Slavery in New York began when
the Dutch West India Company imported 11 African slaves to New Amsterdam in
1626, with the first slave auction being held in New Amsterdam in 1655. The
British expanded the use of slavery, and in 1703, more than 43 percent of New
York households owned slaves, often as domestic servants and laborers. Others
worked as artisans or in shipping and various trades in the city.
During
the American Revolutionary War, the British troops occupied New York City in
1776, and the Crown promised freedom to slaves who fled rebel masters. By 1780,
10,000 blacks lived in New York; many were slaves who had escaped from
slaveholders in North and South. After the American Revolution, the New York
Manumission Society was founded in 1785 to work for the abolition of slavery and
for aid to free blacks. The state passed a law for gradual abolition in 1799;
after that date, children born to slave mothers were free but required to work
an extended indentured servitude into their twenties. All slaves were finally
freed on July 4, 1827 and blacks in New York celebrated with a large
parade.
New York residents, however, were less willing to
give blacks equal voting rights. By the constitution of 1777, voting was
restricted to free men who could satisfy certain property requirements. This
property requirement disfranchised poor men among both blacks and whites. The
reformed Constitution of 1821 conditioned suffrage for black men by maintaining
the property requirement, which most could not meet, so effectively
disfranchised them. The same constitution eliminated the property requirement
for white men and expanded their franchise. No women yet had the vote in New
York. "As late as 1869, a majority of the state's voters cast ballots in favor
of retaining property qualifications that kept New York's polls closed to many
blacks. African-American men did not obtain equal voting rights in New York
until ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870."
Sentiment
In the presidential
election of 1860, 362,646 (53.7%) New Yorkers voted for Abraham Lincoln, while
312,510 (46.3%) supported Democrat Stephen Douglas.
Powerful New York
politicians played important roles in setting national policy and procedures
during the American Civil War. Roscoe Conkling was among the leading Radical
Republicans who strongly supported the vigorous prosecution of the war. They
were opposed by moderate Republicans including Henry Jarvis Raymond, a New York
newspaperman who served as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee in
the latter half of the war. William H. Seward, an outspoken critic of Lincoln
and a former 1860 presidential candidate, became the Secretary of State and an
important member of Lincoln's Cabinet.
By contrast, the colorful
mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood, was a prominent early supporter of the
Confederate cause. He argued unsuccessfully that the city should secede from the
Union as a separate entity.
When the war began, former
New York Governor Horatio Seymour (1853-54; 1863-64) took a cautious middle
position within his Democratic Party, supporting the war effort but criticizing
its conduct by the Lincoln administration. Seymour was especially critical of
Lincoln's wartime centralization of power and restrictions on civil liberties,
as well as his support of emancipation. In 1862, Seymour was again elected
governor, defeating Republican candidate James S. Wadsworth. As governor of the
Union's largest state, Seymour was the most prominent Democratic opponent of the
President for the next two years. He strongly opposed the Lincoln
administration's institution of the military draft in 1863.
Alfred Ely, Chairman of
the House Committee on Invalid Pensions, was among the first U.S.
representatives to be captured by the Confederate Army when he and other
civilian onlookers were taken prisoner following the First Battle of Bull Run.
He spent six months in a Confederate prison before being exchanged and
released.
In 1861 and 1862, former
U.S. Senator Hamilton Fish became associated with John A. Dix, William M.
Evarts, William E. Dodge, A.T. Stewart, John Jacob Astor, and other New York men
on the Union Defence Committee. They cooperated with the New York City
government in raising and equipping troops, and disbursed more than $1 million
dollars for the relief of New York volunteers and their families. Later in the
war, several leading New York politicians and businessmen helped found the Union
League, a pro-Union, pro-Lincoln organization that helped fund the Republican
Party, as well as charitable relief groups such as the United States Sanitary
Commission.
During the Gettysburg
Campaign of 1863, despite his sharp political
differences with Pennsylvania's Republican Governor Andrew G. Curtin, Governor
Seymour dispatched significant quantities of New York State Militia to
Harrisburg to help repel the invasion of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia. The first Union soldier killed on Pennsylvania soil was a native
Pennsylvanian, Corporal William H. Rihl serving in a company assigned to the 1st
New York Cavalry.
During the New York draft
riots, approximately 1000 were killed (including 100 blacks) and more than 2,000
were injured. The draft riots also resulted in nearly $2 million dollars in
property damage. Coupled with strong anti-war movement, by Copperheads and other
Peace Democrats, it made New York one of the closest contested states in the
presidential election of 1864. 368,735 (50.46%) New Yorkers chose the incumbent
Abraham Lincoln, with 361,986 (49.54%) supporting Democrat challenger and former
Union general George B. McClellan. Lincoln won the Empire State by a meager
6,749 votes and captured all 33 electoral votes.
The New York Legislature
oversaw the approval of funding the state's war effort, including bounties,
fees, expenses, interest on loans, and for the support of the families of
soldiers. Total expenditures exceeded $152 million during the war.
Civil War
According to the 1860 U.S.
census, New York had a total population of 3,880,735, including 49,005 free
colored persons. The state's population had been transformed by extensive
immigration from the 1840s, particularly
from Ireland and Germany. Shortly before the Civil War, 25 percent of New York
City's population was born in Germany.
During the Civil War,
nearly 400,000 New Yorkers joined the Union Army, and, according to Phisterer
(1890), more than 53,000 New York soldiers died in service, or roughly 1 of
every 7 who served. During the Civil War, the State of New York ranked 1st
(followed by Pennsylvania in 2nd, Ohio 3rd, Illinois 4th, and Indiana 5th) in
total soldiers serving in the Union military.
Of the total enlistment, more than 120,000 were
foreign-born, but it is impossible to arrive at very accurate figures as to the
nativity of the individual soldiers from the state, but Phisterer has arrived at
the "conclusion that of the 400,000 individuals, 279,040 were natives of
the United States, and 120,960 or 30.24 percent, of foreign birth. The latter
were divided according to nationality as follows: 42,095 Irish, 41,179 German,
12,756 English, 11,525 British-American, 3,693 French, 3,333 Scotch, 2,014
Welsh, 2,015 Swiss, and 2,350 of all other nationalities." The average age of
the New York soldier was 25 years, 7 months, and New Yorkers fought in every
major battle and campaign of the conflict.
See also New York and the Civil War
(1861-1865).
When the Civil War
concluded in 1865, Phisterer states that New York had provided the Union Army
with 248 regiments of infantry, 27 regiments of cavalry, 15 regiments of
artillery, and 8 of engineers. William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American
Civil War (1889), however, states that New York provided the Union military with
252 regiments and 15 companies of infantry, 27 regiments
and 10 companies of cavalry, 15 regiments
and 35 batteries of artillery, for a grand
total of 294 regiments, 25 companies, and 35 batteries. Fox's numbers include
navy, marines, state militia,
sharpshooters, engineers, national guard, independent units, guards, U.S. Army
(aka regular army), U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), reserve corps, units that failed
to complete organization, consolidated units, reorganized and re-designated
units, ambulance corps, and misc. units. (See also Union and Confederate Army Organizations at the
Beginning of the American Civil
War.)
Federal records indicate 4,125 free blacks from
New York served in the Union Army, and three full regiments of United States
Colored Troops were raised and organized in the Empire State—the 20th,
26th, and 31st USCT. The 20th and 26th Regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops were
raised on Rikers Island, while the 31st USCT was raised on Hart Island. The
Empire State contributed to the Union 98 brigadier-generals, 20 major-generals,
and the U.S. Secretary of State. Among the more prominent military units from
the state of New York was the Excelsior Brigade of controversial former
congressman Daniel Sickles. Another well-known unit was the 11th New York
Infantry Regiment, aka First New York Fire Zouaves, but the 11th New York was
often overshadowed by the 73rd New York, aka Second Fire Zouaves, which fought at Antietam,
Gettysburg, and Appomattox. Several early volunteer regiments traced their
origins to antebellum New York State Militia regiments, including the 14th
Brooklyn, which became known for its bright red chasseur-style
pants.
While only 3 major
generals received the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, 2 were New Yorkers:
Daniel Sickles and Julius Stahel. Although in 1859 Sickles had been charged with
the murder of Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key, he was acquitted
with the first use of temporary insanity as a legal defense in U.S. history.
Sickles remains one of the most controversial Civil War generals because of his
insubordination at Gettysburg. On the other hand, Stahel, a Hungarian emigrant,
had previously served as a lieutenant in the Austrian Army. During the Civil
War, he commanded a cavalry division and served with valor and gallantry during
the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaigns. The 3rd major general to receive the Medal
of Honor was Ohioan David Stanley.
With
more than 3.5 million residents, New York was the most populous state in the
Union at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Therefore, it provided a
significant number of leading generals, admirals, and politicians who were
either born in New York or spent considerable time in the state before the war.
New York furnished the army with 20 major-generals, only 2 of whom — John A. Dix
and Edwin D. Morgan — were appointed from civil life. It furnished 98 officers
of the rank of brigadier-general, of whom 12 were appointed from civil life.
Included in this long list of higher officers are the names of many who gained
renown as among the most efficient commanders produced by the war.
Numerous notable New Yorkers during the Civil
War include both political and military figures, and, with the Empire State's
massive population and immense contributions during the conflict, it is
difficult to recognize and pay tribute to all. Notable New Yorkers include
Secretary of State William H. Seward, Gov. Horatio Seymour, Maj. Gen. Francis C.
Barlow, Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday, Maj. Gen. James
B. Ricketts, Maj. Gen. John Schofield, Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, Maj. Gen. Henry
W. Slocum, Maj. Gen. Julius Stahel, Maj. Gen. George Stoneman, Maj. Gen.
Gouverneur K. Warren, and Maj. Gen. Alexander S. Webb. Other notable New Yorkers
during the conflict include war photographer Mathew Brady, English-born artist
Alfred Waud, newspaperman Horace Greeley, and combat artist Edwin Forbes. James
Wadsworth, one of the wealthiest men in the state and a former Republican
candidate for governor, was among the Union generals from New York to be killed
during the war.
Several wealthy New York industrialists played
crucial roles in supporting the war effort through materiel, weapons,
ammunition, supplies, and accoutrements. Railroad impresario Cornelius
Vanderbilt used his growing network of rail systems to effectively move large
quantities of troops through the state to staging and training areas.
When the Civil War began in
1861, Vanderbilt attempted to donate his largest steamship, the Vanderbilt, to
the Union Navy. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles refused it, thinking its
operation and maintenance too expensive for what he expected to be a short war.
Vanderbilt had little choice but to lease it to the War Department, at prices
set by ship brokers. When the Confederate ironclad Virginia (popularly known in
the North as the Merrimack) wrought havoc with the Union blockading squadron at
Hampton Roads, Virginia, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and President Abraham
Lincoln called on Vanderbilt for help. This time he succeeded in donating the
Vanderbilt to the Union navy, equipping it with a ram and staffing it with
handpicked officers. It helped contain the Virginia, after which Vanderbilt
converted it into a cruiser to hunt for the Confederate commerce raider Alabama,
captained by Raphael Semmes. Vanderbilt also outfitted a major expedition to New
Orleans. But he suffered a personal loss when his youngest son and heir
apparent, George Washington Vanderbilt, a graduate of the United States Military
Academy, fell ill and died without ever seeing combat. While Confederate
President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned following the war, Vanderbilt, with
conciliation, offered to pay Davis’ bond.
Early in the war, the Union
Navy contracted with U.S. Congressman Erastus Corning's iron works to
manufacture parts and materials for the USS Monitor, the Navy's first ironclad
warship. The Brooklyn Navy Yard was an important shipbuilding and naval
maintenance concern.
Foundrymen Robert Parrott and
his brother Peter produced significant quantities of artillery pieces and
munitions, and their Parrott rifle, an innovative rifled gun, was manufactured
in several sizes at the West Point Foundry. The foundry's operations peaked
during the Civil War due to military orders: it had a workforce of 1,400 people
and produced 2,000 cannon and three million shells. Parrott also invented an
incendiary shell which was used in an 8-inch Parrott rifle (the "Swamp Angel")
to bombard Charleston. The importance of the foundry to the war effort can be
measured by the fact that President Abraham Lincoln visited and inspected it in
June 1862.
The National Arms Company in
Brooklyn produced firearms, including large quantities of revolvers. Other
important producers of weaponry and munitions were the Federal government's
Watervliet Arsenal and the privately-owned Remington Arms Company of
Ilion.
Although
New York provided more soldiers during the Civil War than any other Northern
state, a war was not in the state's best interest because much of New
York's trade was based on moving Southern goods. New York's large Democratic
community feared the impact of Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, but by the
time of the Battle of Fort Sumter (April 1861) the political differences had
vanished and the state quickly met Lincoln's request for soldiers and
supplies.
The citizens of the North had been much aroused
over the continual shipment of war material to the Southern states and an
acrimonious correspondence over a question of this kind took place in February
of 1861 between the governors of New York and Georgia. The police of New York
City were vigilant and had seized 38 boxes of muskets about to be shipped on the
steamer Monticello to Savannah, and deposited them in the state arsenal in New
York City. Gov. Brown of Georgia, on complaint being made to him by the
consignees, citizens of Macon, GA., made formal demand on the mayor of the city,
and on Gov. Edwin D. Morgan (1859-1862), for the immediate delivery of the arms
to G. B. Lamar, named as the agent of Georgia. There was some delay in adjusting
the matter, and Gov. Brown, on Feb. 5, ordered the seizure of five vessels,
owned in New York but then in the harbor of Savannah, by way of reprisal. Three
days later they were released, but reprisals were again ordered on the 21st,
when additional shipping from New York was seized at Savannah, to be held
pending the delivery of the invoice. Gov. Brown made renewed demands on Gov.
Morgan for the arms and the New York executive replied: "I have no power
whatever over the officer who made the seizure, and had no more knowledge of the
fact, nor have I any more connection with the transaction, than any other
citizen of this state; but I do not hesitate to say that the arms will be
delivered whenever application shall be made for them. Should such not be the
case, however, redress is to be sought, not in an appeal to the executive
authority of New York to exercise a merely arbitrary power, but in due form of
law, through the regularly constituted tribunals of justice of the state or of
the United States, as the parties aggrieved may elect. It is but proper here to
say, that the courts are at all times open to suitors, and no complaint has
reached me of the inability or unwillingness of judicial officers to render
exact justice to all. If, however, the fact be otherwise, whatever authority the
constitution and laws vest in me, for compelling a performance of their duty,
will be promptly exercised." The matter was finally adjusted by the delivery of
the arms on March 16 to the agent of Georgia.
On April 15, 1861, however, President Lincoln
issued a proclamation, known as Lincoln's Call For
Troops, calling for 75,000 militia to serve for
three months to suppress the rebellion in the Southern states. The quota
assigned to New York was seventeen regiments of 780 men each, or 13,280 men. The
National Guard of the state responded to the call to arms with the utmost
enthusiasm and were only animated by a rivalry as to which organization could
first secure marching orders. And indeed there was urgent need of haste. Gov.
Morgan had been advised by the war department that the men were wanted for
immediate service and that some of the troops were at once needed at the
capital. In the hope of capturing Washington, the enemy had severed all
communication by telegraph and railroad between that city and the North, and
were even attempting to prevent all supplies from reaching that city from the
surrounding country.
New York had long played
an important role in the U.S. military, with the United States Military Academy
in West Point providing a significant number of officers to the antebellum
Regular Army. New York Harbor was ringed with several military outposts, forts,
and garrisons, and many officers who were prominent during the war had spent
considerable time in New York before the conflict erupted in early 1861.
MacDougall Hospital at Fort Schuyler would become a leading war-time military
hospital, and Davids' Island was a significant prisoner-of-war camp for captured
Confederates.
No actual Civil War
battles were fought within the Empire State, although Confederate agents did set
several fires in New York City as an act intended to terrorize the community and
build support for the peace movement. Confederate agents attempted to burn New
York City on November 25, 1864, and at least thirteen hotels, P.T. Barnum’s
Museum, Tammany Hall, and the shipping harbor were set on fire. Fortunately, the
combustible chemicals used by the agents did not work properly, and all of the
buildings set on fire were saved with no
lives lost.
In
January 1861, New York had nominally a force of 19,000 militia, but it possessed
only about 8,000 muskets and rifles with which to arm this force, and the
war department was in no condition to supply the deficiency, as former U.S.
Secretary of War, John B. Floyd (Virginia), had, with sinister motive, sent many
thousands of muskets from the Watervliet arsenal to Southern
points.
The first organized unit
to leave the state for the front lines was the 7th New York State Militia, which
departed by train on April 19, 1861, for Washington, D.C. The 11th New York
Infantry, a two-years' regiment of new
recruits, departed ten days later. Among the earliest casualties of the Civil
War was Malta, New York, native Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was killed in May
1861 during an armed encounter in Alexandria,
Virginia.
Space restricts more than a
brief reference to some of the more famous fighting organizations, such as
brigades and regiments, contributed by the State of New York. Perhaps the best
known brigade organization was the Irish Brigade,
officially designated as the 2nd brigade, 1st division, 2nd corps. It was in
Hancock's old division, and was successively commanded by Gen. Thomas Francis
Meagher, Col. Patrick Kelly (killed), Gen. Thomas A. Smyth (killed). Col.
Richard Byrnes (killed), and Gen. Robert Nugent. It was organized in 1861, and
originally consisted of the 63d, 69th and 88th N.Y. infantry regiments, to which
were added in the fall of 1862 the 28th Mass. and the 116th PA. Its loss in
killed and mortally wounded was 961, and a total of 4,000 men were killed and
wounded. Col. Fox in his "Regimental Losses in the Civil War," says of this
brigade: "The remarkable precision of its evolutions under fire, its desperate
attack on the impregnable wall at Marye's heights; its never failing promptness
on every field; and its long continuous service, made for it a name inseparable
from the history of the war." Another famous brigade was the Excelsior Brigade
(Sickles'), belonging to Hooker's (2nd) division, 3d corps, and composed of the
70th, 71st, 72nd, 73d, 74th and 120th N.Y. infantry. Its losses in killed and
died of wounds were 876. In Harrow's (1st) brigade, Gibbon's (2nd) division, 2nd
corps, was the 82nd N.Y. Infantry Regiment. This brigade suffered the greatest
percentage of loss in any one action during the war, at Gettysburg, where its
loss was 763 killed, wounded and missing out of a total of 1,246 in action, or
61 percent. The loss of the 82nd was 45 killed, 132 wounded, 15 missing — total,
192. There were forty-five infantry regiments which lost over 200 men each,
killed or mortally wounded in action during the war, and six of these were New
York regiments. At the head of the New York regiments, and standing sixth in the
total list, is the 69th N.Y., which lost the most men in action, killed and
[mortally] wounded, of any infantry regiment in the state, to-wit: 13 officers
and 246 enlisted men — total, 259. Coming next in the order named are the 40th,
48th, 121st, 111th and 51st regiments. Of the three hundred fighting regiments
enumerated by Col. William F. Fox, fifty-nine are from New York. (Fox,
1889)
15 New York regiments, such as
the 69th and 111th New York regiments, suffered greater than 50% casualties
during a single battle. The 69th, for example, suffered 61.8% casualties while
in the thick of the fight at Antietam (September 1862) and subsequently suffered
53.7% casualties of the total engaged at Fredericksburg in December 1862. During
the conflict, while the New York unit that charged the parapet and captured the
enemy's flag was romanticized and glorified, the 85th New York Infantry received
barely a nod as disease killed "326 of its soldiers," according to Dyer (1908).
According to Phisterer (1912), the 85th lost 342 to "disease and other causes."
The Union Army (1908), furthermore, states that the 85th "lost 36 members by
death from wounds, 103 from accident or disease, and the 222 who died in
prison." The 85th, nevertheless, had suffered one of the greatest losses of any
New York unit during the war. According to Dyer, The 100th New York Regiment
(aka 2nd Regiment, Eagle Brigade), meanwhile, suffered a total of 397 in killed:
12 Officers and 182 Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer
and 202 Enlisted men died from disease.
In total combat related deaths during the Civil
War, the 69th New York Infantry suffered the greatest loss of any New York
regiment. Out of more than 2,000 regiments that served with the Union Army, only
five regiments lost more men than the 69th. When including total deaths during
the course of the war, meaning additional deaths from disease,
prisoners-of-war, and "other than combat related deaths," the 40th New York
Infantry suffered the second greatest loss of any unit from the Empire State. It
lost 410 men. Although numerous New York units suffered more than 300 casualties
during the conflict, the following figures indicate the state's greatest or
highest regimental combat losses:
New York regimental combat
losses (aka battle or action losses) by totals:
1) 69th New York Infantry
Regiment, aka 1st Regiment of the Irish Brigade, lost during service 13 Officers
and 246 Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 142 Enlisted men died
from disease. Total 401. (Dyer, 1908). According to Phisterer (1912), the 69th,
during its service, "lost by death, killed in action, 8 officers, 154 enlisted
men; of wounds received in action, 5 officers, 94 enlisted men; of disease and
other causes, 2 officers, 149 enlisted men; total, 15 officers, 397 enlisted
men; aggregate, 412; of whom 1 officer and 63 enlisted men died in the hands of
the enemy. Total 412. The 69th, according to The Union Army (1908), lost "261
died from wounds and 151 from other causes, 63 dying in prisons." Total
412.
2) 40th New York Infantry
Regiment, aka Mozart Regiment or Constitution Guard, suffered 10 Officers and
228 Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 170 Enlisted
men died from disease. Total 410.
3) 48th New York Infantry
Regiment (Continental Guard or Perry's Saints) suffered 18 Officers and 218
Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 131 Enlisted
men by disease. Total 369.
4) 121st New York Infantry
Regiment Infantry (Orange and Herkimer Regiment) lost during service 14 Officers
and 212 Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 117
Enlisted men by disease. Total 347.
5) 111th New York Infantry
Regiment Infantry lost during service 10 Officers and 210 Enlisted men in killed
and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 178 Enlisted men by disease. Total 400.
During the 111th Regiment's time in service, total enrollment was 1,780
soldiers. Ten officers and 210 men were killed and mortally wounded in battle.
The total of 220 men who were killed and died of wounds is only exceeded by four
other New York regiments — the 69th, 40th, 48th and 121st. In the entire Union
Army, that number is only exceeded by 24 other regiments. It should be noted
that 2 officers and 74 men died while in the confinement of Confederate prisons.
111th New York is mentioned on the monument at Gettysburg: "Arrived early
morning July 2nd 1863, position near Ziegler's Grove. Went
to relief of 3rd Corps in afternoon; took this position that evening and held it
to close of battle. Number engaged (8 companies) 390. Casualties: Killed 58,
wounded 177, missing 14, total 249."
6) 51st New York Infantry
Regiment (aka Shepard Rifles) lost 9 Officers and 193 Enlisted men in killed and
mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 174 Enlisted men by disease. Total
378.
By mid-July 1861, New York had
organized and sent 8,534 men for three months' service; 30,131 two years'
volunteers and 7,557 three years' volunteers — a total of 46,224 officers and
men. The disastrous First Battle of Bull
Run, July 21, demonstrated that the war was to be a
long one, and in July Congress authorized the president to accept the services
of volunteers for three years. By the end of 1861, New York had fielded 107,000
military volunteers.
The
State of New York continued its tremendous exertions in support of the Federal
government and continued to supply both men and money with a lavish hand. The
record of troops furnished for the year 1862 or up to the close of Gov. Morgan's
administration, is as follows: twelve regiments of infantry (militia), for three
months, 8,588 men; one regiment of volunteer infantry, for nine months, 830 men;
volunteers for three years, one regiment of cavalry, 1,461 men; two regiments,
four battalions, and fourteen batteries of artillery, 5,708 men, and eighty-five
regiments of infantry, 78,216 men; estimated number of recruits for regiments in
the field, 20,000; incomplete organizations still in the state, 2,000 men; total
for 1862, 116,803; total since the beginning of the war, 224,081. To
obtain the full number of men furnished by the state, there should be added to
the above, 5,679 men enlisted in the regular army, and 24,734 in the U.S. Navy
and Marines, making the total number furnished, 254,494.
The sons of the Empire State were to be found in
every important naval engagement throughout the war. That they paid the debt of
patriotism and valor is attested by the fact that 1,880 perished in battle, from
disease and from other causes incident to the service. When the government was
in pressing need of more vessels, a son of New York, Commodore Vanderbilt,
presented it with his magnificent ship, the Vanderbilt costing $800,000. The
names of John Ericsson, John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, all of New York,
are inseparably linked with the most important contribution to the navy during
the war — the building of the Monitor — which
worked a revolution in naval
warfare.
New York troops were
prominent in virtually every major battle in the Eastern Theater, and some New
York units participated in leading campaigns in the Western Theater, albeit in
significantly smaller numbers than in the East. New Yorker John Schofield rose
to command of the Army of the Ohio and won the Battle of Franklin, dealing a
serious blow to Confederate hopes in Tennessee. More than 27,000 New Yorkers
fought in the war's bloodiest battle, the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in July
1863; 989 of these men were killed in action, with 4,023 wounded (several of
which died of their wounds in the months following the battle). 1,761 New
Yorkers were taken as prisoners of war, and many were transported to Southern
prisons in Richmond, Virginia, and elsewhere. It was the largest number of
casualties for New York troops in any battle.
Among the scores of
officers from New York to perish at Gettysburg was Brig. Gen. Samuel K. Zook, a
long-time resident of New York City. Col. Patrick "Paddy" O'Rourke of Rochester
died a hero while leading the 140th New York Infantry into action on Little Round Top. Col.
Augustus van Horne Ellis was killed near the Devil's Den on July 2;
he was later memorialized with the only full-sized statue of a regimental
commander to be erected on the battlefield.
On May 5, 1863, Clement L. Vallandigham, former
Congressman of Ohio, was arrested as a violator of Union General Order Number
38, which forbade expressing sympathy for the enemy. Vallandigham's charges
included saying two words: "King Lincoln." Vallandigham was tried by a military
court on May 6 and 7, and was charged by the Military Commission with "Publicly
expressing, in violation of General Orders No. 38, from Head-quarters Department
of the Ohio, sympathy for those in arms against the Government of the United
States, and declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions, with the object and
purpose of weakening the power of the Government in its efforts to suppress an
unlawful rebellion." He was sentenced to
confinement in a military prison "during the continuance of the war" at Fort
Warren.
Controversy and protests ensued throughout the North. On May 16, 1863,
there was a meeting at Albany, New York, to protest the arrest of Vallandigham.
"A letter from Governor Horatio Seymour of New York was read to the massive
crowd." Seymour charged that "military despotism" had been established and that
"It is an act which has brought dishonor upon our country; it is full of danger
to our persons and to our homes; it bears upon its front a conscious violation
of law and justice. Acting upon the evidence of detailed informers, shrinking
from the light of day in the darkness of night, armed men violated the home of
an American citizen and furtively bore him away to a military trial, conducted
without those safeguards known to the proceedings of our military tribunals. The
action of the administration will determine in the minds of more than one-half
of the people of the loyal states, whether this war is waged to put down
rebellion at the South, or to destroy free institutions at the North. We look
for its decision with the most solemn solicitude." Resolutions by the Hon. John
V. L. Pruyin were adopted. The resolutions were sent to President Lincoln by
Erastus Corning. As a result, Union Gen. Burnside suppressed publication of the
New York World, which had reported on the meeting in Albany.
On May 30, 1863, there was a meeting at Military Park in Newark, New
Jersey. A letter from New Jersey Governor Joel Parker was read. His letter
condemned the arrest, trial and deportation of Vallandigham, saying they "were
arbitrary and illegal acts. The whole proceeding was wrong in principle and
dangerous in its tendency." On June 1, 1863, there was a protest meeting in
Philadelphia.
In response to a public letter issued at the meeting of angry Democrats in
Albany, Lincoln's "Letter to Erastus Corning et al." of June 12, 1863, explains
his justification for supporting the court-martial's conviction. President
Lincoln wrote the "Birchard Letter" of June 29, 1863, to several Ohio
congressmen, offering to revoke Vallandigham's deportation order if they would
agree to support certain policies of the Administration. Lincoln, who considered
Vallandigham a "wily agitator", was wary of making him a martyr to the
Copperhead cause and thus ordered him sent through the enemy lines to the
Confederacy. Although he altered Vallandigham's sentence, Lincoln did not
repudiate Burnside's military actions against a civilian.
The first important
draft of the war took place during July and Aug., 1863, when the state was
virtually stripped of its militia, and proved to be one of the most exciting
questions which the new administration of Gov. Seymour was called upon to meet.
Under the act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863, prescribing a method of
drafting men for the military service, whenever needed, all enlistments under
the draft and also for volunteers after May 1, were placed in the hands of a
provost marshal-general, assisted by an acting assistant
provost-marshal-general, in each of the three districts, northern, southern, and western, into which the
state was divided. The draft was commenced in New York City on July 11, and was
accompanied by a riot of very of serious proportions on the 13th. To quell the
riot, in which all the rowdy, turbulent elements of the city took part, all the
available state troops were ordered to New York City. These, assisted by all the
troops in the city and harbor and a few outside organizations, together with the
city police force, succeeded in dispersing the angry mobs and quiet was finally
restored on the 17th. No serious disturbances occurred elsewhere, though
violence was only prevented in one or two places by the presence of
troops.
The 1863 New York City Draft
Riots, known at the time as Draft Week, were caused chiefly by Irish immigrants
and their descendants, who attacked African Americans and their property in New
York City. Records indicate that they killed 100 blacks and burned many
buildings to the ground, including the Colored Orphans Asylum at 44th Street and
Fifth Avenue. The children escaped harm, aided by Union troops in the city. The
Irish resented being drafted for the American Civil War when wealthier men could
pay for substitutes. They resented having to fight, as they saw it, on behalf of
people with whom they competed daily for wages in low-skilled jobs.
The city's strong commercial ties to the
South, its growing immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to
divided sympathy for both the Union and Confederacy, culminating in the Draft
Riots of 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history.
The week of July 11 to July 16, 1863 was known at the time as "Draft Week". Many
citizens were upset with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in
the unpopular war. The ensuing disturbances were the largest civil insurrection
in American history apart from the Civil War. President Lincoln sent several
regiments of militia and volunteer troops to control the city. The rioters
numbered in the thousands and were mainly Irish Americans. Smaller-scale riots
erupted in other cities throughout the North, including in other places in New
York State, at about the same time.
The exact death toll
during the New York City Draft Riots is unknown, but estimates indicate nearly
1,000 civilians (including 100 blacks) were killed and at least 2,000 more were
injured. Total property damage was nearly $2 million. Historian Samuel Morison
wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory". The city
treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount. During the rioting, fifty
buildings, including two Protestant churches, burned to the ground. On August
19, the draft was resumed.
During the year 1864, a
voluminous correspondence took place between Gov. Seymour and the war department
relative to the proper credits to be allowed the state under the calls of this
year. The state and Federal accounts as to the number of men furnished by the
state since the beginning of the war were harmonized after July 1864, when the
state was finally allowed credit, especially for the many thousands of patriotic
men enlisted in the regular army and in the U.S. Navy and marine service. During
the year New York furnished a total of 162,867 men, divided as follows: militia
for 100 days' service, 5,640; for 30 days' service, 791; volunteers enlisted by
the state authorities, 17,261; reenlisted in the field, 10,518; drafted men,
substitutes, enlistments and credits by provost-marshals, 128,657. During the
two years of Gov. Seymour's administration, the Empire State furnished the
government a total of 214.075 men. Included in the above number are three
regiments of U.S. Colored Troops, designated the 20th, 26th and 31st regiments
of infantry. All three regiments were organized in 1864 for three years'
service.
Under the last call for
troops, Dec. 19, 1864, the president asked for 300,000 men to serve for three
years and the quota assigned to New York was 61,076. The long war was now
drawing to a close and all recruiting and drafting ceased April 14, 1865.
On April 3, 1865, word was
received in New York announcing the evacuation of Petersburg and the fall of
Richmond. Universal excitement and rejoicing prevailed from this time forward
until the final surrender of Lee on the 9th, which practically terminated the
war. On the 26th occurred Johnston's surrender and soon after the remaining
forces of the Confederates laid down their arms. The work of disbanding the
Union armies was then taken up and by the close of the summer nearly all the
survivors of the New York troops came home, only a few regiments remaining in
the service on special duty until the following year. The war-worn veterans were
received on their return with every honor that a grateful people could bestow
for their heroic services.
On June 7 Gov. Fenton
(1865-1868) congratulated the soldiers of the state in an eloquent address which
touched the hearts of all, saying: "Soldiers of New York: Your constancy, your
patriotism, your faithful services and your valor have culminated in the
maintenance of the government, the vindication of the constitution and the laws
and the perpetuity of the Union. You have elevated the dignity, brightened the
renown, and enriched the history of your state. You have furnished to the world
a grand illustration of our American manhood, of our devotion to liberty, and of
the permanence and nobility of our institutions. Soldiers: your state thanks you
and gives you the pledge of her lasting gratitude. She looks with pride upon
your glorious achievements and consecrates to all time your unfaltering heroism.
To you New York willingly intrusted her honor, her fair name and her great
destinies; you have proved worthy of the confidence imposed in you and have
returned these trusts with added luster and increased value. The coming home of
all our organizations, it is hoped, is not far distant. We welcome you and
rejoice with you upon the peace your valor has achieved. Your honorable scars we
regard as the truest badges of your bravery and the highest evidences of the
pride and patriotism which animated you. Sadly and yet proudly we receive as the
emblems of heroic endurances your tattered and worn ensigns, and fondly deposit
these relics of glory, with all their cherished memories and endearing
associations, in our appointed repositories. With swelling hearts we bade
Godspeed to the departing recruit; with glowing pride and deepened fervor we say
welcome to the returning veteran. We watched you all through the perilous period
of your absence, rejoicing in your victories and mourning in your defeats. We
will treasure your legends, your brave exploits, and the glorified memory of
your dead comrades, in records more impressive than the monuments of the past
and enduring as the liberties you have secured. The people will regard with
jealous pride your welfare and honor, not forgetting the widow, the fatherless,
and those who were dependent upon the fallen hero. The fame and glory you have
won for the state and nation, shall be transmitted to our children as a most
precious legacy, lovingly to be cherished and reverently to be
preserved."
The efforts put forth by the great State of New
York throughout the war were in every way worthy of her commanding position
among the states of the Union, where she easily ranked first in population and
material resources. New York furnished the most men and sustained the heaviest
loss of any state in the war. The final report of the adjutant-general at
Washington for the year 1885 credits New York with 467,047 troops, including
6,089 men in the regular army, 42,155 sailors and marines; and 18,197 who paid
commutation. As the above report of the adjutant-general of the U.S. Army shows
that there were 2,865,028 men furnished during the war, under all calls, the
enlistments credited to New York represent over 16 percent, of the total.
"No men were credited to New York for
service in the navy and marine until Feb., 1864, and then credit was received
for 28,427, as having been enlisted in the state since April 15, 1861. The
adjutant-general of the United States army, under date of July 15, 1885, credits
New York with 35,144 enlistments in the navy, which includes no doubt those
enlisted in the marine corps, a few hundred only. From the statements of the
assistant provost-marshals-general it appears, however, that they credited the
state with 41,380 such enlistments. The secretary of the navy, under date of
April 10, 1884, in a communication to the United States senate, reported the
number enlisted in the navy between April 15, 1861, and Feb. 24. 1864, to have
been 67,200, of whom there were credited to this state 28,427 men; that the
number enlisted between Feb. 24,
1864, and June 30, 1865, was 37,577, of whom were credited to this state,
13,728; that the number enlisted during the war, but not credited to any state
was 20,177, of whom were enlisted in this state, 6,817, making the total number
of men, who served in the navy, not including those in service April 15, 1861,
124,954, of whom 39.192 per cent., or 48,972 are due to New York. This report of
the secretary of the navy, although it places the number credited to this state
at a higher figure than even the records of the assistant
provost-marshals-general, is here accepted as the correct statement. But to it
must be added the number of men in service April 1, 1861, which an annual report
of the navy places at 7,600 men; and of this number there is claimed as due to
this state the same percentage as has been found of those enlisted between April
15, 1861, and June 30, 1865, namely 39.192 per cent., or 2,964. This would make
the total number who served in the navy during the war, 132,554, of whom there
came from this state, 51,936. As with the regular army, so were for a time
volunteers permitted to enlist in, or to be transferred to the navy, and it is
estimated that at the most 1,000 men were thus transferred, and these require to
be deducted from the claims made here for additional credit. It is accepted as a
fact that 42,155 men were duly credited to New York, and the remainder,
deducting those transferred from the volunteers, of 8,781 men is fairly due the
state." (The Union Army, 1908)
Of the 502,765 men (includes reenlistments or
double counts) furnished by the state, 17,760 served in the regular army, and
50,936 in the United States navy and marine corps, as above shown; the remainder
were distributed as follows: In the United States volunteers, 1,375 of whom 800
are estimated to have been transferred from the volunteers as general and staff
officers, giving this branch of the service only 575; in the United States
veteran volunteers, 1,770; in the veteran reserve corps, 9,862, but as most of
these men are properly credited to the volunteers, where they originally
enlisted, the state only received credit for reenlistments in this branch of the
service to the number of 222; in the United States colored troops, 4,125; in the
volunteers of other states (estimated), 500; in the militia and National Guard,
38,028; men who paid commutation, for which the state was officially credited,
18,197; in the general volunteer service, 370,652. The
enlisted men were divided according to their terms of service as follows: For 30
days, 15,266; for three months, 17,743; for 100 days, 5,019; for nine months,
1,781; for one year, 62,500; for two years, 34,723; for three years, 347,395;
for four years, 141; paid commutation, 18,197 — total, 502,765. As a large
number of men enlisted in the service more than once, the actual number of
individuals from New York who served during the war has been estimated in round
numbers at 400,000. The population of the state in 1860 was 3,880,735, of whom
1,933,532 were males. The percentage of individuals in service to total
population is therefore 10.30; of individuals to total male population, 20.68.
It has been found impossible to arrive at very accurate figures as to the
nativity of the individual soldiers from the state, but Phisterer has arrived at
the conclusion that of the 400,000 individuals, 279,040 were natives of the
United States, and 120,960 or 30.24 percent, of foreign birth. The latter were
divided according to nationality as follows: 42,095 Irish, 41,179 German, 12,756
English, 11,525 British-American, 3,693 French, 3,333 Scotch, 2,014 Welsh, 2,015
Swiss, and 2,350 of all other nationalities.
During the war, according to
Phisterer (1890), New York provided more than 370,000 soldiers to the Union
armies. Of these, 834 officers were killed in action, as well as 12,142 enlisted
men. Another 7,235 officers and men perished from their wounds, and 27,855 died
from disease. Another 5,766 were estimated to have perished while incarcerated
in Southern prisoner-of-war camps. Phisterer indicates that New York had a grand
total of 53,832 fatalities.
Frederick H. Dyer,
A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908), states that during the
course of the Civil War, New York suffered a total of 46,534 deaths: 19,085 in
killed and mortally wounded; 19,835 died of disease; 4,710 died as
prisoners-of-war; 914 died from accidents; 1,990 died from causes other than
battles. See also Total
Union and Confederate
Casualties.
According to The Union
Army (1908), however, of the total number of individuals from New York who
served in the army and navy of the United States during the war, the state
claims a loss by death while in service of 52,993. Of this number, there were
killed in action, 866 officers, 13,344 enlisted men, aggregate 14,210; died of
wounds received in action, 414 officers, 7,143 enlisted men, aggregate 7,557;
died of disease and other causes, 506 officers, 30,720 enlisted men, aggregate
31,226; total, 1,786 officers, 51,207 enlisted men. The adjutant-general of the
United States in his report of 1885 only credits the state with the following
loss: killed in action, 772 officers, 11,329 enlisted men, aggregate 12,101;
died of wounds received in action, 371 officers, 6,613 enlisted men, aggregate
6,984; died of disease and other causes, 387 officers, 27,062 enlisted men,
aggregate 27,449; total, 1,530 officers, 45,004 enlisted men, aggregate 46,534.
Of these 5,546 officers and men died as prisoners. The above report, however,
only includes losses in the militia, National Guard and volunteers of the state,
and fails to include the losses in other branches of the service, including
those who served in the navy and marine corps, and in the colored troops. Of the
51,936 men furnished by the state to the navy, 706 were killed in battle, 997
died of disease, 36 died as prisoners, and 141 from all other causes — total,
1,880. See also New York and the Civil War
(1861-1865).
