Andrews - Civil War Brockport: a canal town and the union army

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by William G. Andrews

All rights reserved

Front cover: Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.577.1

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.122.8

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This book is dedicated to the memory of Monika

Contents

Preface

The 1964 Town of Sweden Sesqui-Centennial Celebration commemorative booklet, in its brief account of the towns involvement in the Civil War, said: A full volume could be written, and perhaps will be someday, describing the role played by our people at home and at the front during those tragic years of 18611865. Well, Wilbur W. (Doc) Hiler and your committee, here it isnearly half a century late.

The purpose of this book is to portray, as well as possible, the role of the Brockport, New York area in the American Civil War. It argues that Brockport was intensely involved in the war and that, in some respects, that role was important. The first four chapters look at activities in the village that were related to the war. The next ten report in detail the experiences of the first Union army company recruited in Brockport. provides shorter accounts of the other seven companies formed in the Brockport area. The final chapter gives some information about Brockporters who served in units not enlisted in Brockport. All of those activities formed the experience of the community during the war, and memories of them continued to influence its life for a long time after the wars end.

This project began in 2005, after I completed my Early Brockport book. That work traced the history of the village through 1865. In researching the Civil War years, I discovered 189 long letters from Brockport soldiers in the Brockport Republic weekly newspaper from April 1861 through September 1864. (The Brockport Republic file for October 1864October 1865 is missing.) It occurred to me that those letters could form the basis for another book. So, I did not include anything about the war in Early Brockport.

However, when I had finished .

Put another way, completes the panoply of the full extent of Brockports involvement in the war.

My most unexpected discovery in working on this project was the number of Brockporters who served in units that were not recruited in the Brockport area and the wealth and diversity of their experiences. When the careers of those 233 men in 113 army units, the U.S. Navy, the Medical Corps, and the Veterans Reserve Corps are added to those of the eight Brockport companies, they cover almost every aspect of the war. For a small village to receive the reports of its men from such a range of experiences must have brought the war home in a very vivid, immediate, and substantial way.

I have taken as the geographic scope of this work what seems to me to have been the circulation area of the Brockport Republic. The Brockport Republic seems to have been the main means of public communication in the towns of Sweden, Clarkson, and Hamlin at that time (until 1861, Hamlin bore the name Union), and its influence seems to have spilled over into adjacent towns. It seems to have formed a kind of loose-knit community in its orbit. Also, Brockport seems to have served as the focus of public activity for that area. It was the port for shipping its agricultural and industrial products. It was a kind of market center for that community. The companies that were formed in Brockport drew heavily on that community beyond the limits of the village. Also, I have included on my roster men from towns adjacent to those three who served in Brockport companies. Therefore, when I refer to Brockport and Brockporters in the pages that follow, I usually mean that community, the Brockport area.

My most important research sources have been the Brockport Republic; the American Civil War Research Database website (ACWRD); the United States census reports for 1860 and 1870 and the New York State census for 1865, as available on the Rochester/Monroe County Public Library website and at the New York Public Library; the 1865 reports of the town clerks of Sweden and Clarkson to the NYS Department of Military and Naval Affairs on the contributions of their towns to the war effort (provided to me by Jim Foltz of the NYS Archives and Record Administration); Frederick Phisterer, New York in the War of the Rebellion, 18611865, Albany, 1912, 5 vols.; and the regimental histories listed in my bibliography. I received valuable help from Mary Smith, Town of Hamlin historian emerita, and Eunice Chesnut, historian of the Western Monroe Historical Society. I also benefited from the hospitality of the Drake Library at the College of Brockport in consulting its microfilm file of the Brockport Republic. Wayne Mahood and Brian Bennett, who know Civil War literature much better than I, reviewed the manuscript and made many helpful suggestions.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that it has been a pleasure working with Whitney Landis and Janet Long, editors at The History Press, who guided me through the production process with real care, efficiency, and positive attitudes.

WILLIAM G. ANDREWS

Brockport, NY

May 2013

Abbreviations

ACWRD = American Civil War Reseach Database (website)

AGNY = NYS Adjutant Generals Report

BD = Brockport Democrat (weekly newspaper, 18701925)

BR = Brockport Republic (weekly newspaper, 18561925) They merged in 1925 as the Brockport Republic-Democrat, 1925-1971

CTCR = Clarkson Town Clerks Report, 1865

CWTI = Civil War Times Illustrated

Davis Report = Detailed Account of Aid Afforded by Towns (Sweden)

DMNA = New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs website

NY Cavalry = New York Volunteer Cavalry

NYHA = New York Heavy Artillery

NYLA = New York Light Artillery

NYVI = New York Volunteer Infantry

OR = The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

RDD = Rochester Daily Democrat

REE = Rochester Evening Express

ROEM = Return of Officers and Enlisted Men who have been in the military or naval service, Monroe County

STCR = Sweden Town Clerks Report, 1865

U&A = Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser

Part I

THE HOMEFRONT

Chapter 1

Brockport Goes to War

Understanding the atmosphere in the Brockport area at the outbreak of the Civil War helps greatly to get an accurate picture of the attitudes and activities of Brockporters during the conflict. The situation of the village in the early 1860s predisposed its residents to become intensely involved in the cause of the Union. They exuded self-confidence and had expressed political leanings consonant with the unionist and antislavery crusade. That confidence and commitment certainly facilitated their involvement.