Yates County, NY, in the Civil War

By Rich MacAlpine

As Gleaned from the Yates County Chronicle, May 14, 1863

“General Hooker is still on the north side of the Rappahannock. All the rumors of his recrossing and of the evacuation of Fredericksburg by the rebels are pure fictions. The amount of lying lately by newspaper correspondents or telegraph correspondents has been prodigious and something should be done to abate the nuisance. The fight made by our gallant army at Chancellorsville was a brave one and but for the failure of a single corps, would probably have resulted in one of the noblest victories of the war. We lost somewhat heavily and the enemy more so.”

 “Stonewall Jackson is reported dead. He lost an arm in the Chancellorsville fight and is said to have been afflicted with pneumonia. His loss is a great one to the slaveholder’s Confederacy. He was an able and daring general, and fanatically devoted to the unholy cause in which he fought.”

 “Sergt. Charles C. Miller has sent home among other curiosities a slave whipping post with the shackles and all the paraphernalia of that  unchristian institution attached. It is a beautiful symbol of that beautiful system much admired by Democrats.”

 “Lieut. George Brennan has kindly favored us with a complete statement of the casualties in Company I, 33rd Reg’t. (Keuka Rifles) in the late Chancellorsville fight. It will be seen that 24 men were killed or wounded. We learn from another source that only sixteen men were left fit for duty. The 33rd is said to be reduced to 200 effective men. Their time expires on the 22nd inst.”

 Adjutant J. Smith Brown of the 126th NY wrote from near Centerville VA. His regiment was  recently reorganized after their exchange: “I feel quite discouraged fearing we will be compelled to remain here and not be allowed to advance and fight with the army. We are now entrenching our camp when we should have been with Hooker. 40,000 of us here idle and such an important battle going on so near.”

By Rich MacAlpine

As Gleaned from the Yates County Chronicle, May 7. 1863

“General Hooker has again broken the monotony of the war in Virginia. Early last week he commenced operations preparatory to crossing the Rappahannock.” What followed was a week-long battle near Chancellorsville, just ten miles to the west of Fredricksburg. The Chronicle reported: “There was bloody fighting on Sunday last which was again renewed on Monday. The advantage, so far as could be gathered by the news which reached up to yesterday, was with the Federal forces. There had been some reverses, but on the whole, Gen. Hooker has held his ground., which was equivalent to victory as he was the attacked party. The fighting was terrible and the loss of life heavy on both sides.”

The battle was costly indeed.  Confederates suffered 13,000 casualties and Federal forces 17,000. May 3rd was the second bloodiest day of the Civil War, the first being at Antietam the previous fall. The Chronicle’s assessment of the battle as a victory was premature. But it turned out to be costly victory for  the Confederacy. When Lincoln heard the final reports he said “My God! My God! What will the country say?”

“The 33rd Regiment (including the Keuka Rifles/Company I) is soon to be mustered out of the   service. It has been one of the best of the early regiments and should be greeted with an ovation on its return.”

“A dispatch was this morning received stating that Capt. E.E. Root of the Keuka Rifles was mortally wounded! This is sad news indeed, but we hope may be softened by later intelligence. Capt. Root is a brave and valuable soldier.”

“By the New York papers last evening we observed among the names of the wounded in the late battle at Chancellorsville: Capt. E.E. Root wounded slightly in the thigh, W.P. Plaisted in the side, E. Hunt and D. Barber each in the arm, Ed Wheeler and James Doyle slightly, Corporal Menso Wixson slightly, all from Company I.”

By Rich MacAlpine

As Gleaned from the Yates County Chronicle, April 30, 1863

The Chronicle published a letter from Charles Hoyt, Assistant Surgeon with the 126th NY Infantry, thanking Mrs. Ruth Goff of Dresden, who was associated with the local chapter of the Sanitary Commission. Her group had sent food and other supplies to the 126th to be used in the hospitals.

Hoyt wrote: “You have seen the ‘Tented Field’, know how we live, how we care for the sick, and can fully appreciate how much benefit we derive from such a donation. Were it not for the kindness of friends at home, I hardly know how we should get along. The Government rations are good, in sufficient quantity, and do well enough for men in health, but when sickness comes, we need other food. God bless the Sanitary Societies and their kind efforts to provide for the sick in the field. Our Reg’t is now supplied very well with everything to make the sick comfortable.”

The Penn Yan Democrat had published a few articles citing local men who went off to the war as Republicans but through their experiences became Democrats. This apparently upset 22-year old George B. Wolcott of Penn Yan who was serving with the 44th NY Infantry in Virginia. He wrote to the Chronicle: “Much has been said about the remarkable conversions of Republicans to Democracy in the army but I must confess that I have never yet known a single instance in which a soldier who believed slavery to be wrong and ought to be abolished, in short was a genuine Republican before he enlisted, that ever changed his political opinions and became a Democrat. On the contrary, I have known men who were Democrats and favored the ‘peculiar institution’ that have been convinced that slavery was a curse and have become bitter opponents of the infamous system.”

 “It is strange how people will hug the most ridiculous delusions. The Penn Yan Democrat last week published that old exploded laudation of McClellan by a pretended Prussian officer in the rebel service. All well-informed people knew a long time ago that was a bold forgery of traitor origin. The Democrat editors had better read the Report of the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War and then add to that the perusal of Gen. Hooker’s testimony on the McClellan campaigns.”

By Rich MacAlpine

As Gleaned from the Yates County Chronicle, April 23, 1863

Twenty-year old James H. Mandeville of the 44th NY Infantry, camped in Virginia, wrote a letter to the editor describing a visit to the Headquarters of the 5th Army Corps by President Lincoln on April 7. “He appears extremely careworn and beat down, evidently by the weight of national responsibilities. His dress was very plain, but he bore all the dignity becoming one who fills the highest office in the land and which was appropriately acknowledged, each officer and soldier standing uncovered as he passed. He remained here about thirty minutes. Immediately on his departure he visited the Hospital, after which he rode by several camps. The train was escorted by ‘Rush’s Lancers’ of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, whose appearance would remind you of illustrations of the war of the Crusades.”

The camp of the 126th NY Infantry near Union Mills VA was being ravaged by typhoid fever. Two deaths of local soldiers were reported in this edition; 24-year old John H. Crane of Seneca County and 23-year old James Hibbard from Jerusalem.

Cornelius Bonney, one of the original Keuka Rifles (Company I of the 33rd NY) deserted a year ago and came back to Penn Yan. “When Captain Root of his company came home to Penn Yan the previous summer for a few days, Bonney told him he was sorry and would return to the Regiment with him. Before the Captain was ready to go back to Virginia, Bonney again disappeared and turned up in ‘the Coward’s Retreat – Canada’ … The young man was lacking in discretion. for last Friday night he returned home on a visit with the intention of returning the next morning to the land of ‘kanucks’ by walking out of town on the R.R. track to the next station before daylight and taking the cars there without being discovered. But he had not been in town more than ten minutes before that vigilant officer, Wycoff, was on his trail and frustrated all those well-laid plans by arresting him and giving him quarters for the night in the Yates County Jail. The next morning Sheriff Underwood took him to the military rendezvous at Elmira and delivered him up to the U.S. authorities.”

By Rich MacAlpine

Nearly 1,500 Yates County men voted against Abraham Lincoln and the Republican ticket in the 1860 Presidential election. They voted instead for the “Fusion ticket” of Democrats which combined the tickets of Stephen Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and  John Bell. Except for the staunchest and most vocal  “War Democrats”, in the eyes of Stafford C. Cleveland (Editor) and the Yates County Chronicle they were all referred to as “Copperheads.” Although Republicans were thinking in terms of snakes in the grass, some Democrats favored the term and cut the copper heads of Liberty off of pennies and wore them as lapel pins. Throughout the Civil War, the Chronicle heaped invective on local Democrats and the Penn Yan Democrat threw it back. The relationship between the two local weekly newspapers was acrimonious and this poem, written by an anonymous local poet, was a good example.

 “The Copperheads”

The Yates County Chronicle – April 23, 1863

 Who are the men who clamor most

Against the war, its cause and cost,

And who Jeff Davis sometimes toast?-

The Copperheads.

Who, when by wretched whisky tight,

Hiss out in rage their venom spite,

Who crawl and sting, but never fight?-

The Copperheads.

Who hold peace meetings, where they pass

Lengthy resolves of wind and gas,

Much like the bray of Balaam’s ass?-

The Copperheads.

Who when false faction is forgot,

When patriots keep a common thought,

Have discord and contention taught?-

The Copperheads.

Who swear by bondage, and would see

Rather the country lost than free;

Who dread the name of Liberty?-

The Copperheads.

Who hate a freedom-loving Press,

The truth and all who it profess;

Who don’t believe in our success?-

The Copperheads.

And who when right has won the day,

Will take their slimy selves away,

And in their dirty holes will stay?-

The Copperheads.

And who will be the hiss and scorn

Of generations yet unborn,

Hated, despised, disgraced forsworn?-

The Copperheads.

By Rich MacAlpine

As Gleaned from the Yates County Chronicle, April 16, 1863

Although the war in Virginia was still relatively quiet, Union forces along the Mississippi River were closing in on Port Hudson in Louisiana and on Vicksburg in Mississippi.  Victory at these two places would open up the entire river to Union traffic and divide the Confederacy. Also under siege was the city of Charleston, South Carolina as Union ironclads attempted to neutralize the forts protecting Charleston Harbor.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton issues a call for a meeting of the Loyal Women of the Nation in New York on the 14th of May. The object of the meeting is a noble one and it will no doubt be productive of good results.”

 In the letter published in the Chronicle, Stanton issued a patriotic call to service to the women of the North.

 “At this hour, the best word and work of every man and woman are imperatively demanded. To man, by common consent, is assigned the forum, camp and field. What is woman’s legitimate work and how may she best accomplish it is worthy of our earnest counsel one with another. We have heard many complaints of the lack of enthusiasm among Northern women, but when a mother lays her son on the altar of her country, she asks an object equal to the sacrifice. In nursing the sick and wounded, knitting socks, scraping lint, and making jellies, the bravest and best may weary if the thoughts mount not in faith to something beyond and above it all. Work is worship only when a noble purpose fills the soul.”

 Charles Warren of the 8th NY Cavalry camped near Dumfries VA wrote a letter to the paper describing for the folks at home what it was like to be on picket duty in the cavalry. “We are not allowed to dismount while on picket. It may seem strange how the men can stand it to sit on their horses for four long hours on a cold, freezing, stormy night; but they do it. Friends at home, by your firesides and warm beds, think of the sufferings of the soldiers, all of which is cheerfully endured for our beloved country. But while we are trying to perform our duty as best we can … we are grieved and enraged when we reflect that some of the northern people are talking of rising up and fighting the government at home before they will submit to the draft and come down here and assist in destroying this wicked and unholy rebellion.”