Preserving the Union: Military Records from the Town of New Utrecht

George William Stillwell enlisted in the Union Army on April 27, 1861. He fought in Civil War battles at Yorktown, Williamsburgh, Fair Oaks, and White Oak Swamp. Achieving the rank of Captain, he commanded a Regiment at the 2nd Bull Run, Fredericksburgh, under General Ambrose Burnside. He resigned his commission on account of physical disability.

Town of New Utrecht Record for the Bureau of Military Record, Old Town Records collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Captain Stillwell’s son James Henry Stillwell also enlisted in the Army about a month after his father. He fought in battle at Fair Oaks where he was mortally wounded. He died on June 30, 1862, at age 18. These entries appear in the Record of Troops: Roll of Persons Liable to Military and Quota of Troops Furnished in the War of Rebellion for the Town of New Utrecht, 1851-1865.

This ledger-format record, and three similar items from the Kings County Towns of Flatbush and Flatlands are part of the Old Town Records collection. Recently processed and partially digitized with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, this large collection (1,272 cubic feet), consists of records created and/or maintained by towns and villages in Kings, Queens, Richmond and Westchester Counties before they were dissolved, annexed, or consolidated into what is now the City of New York. They document administrative, court, financial, land, voting, and tax transactions. The collection includes records of military service as well as information documenting enslaved people.  

Although few in number, these Civil War-era ledgers are of particular value due to the unique information about the men recorded in the ledgers. Not only do they provide a summary of the soldier or seaman’s military service, they also indicate demographic data, e.g. places of birth, parents’ names and occupations.    

Captain Stillwell was born on February 9, 1813, in New Utrecht. His parents were Thomas Stillwell and Catharine Bennett. His son, James Henry, was born on September 10, 1844, in Brooklyn. His parents were George W. Stillwell and Margaret Bird. Birthdates of both father and son pre-date official birth record-keeping and these ledger entries may provide the only evidence of their birth. Examining the nativity of the other soldiers and sailors listed in the ledger confirm that both native-born men and new immigrants served in the Civil War.    

Town of New Utrecht Record for the Bureau of Military Record, Old Town Records collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Town of New Utrecht Record for the Bureau of Military Record, Old Town Records collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Civil War-related records were created pursuant to a New York State law, Chapter 690 of 1865: “An Act in relation to the bureau of Military Statistics.” The legislation was enacted “To collect and furnish to the bureau of military record, and to preserve in permanent form for the county, a record of the miliary services of those who have volunteered or been mustered, or who may hereafter volunteer or be mustered into the service of the general government from the county since the fifteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and a brief civil history of such person, so far as the same can be ascertained.” The full text of the law is available in the Municipal Library.     

Civil War Veterans, Flushing, Queens, lantern slide, n.d. Borough President Queens Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Stillwells were not the only New Utrecht family to suffer grievous loss in the Civil War. Researchers reviewing the ledger entries will be struck by the number of men recorded as dead or wounded. On the same page listing the Stillwells there are four other men, William Ackley, James Cozine, William Haviland and Leffert Benson, who are recorded as deceased. According to the ledger entries, William Ackley, a farmer, remained with his regiment until Chapins Farm when he was “instantly killed on the battle field and there buried.” James Cozine was “wounded in the seven days before Richmond . . . since dead and buried in Gravesend.” William Haviland had been in the battle of Williamsburgh and “afterward taken sick returned home and died April 9, 1864.” Leffert Benson had “taken sick and died at Fortress Monroe, buried at New Utrecht, April 2, 1863.”    

The transcribed version of the New Utrecht ledger has been digitized and is available via the Department’s website.  

These records demonstrate the profound effect the Civil War had on communities throughout the City. For the Record recently reviewed The New York City Civil War Draft Riot Claims Collection. Look for future posts that examine other records that document this significant era in New York City and United States history.  

New York’s First Memorial Day

Memorial Day, initially known as Decoration Day, originated with ceremonies in communities around the United States honoring soldiers who died in the Civil War. Several cities and towns lay claim to hosting observances between 1864 and 1867, but historians generally agree that the first widely-held commemoration took place in 1868. 

Seventh Regiment Armory, illustration, Manual of the City of New York, 1864, D. T. Valentine. NYC Municipal Library.

On March 3, 1868, General John Logan, of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers, issued General Order No. 11, which called for a national day of remembrance for Civil War dead. Logan directed that May 30 would be the day “set apart for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet church-yard in the land.” On May 31, 1868, the New York Times reported on commemoration ceremonies that took place the previous day at cemeteries in the region: “Our Dead Heroes. A Nation’s Tribute to their Memory—their Graves Strewn with Flowers.”   

Letter, Emmons Clark, Colonel Commander of the 7th Regiment National Guard, to Mayor John T. Hoffman, May 18, 1868. Mayor John T. Hoffman collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Searching for possible documentation of how and when New York City officials recognized or participated in Memorial/Decoration Day ceremonies led to sources in the Municipal Archives and Library collections. Stokes’ Iconography of Manhattan Island, available in hard-copy at the Municipal Library, is usually a good place to start researching events that took place during the 19th century. In this instance, however, the only entry in the index under Memorial or Decoration Day referenced the Times article from May 31, 1868.  

The Municipal Archives’ mayoral records, often given credit for containing information about every possible topic—local, national and even international—proved more enlightening. It also provided an opportunity to demonstrate the usefulness of the word-searchable indexes created by Municipal Archives employees when working remotely in 2020.  

Letter, M. H. Beaumont, Union Executive Committee, Grand Army of the Republic, to Mayor A. Oakey Hall, May 17, 1869. Mayor A. Oakey Hall collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Typically, archival material is described at the folder level, but in the 1950s and 60s, archivists and librarians processing mayoral records recognized the exceptional intellectual content of the correspondence files and typed summary descriptions of each item. When working remotely during 2020, Municipal Archives employees began transcribing the typed summaries into searchable databases. For the Record articles, The Transcription Project, Early Mayors’ Collection and The Transcription Project, Early Mayors’ Collection II described the mayoral record transcription projects.     

Searching information on the mayoral letters for the 1860s and 1870s revealed several letters that looked like they might be relevant to Memorial/Decoration Day. On May 18, 1868, Emmons Clark, “your friend and obedient servant” wrote to Mayor John T. Hoffman on stationary from the Office of the Metropolitan Board of Health. Clark extended to the Mayor an “official invitation to review the 7th Regiment on the 29th [of May].” He wrote: “The Regiment will parade on that occasion for the first time in its new full dress uniform.” Furthermore, “The Band will number one hundred performers.” And finally, he concluded, “I particularly desire that the City authorities should be first to see the Regiment in its new attire.”   

Letter, Hans Powell, Corresponding Secretary, Memorial Committee, Grand Army of the Republic, to Mayor William H. Wickham, May 22, 1876. Mayor William H. Wickham collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

A second letter from Clark to the Mayor, also dated May 18, 1868, is written on stationary from the Headquarters of the 7th Regiment, National Guard, with Clark signing as “Colonel Commander” of the Regiment. This letter served as a formal invitation. It seems likely that both the Mayor and Commander Clark would have been aware of the “national holiday,” proclaimed for May 30, and perhaps the “review” scheduled for May 29, was intended as part of the holiday.         

Correspondence the following year, in 1869, however, is more explicit in its reference to “Memorial Services.” On May 17, 1869, M. H. Beaumont, of the Union Executive Committee of the Grand Army of the Republic wrote to the new Mayor, A. Oakey Hall, inviting him “…to be present with us and participate in the Memorial Services on the 30th day of May.” Mayor Hall also received invitations from the Ninth Regiment Infantry, and 4th Brigade, 1st Division, of the National Guard, to review parades on the 27th and 29th of May.  

The New York State Soldiers’ Depot, located at Nos. 50 and 52 Howard Street, and No. 16 Mercer Street, had been established by the State government as a temporary home for furloughed and discharged soldiers. View of the N.Y. State Soldiers’ Depot, illustration, Manual of the City of New York, 1864, D. T. Valentine. NYC Municipal Library.

Further research in the mayoral records revealed correspondence from 1876 that specifically references “Decoration Day.” Written to Mayor William H. Wickham by Hans Powell, Corresponding Secretary of the Memorial Committee, Grand Army of the Republic, and dated May 22, 1876, the letter “respectfully extends an invitation to you, and the Hon. Common Council to take part in the ninth annual parade for the purpose of decorating the soldiers and sailors graves upon Tuesday 30th Inst. (Decoration Day). This being the centennial it is proposed to make this parade a grand success.” Based on the designation of the event as the “ninth annual parade,” confirms that the first event would have taken place in 1868, the year originally designated by General Logan. 

Secondary sources state that in 1873, New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day as a legal holiday. After World War I, it became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars. In 1971, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act and established Memorial Day was to be commemorated on the last Monday of May. 

For the Record readers are encouraged to observe this Memorial Day, May 27, 2024, the 156th anniversary of the first commemoration.   

Soldiers’ Depot, Receiving Room, 1st Floor, illustration, Manual of the City of New York, 1864, D. T. Valentine. NYC Municipal Library.

Soldiers’ Depot, Dining Room, 1st Floor, illustration, Manual of the City of New York, 1864, D. T. Valentine. NYC Municipal Library.

Covering Wars Before Before the Advent of “Fake News” and the 24-Hour News Cycle

In an era of “fake news” and 24-hour news cycles, it’s worth a look back at how the press covered things back in the days of the Pony Express, snail mail and telegraph—without television, radio, the Internet. 

One good way to do that is to examine coverage of the Civil War through a set of dozens of yellowed and fragile copies of Horace Greeley’s Weekly and Semi-Weekly New-York Tribune residing in the Municipal Library. Those editions condensed the decidedly pro-Union Daily Tribune and were mailed to tens of thousands of readers from Maine to California starting at $2 a year and eventually going up to $4 annually.

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The January 9, 1863 edition of the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune.

Not surprisingly, war news dominated most editions—which were generally eight pages. But there was local news from New York on education issues, a Queens County Fair, a fire in Buffalo, the latest Cattle Market prices, advertisements for such things as Holloway’s ointment—“for sabre cuts, gunshot wounds and all other wounds”—and, in late 1862, ads for “cheap editions” of Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables,” at $1.50 for five cloth-bound volumes.

The Library’s collection picks up in September 1862, just before the major battles at Antietam/Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. Many of the dispatches are from “staff correspondents,” but there also are stories from newspapers in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, written in the somewhat formal or stilted language of the time, which include references we would find racist today. Several issues contain large maps of troop movements and battles.

The September 13, 1862 edition reported: “We continue to extract the pith of rumors and opinions concerning the position, conduct and prospects of the Rebel army” in Maryland, and added, “Our Washington dispatches say that a fight is expected at Frederick (Md.) where the Rebel main body is thought to be.” It went on to quote “two men from Frederick” who say, “There are but few Rebel troops there … the Rebels are in a state of great destitution; many of them are shoeless and are only kept in the ranks at the point of a bayonet.”

Another dispatch quoted Union soldiers as saying they believed “an immediate attack on Harper’s Ferry was intended. Some of the soldiers (said) they reckoned there were about 12,000 Union troops at the Ferry with at least 2,500 negroes worth a million dollars.”

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The December 16, 1862 edition of the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune included a map of “the new state of West Virginia,” which would not officially become part of the Union until June 20, 1863.

The September 19 edition included a dispatch on a “fierce and desperate battle at Antietam “between 200,000 men (that) has raged since daylight …it’s the greatest fight since Waterloo.” The correspondent breathlessly added: “If not wholly a victory tonight, I believe it’s a prelude to a victory tomorrow.”

The prediction proved to be true, as the Union Army, led by Maj. Gen. George McClellan routed the Rebels in one of the fiercest battles of the Civil War in which 22,717 men were killed, wounded or reported missing. The paper called it a “brilliant victory,” and added: “All agree that no battle, since the rebellion broke out, has engaged more men or been fought with more desperation … Our (Union) soldiers behaved like heroes.” The dispatch also noted, in a back-handed way, the dedication and resolve of the Confederate Army: “It is not for love, much as they profess it … it is for hate, in part, of the d—mned Yankees.”

Several days after Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation – to take effect Jan. 1, 1863—freeing 3.1 million enslaved people. The September 26 edition included a dispatch filed two days earlier on a massive celebration in Washington, D.C.

“The serenade in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation tonight called out a large and enthusiastic throng,” the Tribune reported. “Nobody expected a long speech from the President, so nobody was disappointed with the brevity of his remarks … He had issued the proclamation with a full knowledge of what he was doing and would stand by it.”

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The January 9, 1863 edition of the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune had a large front page map of the battlefields in Kentucky and Tennessee that the paper called “by far the most accurate and complete of any yet published.”

In non-war news, the September 23 issue also wrote of “Our Indian difficulties.” The dispatch reported on a letter from Dakota Sioux Chief Little Crow to Gen. Harry Hopkins Silbey “in which he wants to know in what way can he make peace” to end the fighting in the Sioux Uprising of 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley in which Sioux warriors raided settler villages. But the war went on a little while longer. Afterward, 38 Dakota tribe members were hanged the day after Christmas 1862.

On October 31, 1862, the Tribune reported on the Union Army’s failure to capture control of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, a key Confederate pipeline. “It is now known that the late expedition up Broad River to break up the Charleston and Savannah Railroad was not a success. In plain words, the Union forces were defeated … We cannot judge, at this moment, of the nature of the affair, but it does seem strange that so apparently simple a matter of the obstruction of this road is so long delayed.”

The newspapers of November of that year detailed the push toward the Great Battle of Fredericksburg, which would result in one of the costliest Union defeats of the war. On November 7, the Tribune reported that, “dispatches from General McClellan’s headquarters say that the advance of the Army of the Potomac up the Valley on the left side of the Blue Ridge, is being pushed forward with all dispatch. Gen. Pleasanton occupied Upperville Monday afternoon after a spirited engagement with the enemy lasting four hours.”

On November 28, the paper reported that there was “no fighting yet at Fredericksburg. The Rebels are bringing up their entire army evidently to contest the passage of the river by (Gen. Ambrose) Burnside. The dispatch laments that the Union army was not being aggressive enough. “Our army seems to be waiting until the whole force of the Rebels shall arrive to get into line of battle.”

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The December 16, 1862 edition of the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune reported on the Battle of Fredericksburg.

The December 12 edition reported that preparations for the Great Battle had begun. “A large portion of the city (was) destroyed.” But the news quickly turned grim for the Union army. A December 14 dispatch reported the ominous news in a large headline and 11-deck sub-headline: 

“OUR TROOPS OBLIGED TO FALL BACK. THE OBJECT SOUGHT UNATTAINED.” 

The story, which took up four full columns, reported: During last night and this afternoon the Rebels have considerably extended their works and strengthened their position. Large bodies of troops are now to be seen where, but few were to be found yesterday.” In total, 12,700 Union soldiers were killed, compared to 5,300 Confederate casualties.

Several weeks later, the Tribune reported a “great and glorious” Union victory at Murfreesboro, Tenn. “The Rebels ran away in the night... their Army utterly demoralized.”

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“The Draft Riots of New York, July 1863,” from The Diary of George Templeton Strong, NYC Municipal Library.

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“The Draft Riots of New York, July 1863,” from The Diary of George Templeton Strong, NYC Municipal Library.

The Library’s collection of these papers has a gap between January 27, 1863 and August 30, 1864, which encompassed the Draft Riots in New York City. The Civil War in New York City, by Ernest A. McKay tells of the riots, which erupted from July 11–16, 1863 when white mobs opposed to the draft rioted, pillaged, hanged at least one black man, and trashed Tribune offices. “Windows were broken at Tribune offices and some furniture was destroyed.” McKay then recounted the “disgraceful burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum” on Fifth Avenue, between 43rd and 44th Streets. “A wild horde, mainly of Irish,” ransacked the building. “Hundreds of rioters ran through the four-story building stealing anything in sight.” 

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“The Draft Riots of New York, July 1863,” from The Diary of George Templeton Strong, NYC Municipal Library.

That gap also included the Battle of Gettysburg. However, the Daily Tribune in early July 1863 told the tale which, presumably was in the semi-weekly editions. On July 3, 1863, the Daily Tribune recounted the “severe battle near Gettysburg … the battle opened yesterday morning by severe skirmishing … the fight continued throughout the day with variable results.” On July 7, the daily paper heralded “The great victory … Our whole army in motion from Frederick, Md. A courier from Gettysburg to-day reports that Gen (George Gordon) Meade’s army this morning advanced 6 miles beyond the battlefield.” More than 50,000 men were killed in the three-day battle, the largest number of the entire war and a key turning point of the Civil War.

The Library’s collection picks up in late 1864, after the Battle of Atlanta and leads up to the Battle of Nashville, which was fought in late December 1864. Proclaiming a “great victory,” the Tribune’s December 23 edition reported the Rebel army was in “full retreat” after the Union side attacked the Rebels’ rear guard, capturing large numbers of prisoners.

“The 4th Corps crossed the Harpeth River at Franklin on Sunday morning. (Gen. George) Thomas is pursuing the enemy to Duck River. We have nearly all (Gen. John Bell) Hood’s artillery and his army is really fully demoralized.” The December 27 issue elaborates: The Rebels’ retreat from Franklin to Duck River beggars all description. Hood told his corps commander to get off the best way they could.”

The March 24, 1865 edition previewed the expected “great combined attack in Mobile” (the Mobile Campaign), which would be fought from March 25 to April 12, and resulted in a Union victory. It was the last great Civil War battle. The collection ends just before General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA, on April 9, 1865.

The New York Herald, which ultimately would merge with the Tribune summed up the surrender this way in large, bold-faced headline: “THE END.”

The sub headline read: “SURRENDER OF LEE AND HIS WHOLE ARMY TO GRANT.”