News from New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs
(Saratoga Springs, NY – July 1, 2011)(readMedia) On Wednesday, July 3, 1861 most Herkimer County residents were getting ready to celebrate Independence Day.
But the 733 men of the 34th New York Infantry, known as “The Herkimer Regiment” because that’s where most of them came from, were heading off to what was then called “the seat of war.”
Although it was nicknamed in honor of Herkimer County, only half of the regiment’s 10 companies had been recruited there.
Company B , commanded by Capt. Wells Sponable had been raised in Little Falls; Company C had been recruited by Capt. James Suiter in Norway; Company F had been recruited in Herkimer by Capt. Byron Laflin and Capt. Suiter had also raised Company G in the county’s biggest town. Finally Capt. John Beverly had recruited Company K in Salisbury.
But A Company came from Albany County, while Companies I and E were recruited in Steuben County, Company D came from Clinton County and Company H hailed from Essex County. But because the unit commander, Col. William LaDue, was a Herkimer County militia officer and most of the men were recruited there, it became known as the Herkimer Regiment.
The five companies from Herkimer County were accepted into State Service on May 1, 1861, while the other companies were accepted later as they arrived at the Albany training site. The entire regiment was accepted into New York’s service on May 24, 1861.
During the Civil War each state was responsible for enlisting Soldiers into units and providing those Soldiers with their first issue of equipment. These “volunteer” regiments-which were supposed to be composed of 10 companies of 100 Soldiers each– were then accepted into service by the United State Army.
The state of New York, for example, spent $44,679.81 equipping the men of the 34th New York Volunteer Infantry.
This was the pattern the American Military had followed from Revolutionary War until the Spanish American War. The states raised units and named them, either –the 2nd Massachusetts or the 5th New York-and each unit had a strong state flavor.
This system of recruiting units by state lasted until World War I when state designations disappeared from unit names.
Thus the 69th New York Infantry, a National Guard unit from New York City that fought in the Civil War as the 69th New York Volunteer Infantry, went to that war as the 165th Infantry Regiment, United States Army.
These volunteer infantry units enlisted for two or three years, depending on who was doing the recruiting.
On June 15, 1861 the Herkimer Regiment was accepted into the United States Army and on July 3 the men got on railroad cars and headed for Washington D.C. where the Union’s main Army was gathering.
Over the next two years the Soldiers of the 34th New York would distinguish themselves.
They fought at the Battles of Fair Oaks and Seven Pines and the Battle of Malvern Hill during General George B. McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign in June and July of 1862 . At the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 the unit took heavy losses.
Forty-five men were killed or mortally wounded, Lieutenant Armineas Rounds, 1 other officer and 96 enlisted men were wounded and Lieutenant John Kirk and 9 enlisted men missing or captured out of 311 men engaged.
The unit’s performance at Antietam, one of the key battles of the Civil War is marked by a monument on the battlefield erected in 1902 by survivors of the regiment and Herkimer County.
But, as in any organization, there were problems
On Saturday, October 12, 1861 two members of Company G took to drinking. Soon Lawrence Rooney and Hiram Bush were in an argument. According to a newspaper item at the time:
“High words passed; the quarrel has subsided, and Bush retired a short space from the scene; when he was heard to say, “He has said enough,” and suddenly Rooney exclaimed, “He has stuck me!”
He had stabbed Rooney fearfully with a large dirk knife, tearing open his stomach, and letting out his bowels. This occurred at about 10 P. M., and about 8 A. M. the next day Rooney died. Bush, by direction ofour Brigadier General, was turned over to the civil authority.
Yesterday, we escorted him to Rochville, shire town of Montgomery County, Md., where his case was brought before a magistrate, and he was committed to jail to await his trial, which is to come off next November. Bush and Rooney were both good soldiers, and it is needless
to add that bad whisky was the cause of the tragedy, which was a fatal to one and put the other on trial for murder.
Our commanders have been very decided against the “ardent,” but it was smuggled in from a shanty on the canal, and we have seen its accustomed fruits.”
The different dates on which Soldiers were recruited and then the unit was accepted by into state and then federal service also caused problems later.
When April 30 , 1863 rolled around , 60 Soldiers who had enlisted on May 1 argued that their two years of service were up and they wanted to go home. They would fight, the Soldier told their commanders, but they would not do duty otherwise. But the War Department had decided their 2 years of service ended on June 15, 1863.
The mutinous Soldiers were placed under guard by the brigade commander and separated from the other soldiers. The commander Gen Sully decided that the best way to end this rebellion was to threaten to shoot a few of the ringleaders. Another regiment was brought in with loaded muskets and the 60 Soldiers who wanted to go home right away decided it was better to wait a few months than be shot outright.
So in June 1863 the Soldiers of the Herkimer Regiment returned home, first to Albany where they were greeted with a free lunch and thanks at the Delancy House, a local restaurant and then to their homes.
Over the course of their military service the Herkimer Regiment lost 101 Soldiers Killed in Action, 30 Soldiers died of wounds, 100 who died of sickness and six who died of accidental wounds. Another 119 Soldiers were mustered out because of their injuries and 73 deserted. Of the 1016 Soldiers who eventually served in the Herkimer Regiment, only 536 came home with the unit.
More than 500,000 New Yorkers enlisted in the Army and Navy during the four years of the Civil War and 53,114 New Yorkers died. Throughout the period of the Civil War Sesquicentennial observance, the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs will produce short articles about New York’s Civil War experience researched by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.
For more information, go the NewYork State Military Museum Civil War Timeline Website at http://dmna.state.ny.us/civilwar
