A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume II.Ostrander, Stephen M.
History
A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume II.
Ostrander, Stephen M.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- History; Kings County (N.Y.) -- History
A war meeting at Fort Greene drew out 50,000 people, and elicited
demonstrations of hearty patriotism. A corps of Brooklyn women
volunteered as nurses, and lint societies were organized by energetic
women who undertook to supply equipment for the nurses. Women in the
Clinton Avenue Congregational Church supplied over fifteen hundred
yards of bandaging to the Twenty-eighth Regiment, which, amid great
enthusiasm, followed the Thirteenth to the front. Brooklyn was largely
represented in the organizing of the Twenty-first New York Volunteers.
The organization of the Forty-eighth New York, under Colonel Perry, the
First Long Island Regiment, the Nineteenth New York Volunteers (East
New York), and the Fifth Independent Battery followed.
In 1861 the city and county sent out 10,000 men. The draft of 1862
rather staggered the city at its first coming, but the rally was
enthusiastic, and the patriotic work proceeded. The armories of the
city became centres of loyal activity.
The new fighting engine, the Monitor, was launched at Greenpoint in
January, 1862. In March the novel iron craft had her struggle with the
rebel Merrimac in Hampton Roads.
Greenpoint sent over a company to the Thirty-first New York Volunteers.
In 1863 the local militia, or National Guard, included the Thirteenth
Regiment, under Colonel Woodward; the Twenty-third, Colonel Everdell;
the Twenty-eighth, Colonel Bennett; the Forty-seventh, Colonel
Meserole; the Fifty-second, Colonel Cole; the Fifty-sixth, Colonel
Adams. In the Southern trips, such as those made by the Twenty-third
and the Forty-seventh regiments, the National Guard performed excellent
service aside from the heavier duty in action.
The New York draft riots of 1863 naturally affected Brooklyn very
closely, not only in such instances of mob violence as the firing of
the grain elevators in the Atlantic Basin, but in the menacing and
really dangerous movements incident to the reign of terror. Brooklyn
volunteers lent important aid in the defense of the State Arsenal in
New York.
To facilitate recruiting in the county, the Supervisors, in November,
1863, resolved upon acquiring a loan of $250,000, and $300 bounty was
afterward paid to each recruit.
Mayor Kalbfleisch was succeeded as Mayor in 1864 by Colonel Wood, who
had organized the Fourteenth Regiment, was wounded and captured at the
first Bull Run, and was released by exchange in 1862.
The return of the "Brooklyn Phalanx," the First Long Island Regiment,
under Colonel Cross, in January, 1864, was the occasion for an immense
demonstration. The regiment had taken part in fourteen battles, and
came home with 234 men out of 1000.
An event of the war period that is to be regarded as of the highest
significance, not only for the relation it bore to the necessities of
the war, but to the progress of the city, was what is known as the
great Sanitary fair.
[Illustration: CRUISER BROOKLYN, BUILT IN 1858]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account