuing fighting near Marietta, on July 2, teenager Joseph H. Strong was shot in the shoulder. Joseph never recovered from the wound. He was still in a hospital at Elmira, New York in June 1865 and died on November 19, 1865.

Watson D. Hull of the 137th received a disability discharge in May 1863. He reported later the disability was the result of a gunshot wound.

During its service, the 137th NY Infantry lost 128 men who died from disease, 71 killed in action, 52 mortally wounded, 72 wounded-disabled, 142 wounded in action but survived and were not disabled, one accidental death, and 125 who deserted (fourteen returned).²⁰

The Fiftieth NY Engineers—Building Bridges to the Enemy

This regiment was organized in Elmira in the summer of 1861. Its primary mission would be to construct fixed and floating bridges across the rivers obstructing the Union Army’s advances against the Confederate forces in Virginia and elsewhere. The original intent was to recruit skilled construction workers and canal boatmen because of their unique talents but others including farmers, clerks, teamsters, laborers, miners, etc., also signed up. Men of the regiment who developed special abilities were promoted from a private to an artificer, which earned them another dollar a month in pay. ²¹

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Pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River, Virginia

(Courtesy of Library of Congress)

The men of the Fiftieth New York became true combat engineers during the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. The engineers were tasked with laying three pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River to enable General Burnside to make a direct assault on Fredericksburg. Confederate sharpshooters concealed behind buildings and walls within the village waited until the engineers constructing the pontoon bridges got within close range and let loose a barrage of lethal gunfire. During the battle, the Fiftieth Engineers lost four officers and 46 enlisted men killed or wounded.²²

Thirty soldiers of the Fiftieth Engineers were credited to Newark Valley. An additional seven men connected to the town also served with the regiment. Several soldiers died of disease. Stephen Matteson, age 20, died at Washington, DC, on December 3, 1861, only three months after enlisting. William Borthwick succumbed to disease in Virginia on October 25, 1862. John J. Westfall died May 16, 1864, and Edgar T. Perry on June 13, 1864. Eighteen-year-old Sylvester Swan enlisted January 4, 1864, and died June 18, 1864, probably of disease. Alfred T. Williams passed away on July 19, 1864, and is buried at City Point National Cemetery, Hopewell, Virginia.

Philo Barden was serving in front of Petersburg on August 13, 1864, when he was struck in the chest by a ball fired from a Confederate rifle. The ball was still in his body in June 1865.

Horace Butts served with the Fiftieth Engineers from September 6, 1861, until he was discharged for disability on December 14, 1861. He subsequently served with the Fifth NY Cavalry from December 31, 1863, until July 19, 1865. In 1890, Horace stated he had been discharged for disability because two fingers of his left hand were shot and that he had reenlisted. It is not presently known whether Horace was with the Fiftieth Engineers or the Fifth NY Cavalry when he was wounded.

Alexander Saddlemire mustered in the Fiftieth Engineers in January 1864 and was mustered out in June 1865. He subsequently reported he had been wounded in front of Petersburg in 1864.

The regiment’s casualties in the war included four officers, 74 enlisted men killed or wounded, and nine enlisted men missing.²³

Riding with the Fifth NY Cavalry

The Fifth NY Cavalry Regiment left the state on November 18, 1861. The sixteen cavalrymen identified here joined the regiment after that date.

John S. Smith enlisted in the Fifth NY Cavalry in August 1862 and was with Troop B when his unit departed Washington, DC, for Pennsylvania on June 25, 1863. Late in the morning of June 30, the regiment was at Hanover, east of Gettysburg, when it was attacked by Rebel General James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart’s cavalry. The Fifth NY Cavalry suffered significant casualties but remained in control of the town.

As part of the Third Division, the Fifth Cavalry headed toward Gettysburg at the break of day on July 2. At twilight, the Third Division again encountered Stuart, but the Fifth Cavalry was held in reserve. The regiment was engaged in the battle at Gettysburg late in the afternoon of July 3 and suffered a few casualties. On July 6, the Fifth NY encountered the enemy at Hagerstown, Maryland. The regiment suffered major casualties as they fought the Rebels in the city’s streets. One officer was wounded, two enlisted men were killed and four were wounded, one of whom was Corporal John S. Smith. In addition, four officers and fifty enlisted men were taken prisoner or missing in action.²⁴

Six men enlisted in the Fifth Cavalry at Newark Valley during December 22-31, 1863. Nine other Newark Valley men joined the regiment later on.

The Fifth NY was with the Federal Cavalry Corps from May 1864, in the Army of Shenandoah from October 1864 and in the Department of West Virginia from March 1865. In addition to Corporal John Smith, other Newark Valley casualties included Avery Cole who died of wounds and sickness in September 1864; Orlando Cole who was wounded near Petersburg in June 1864; Ralph Howe who suffered a gunshot wound to the head; Edward A. Rogers, wounded in the hip at the Wilderness; and Perry Schoolcraft, wounded in action during General Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign late in the war.

The Sixteenth NY Independent Battery Light Artillery

Sixteen men credited to Newark Valley enlisted in the Sixteenth NY Light Artillery. None of those soldiers was killed or wounded in action; however, five died of disease—Charles H. Bradbury, Joseph E. Brown, William H. DeGaramo and brothers Andrew J. Allen and William H. Allen.

The Sixteenth NY Independent Battery Light Artillery, also known as the Dickinson Light Artillery, was organized at Binghamton and left for Washington, DC, on March 10, 1862. The regiment performed duty in the Artillery Camp of Instruction and the defense of Washington until April 1863 and was in various siege operations including in front of Petersburg and Richmond from June through December 1864.

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General William T. Sherman with Light Artillery, Harper’s Weekly,

June 8, 1861 (Author’s collection)

Men of the Sixteenth Battery, with four of the unit’s guns, participated in the expeditions against Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in December 1864 and January 1865. The latter expedition ended with the assault and capture, on January 15, of Fort Fisher, the Confederate stronghold guarding the entry to the blockade runners’ haven of the port of Wilmington, North Carolina. The regiment later served in the Campaign of the Carolinas, March 1-April 26, 1865, that culminated with the surrender of Confederate General Johnston and his army to General William T. Sherman near Durham Station, North Carolina.

During its service, the regiment lost 44 enlisted men to disease and one enlisted man died in the hands of the enemy.²⁵

Other Regiments, Other Casualties

Many Newark Valley soldiers served in other regiments and a number of those soldiers died in action or suffered wounds.

Soldiers in Infantry Regiments

o John Vandemark, Twenty-sixth NY, wounded in action on August 30, 1862, at Groveton, Virginia.

o William J. Millen, Sixty-first NY, killed on May 8, 1864, at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia.

o Charles Kenyon, Sixty-third NY, wounded on June 16, 1864, at Petersburg, Virginia

o John G. Wheeler, Sixty-fourth NY, killed on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia.

o Ephraim Lainhart, Sixty-fourth NY, wounded on August 25, 1864, at Reams’ Station, Virginia.

o John Waldo Belcher, Sixty-fourth NY, wounded on September 17, 1862, at Antietam, Maryland, and May 10, 1864, at Po River near Spotsylvania, Virginia.

o John E. Bailey, 111th NY, killed on July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg.

o Chauncey A. Bradley, 114th NY, wounded on September 19, 1864, at Winchester, Virginia.

o Clement Arnold, 185th NY, wounded March 29, 1865, at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.

o Arthur Terpenning, 185th NY, wounded March 29, 1865, near Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.

o William J. Lawrence, Twenty-seventh Michigan Sharpshooters, wounded in action.

o Levi Anson, Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania, wounded on December 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

o Charles Carmer, Seventy-fifth Illinois, wounded in the knee.

o William E. Loring, 141st Pennsylvania, wounded in early May 1863 at Chancellorsville, and in early July 1863 at Gettysburg.

Soldiers in Cavalry Regiments

o William R. Larcom, Twenty-second NY, died on September 19, 1864, of wounds received at Winchester, Virginia.

o James R. Tracy, First Minnesota Mounted Rifles, wounded in action.

o Henry Hovey, First Michigan, died of wounds June 18, 1864.

o Thomas S. May, First Vermont Cavalry, wounded on July 8, 1863.

Soldiers in Artillery Regiments

o Frank Slater, Sixth NY Heavy Artillery, wounded June 30, 1864, at Petersburg.

Civilian

o William H. Burr, wounded at Bristoe Station, Virginia, in the fall of 1863.

French Leave and Desertion

Civil War soldiers often mentioned French leave in their letters and diaries, suggesting they or fellow soldiers slipped away for a few hours or so for some R&R (a modern term meaning Rest and Recuperation or