The state of New York during the American Civil War was a major influence in national politics, the Union war effort, and the media coverage of the war. New York was the most populous state in the Union during the Civil War, and provided more troops to the U.S. army than any other state, as well as several significant military commanders and leaders.[1] New York sent 400,000 men to the armed forces during the war. 22,000 soldiers died from combat wounds; 30,000 died from disease or accidents; 36 were executed.[2] The state government spent $38 million on the war effort; counties, cities and towns spent another $111 million, especially for recruiting bonuses.[3]
The voters were sharply divided politically. A significant anti-war movement emerged, particularly in the mid- to late-war years. The Democrats were divided between War Democrats who supported the war and Copperheads who wanted an early peace. Republicans divided between moderates who supported Lincoln, and Radical Republicans who demanded harsh treatment of the rebel states. New York provided William H. Seward as Lincoln's Secretary of State, as well as several important voices in Congress.
In the decades after the war ended, numerous memorials and monuments were erected across New York to commemorate specific regiments, units, and officers associated with the war effort. Several archives and repositories, as well as historical societies, hold archives and collections of relics and artifacts.
Mass meeting April 20, 1861 to support the Government at Washington's equestrian statue in Union Square, Manhattan
Upstate New York was among the leaders in the revolutions in transportation, agriculture, and industry. Turnpikes, canals, including the Erie Canal, and railroads connected eastern cities with western markets. New York's farmland was some of the most productive in the nation. The Genesee country became known as the breadbasket of the nation for its extraordinary grain production. Rapid-flowing rivers offered power for major industrial sites. Following these expanding economic opportunities, people, including African Americans and European Americans of many different backgrounds, poured into Upstate New York. They came from several different cultures, New England Yankees, Dutch and Yorkers from eastern New York, Germans and Scots Irish from Pennsylvania, and immigrants from England and Ireland.[5]
New York provided between 400,000 and 460,000 men during the war, nearly 21% of all the men in the state and more than half of those under the age of 30. Of the total enlistment, more than 130,000 were foreign-born, including 20,000 from British North American possessions such as Canada. 51,000 were Irish and 37,000 German. The average age of the New York soldiers was 25 years, 7 months, although many younger men and boys may have lied about their age in order to enlist.[6]
By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, New York had provided the Union Army with 27 regiments of cavalry, 15 regiments of artillery, 8 of engineers, and 248 of infantry.[7] 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 New York—the 20th, 26th, and 31st USCT.[8]
The first organized unit to leave the state for the front lines was the 7th New York State Militia, which departed by train for Washington, D.C., on April 19, 1861. The 11th New York Infantry, a two-years' regiment of new recruits, departed ten days later.[12] 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.[13]
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.[15] 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.[16]
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.[22] New York City had many economic and financial ties to the South; by 1820, half of its exports were related to cotton, and upstate textile mills processed Southern cotton. In addition, the numerous immigrants in New York worried that freeing slaves would bring more labor competition to a market where they struggled over the lowest-paid jobs.
When the war began, former New York Governor Horatio Seymour 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.[23]
In 1861 and 1862, former U.S. SenatorHamilton 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 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.[25]
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.[26] 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.[27][28]
During the draft riots of July 1863, 120 civilians were killed and 2,000 men injured. The draft riots also resulted in about $1,000,000 in property damage. This was also coupled with a strong anti-war movement sparked by Copperheads and other Peace Democrats, 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 Democratic challenger and former army commander George B. McClellan. Lincoln captured all 33 electoral votes.[20]
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 where needed. Total expenditures exceeded $152 million during the war.[29]
No Civil War battles were fought within New York, 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.[30]
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. Nearly 1,000 men - 989 soldiers were killed in action, with 4,023 wounded (many of whom died of wounds or disease 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.[31]
During the entire war, 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.[1]
New York City, the most populous in the United States, was a bustling city that provided a major source of troops, supplies, and equipment for the Union Army. Powerful city politicians and newspaper editors helped shape public opinion towards the war effort and the policies of President Lincoln. The port of New York served as fertile recruiting grounds for the Army as immigrants from Europe (primarily Irish and Germans) at times stepped off the oceanic transports and into the muster rolls. Recruiters such as Michael Corcoran filled muster rolls with thousands of immigrants in response to Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 volunteers from New York.[35]
Politically, the city was dominated by Democrats, many of whom were under the control of a political machine known as Tammany Hall. Led by William "Boss" Tweed, they gained numerous offices in New York City, and even to the state legislature and judges' seats, often through illegal means. From 1860 to 1870, Tweed controlled most Democratic nominations in the city, while Republicans tended to be more prevalent in upstate New York.[36]
The city's growing Irish and German immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to the Draft Riots of 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history.[37] The week of July 11 to July 16, 1863, was known at the time as "Draft Week".[38] Residents, mainly Irish immigrants, were upset with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight on what they viewed was the unpopular Civil War. The ensuing disturbances were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War.[39] President Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and federal troops to control the city. Irish rioters numbered in the thousands and began rampaging through the streets of New York, attacking blacks and burning whatever building that either belonged to the wealthy or was sympathetic to the Union cause.[40] Smaller-scale riots erupted in other cities throughout the North, including in other places in New York State, at about the same time.[41]
The exact death toll during the New York Draft Riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson (2001), at least 120 civilians were killed.[42] Estimates are that at least 2,000 more were injured. Total property damage was about $1 million.[43] Historian Samuel Morison wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory".[43] The city treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount. Fifty buildings, including two Protestant churches, burned to the ground. On August 19, the draft was resumed.
New York was the most populous state in the Union at the outbreak of the American Civil War, with more than 3.5 million residents.[44] As such, it provided a significant number of leading generals, admirals, and politicians who were either born in New York or spent considerable time there before the war. A few of New York's most noted native sons follow, with their birthplaces in parentheses:[45]
The Grand Army of the Republic and other veterans organizations throughout New York contributed to the erection of hundreds of individual statues, fountains, busts, and other commemorations, as well as building several meeting halls where they could relive war events and keep their relics and artifacts relatively safe.[47]
Women played an important role on New York's home front during the role, providing support, encouragement, material goods to the soldiers, and helping with the United States Sanitary Commission and United States Christian Commission. Several New York ladies served as nurses to ill and wounded soldiers at a variety of military hospitals throughout the state. On April 24, 1886, the state legislature authorized the New York chapter of the GAR to erect a large memorial on the grounds of the Capitol in Albany in honor of the women of the state for their "humane and patriotic acts during the war."[48]
Among the more impressive Civil War-related monuments and memorials in the state is the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, which depicts equestrian relief bronzes of Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.[49] Grant, the commander of the Union armies during the latter half of the war, is buried in New York City in Grant's Tomb.[50] The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located at 89th Street and Riverside Drive in New York City, also commemorates Union Army soldiers and sailors.[51]
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is the final resting place for hundreds of Civil War veterans, including several generals.[52] Another large group of former generals (many of which were not New York residents) are buried at West Point Cemetery, including George Armstrong Custer, George Sykes, Wesley Merritt and Winfield Scott.[53] Significant Civil War cemeteries exist in other towns, among them Elmira, the site of the Elmira Prison prisoner-of-war camp. More than 2,000 Confederates who died during their incarceration are buried in nearby Woodlawn National Cemetery.[54]
Scores of New York regiments are commemorated by monuments on various battlefields throughout the country, with the largest concentration at the Gettysburg Battlefield in southern Pennsylvania. The state of New York erected a large marble memorial near the crest of Cemetery Hill, and nearly every New York unit that participated in the battle later erected individual monuments on or near where they fought.[55] Several more New York monuments dot Antietam National Battlefield.[56]
↑ Lawson, Melinda, "The Civil War Union Leagues and the Construction of a New National Patriotism" Civil War History Volume 48, Issue 4, 2002. pp. 338+.
↑ Gambone, A. M., "...if tomorrow night finds me dead..." The Life of General Samuel K. Zook (Army of the Potomac), Butternut and Blue, 1996, ISBN0-935523-53-7.
↑ Iver Bernstein, The New York City draft riots: Their significance for American society and politics in the age of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1990).
↑ McPherson, James M Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction 399
1 2 Morison, Samuel Eliot (1972). The Oxford History of the American People: Volume Two: 1789 Through Reconstruction. Signet. p.451. ISBN0-451-62254-5.
Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...1863 (1864), detailed coverage of events in all countries; online; for online copies see Annual Cyclopaedia. Each year includes several pages on each U.S. state.
Brummer, Sidney David (1911). Political History of New York State During the Period of the Civil War(pdf). Studies in history, economics and public law, ed. by the Faculty of political science of Columbia university. Vol.39 (1sted.). New York, NY: Columbia university, Longmans, Green. p.451. OCLC862942622. Retrieved February 5, 2008.
Ellis, David M. et al. A History of New York State (Cornell University Press, 1967) pp.335–346.
Field, Phyllis F. The politics of race in New York: The struggle for black suffrage in the Civil War era (Cornell UP, 2009).
Holzer, Harold, ed. State of the Union: New York and the Civil War (2002) Essays by scholars
Livingston, E. H. President Lincoln's Third Largest City: Brooklyn and The Civil War (1994)
McKelvey, Blake. Rochester: The Flower City, 1855-1890 (1949)
Miller, Richard F. ed. States at War, Volume 2: A Reference Guide for New York in the Civil War (2014) 490pp excerpt
Mitchell, Stewart. Horatio Seymour of New York (Harvard UP, 1938)
Murdock, Eugene C. "Horatio Seymour and the 1863 draft." Civil War History 11.2 (1965): 117–141. excerpt
Phisterer, Frederick, New York in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 To 1865, Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1890. online
Quinn, Edythe Ann. Freedom Journey Black Civil War Soldiers and the Hills Community, Westchester County, New York (State University of New York Press, 2015)
Raus, Edmund J. Banners South: Northern Community at War (2011), about Cortland, New York
Rawley, James A. Edwin D. Morgan 1811–1883: Merchant in Politics (Columbia University Press, 1955), the Republican governor.
Sernett, Milton C. North star country: upstate New York and the crusade for African American freedom (Syracuse UP, 2002)
Spann, Edward K. Gotham at War: New York City, 1860-1865 (2002) excerpt
Weible, Robert and Jennifer A. Lemakn. Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War (2014) online review; color prints showcasing 500+ objects in a museum exhibit
"ELY, Alfred 1815 – 1892", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Office of Art & Archives, retrieved August 5, 2008
The New York City draft riots, sometimes referred to as the Manhattan draft riots and known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil urban disturbance in American history. According to Toby Joyce, the riot represented a "civil war" within the city's Irish community, in that "mostly Irish American rioters confronted police, [while] soldiers, and pro-war politicians ... were also to a considerable extent from the local Irish immigrant community."
Henry Warner Slocum Sr., was a Union general during the American Civil War and later served in the United States House of Representatives from New York. During the war, he was one of the youngest major generals in the Army and fought numerous major battles in the Eastern Theater and in Georgia and the Carolinas. While commanding a regiment, a brigade, a division, and a corps in the Army of the Potomac, he saw action at First Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, and Chancellorsville.
James Samuel Wadsworth was a philanthropist, politician, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.
The 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment, called "The Gallant Fourteenth," was an infantry regiment and part of the Union Army's celebrated "Gibraltar Brigade" during the American Civil War. Mustered on June 7, 1861, it was the state's first regiment organized for three years' service. The 14th Indiana served in many major campaigns and battles mostly in the Eastern Theater. During its three years of service, the regiment had a total of 222 casualties.
During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.
Popular opposition to the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865, was widespread. Although there had been many attempts at compromise prior to the outbreak of war, there were those who felt it could still be ended peacefully or did not believe it should have occurred in the first place. Opposition took the form of both those in the North who believed the South had the right to be independent and those in the South who wanted neither war nor a Union advance into the newly declared Confederate States of America.
During the American Civil War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a substantial supply of military personnel, equipment, and leadership to the Federal government. The state raised over 360,000 soldiers for the Federal armies. It served as a significant source of artillery guns, small arms, ammunition, armor for the new revolutionary style of ironclad types of gunboats for the rapidly expanding United States Navy, and food supplies. The Phoenixville Iron Company by itself produced well over 1,000 cannons, and the Frankford Arsenal was a major supply depot.
Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War (2004) is an alternate history novel written by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser. It is the second of a trilogy, following Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War and preceding Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory. Published in 2005, the novel includes illustrations and historic photographs of the Civil War. It was featured on The New York Times bestseller list.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts played a significant role in national events prior to and during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Massachusetts dominated the early antislavery movement during the 1830s, motivating activists across the nation. This, in turn, increased sectionalism in the North and South, one of the factors that led to the war. Politicians from Massachusetts, echoing the views of social activists, further increased national tensions. The state was dominated by the Republican Party and was also home to many Radical Republican leaders who promoted harsh treatment of slave owners and, later, the former civilian leaders of the Confederate States of America and the military officers in the Confederate States Army.
German-Americans were the largest ethnic contingent to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. More than 200,000 native-born Germans, along with another 250,000 1st-generation German-Americans, served in the Union Army, notably from New York, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Several thousand also fought for the Confederacy. Most German born residents of the Confederacy lived in Louisiana and Texas. Many others were 3rd- and 4th-generation Germans whose ancestors migrated to Virginia and the Carolinas in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
New York City during the American Civil War (1861–1865) was a bustling American city that provided a major source of troops, supplies, equipment and financing for the Union Army. Powerful New York politicians and newspaper editors helped shape public opinion toward the war effort and the policies of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The port of New York, a major entry point for immigrants, served as recruiting grounds for the Army. Irish-Americans and German-Americans participated in the war at a high rate.
Indiana, a state in the Midwest, played an important role in supporting the Union during the American Civil War. Despite anti-war activity within the state, and southern Indiana's ancestral ties to the South, Indiana was a strong supporter of the Union. Indiana contributed approximately 210,000 Union soldiers, sailors, and marines. Indiana's soldiers served in 308 military engagements during the war; the majority of them in the western theater, between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Indiana's war-related deaths reached 25,028. Its state government provided funds to purchase equipment, food, and supplies for troops in the field. Indiana, an agriculturally rich state containing the fifth-highest population in the Union, was critical to the North's success due to its geographical location, large population, and agricultural production. Indiana residents, also known as Hoosiers, supplied the Union with manpower for the war effort, a railroad network and access to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, and agricultural products such as grain and livestock. The state experienced two minor raids by Confederate forces, and one major raid in 1863, which caused a brief panic in southern portions of the state and its capital city, Indianapolis.
As a fervently abolitionist and strongly Republican state, Maine contributed a higher proportion of its citizens to the Union armies than any other, as well as supplying money, equipment and stores. No land battles were fought in Maine. The only episode was the Battle of Portland Harbor (1863) that saw a Confederate raiding party thwarted in its attempt to capture a revenue cutter.
William Root Brewster was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War who commanded a regiment in the famed Excelsior Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. He later commanded the brigade, including at the Battle of Gettysburg where Brewster and his men were overrun by Confederates while defending the Emmitsburg Road position of the III Corps not far from the Peach Orchard.
The 68th New York Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters.
David Ireland was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Commanding the 137th New York Volunteer Infantry, he played a key defensive role on Culp's Hill in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Oliver Edwards was a machine company executive, an inventor, and a volunteer officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
During the American Civil War, the state of Illinois was a major source of troops for the Union Army, and of military supplies, food, and clothing. Situated near major rivers and railroads, Illinois became a major jumping off place early in the war for Ulysses S. Grant's efforts to seize control of the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. Statewide, public support for the Union was high despite Copperhead sentiment.
The 45th New York Infantry Regiment, also known as the 5th German Rifles, was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was composed almost entirely of German immigrants. Formed approximately five months after the start of hostilities, the unit's service spanned almost the entirety of the war, and it saw action in several of the war's noteworthy battles, in both the Eastern and Western Theaters.
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