Erie County

1. Erie County & The Civil War

2. Lincoln in Buffalo • February 16, 1861 • On the way to his inauguration • Guest of ex- President Millard Fillmore • Speech given at the American Hotel • “They will vote for you if you let your beard grow.”

3. Ft. Sumter is attackedApril 12, 1861

4. What was required to win the war? • Men • Money • Material • Morale

5. Lincoln Calls for Volunteers

6. Erie County’s Contribution in manpower • @ 4,587 men from Niagara County • @20,000 men from Erie County enlisted or were drafted • @ 4,704 were listed as killed, wounded or missing in action

7. First Erie County Regiment • Organized at Buffalo • 21st New York Volunteer Infantry • Colonel William F. Rogers • Unit left Buffalo in May of 1861

8. 49th New York Infantry • Organized in July 1861chiefly men from Erie and Chautauqua Counties • Left Buffalo in September 1861 • Little heavy fighting until 1864 • Brandy Station, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor, Cedar Creek • Commanded by Major Daniel D. Bidwell – killed at Cedar Creek – Oct. 19, 1864 • Bidwell Parkway in Buffalo is named in his honor

9. Brigadier General Daniel D. Bidwell

10. George W. Johnson

11. Private Freeman Miller

12. 100th New York Infantry • Recruiting began in September 1861, reached full strength in February 1862 • Col. James Malcolm Brown - commanding • Scotsman by birth • Nearly all of its original 902 officers and men were from Erie County

13. 1st Lt. John W. Wilkeson, Jr. Company K100th New York Infantry

14. 2nd Lt. Cyrus Brown Company E 100th New York Infantry

15. 44th New York Infantry“The Ellsworth Regiment” Elmer Ellsworth Alexandria, Va. The Marshall House, King and Pitt Streets]

16. Notes on the 44th New York Infantry

17. Notes on the 116th New York Infantry

18. More Notes on the 116th NYV

19. Notes on the 116th contd.

20. Ethnic Units • Popular thinking suggested that more men would serve if they could serve with others of their own ethnicity • E.g. Battery “I” of the 1st New York Artillery composed mostly of men of German birth or parentage – famed “Wiedrich’s Battery” • Late stages of the Civil War 6 companies of men of German descent raised in Erie, Chautauqua, Niagara, Wyoming and Cattaraugus Counties • Erie County furnished two companies of men for each of two “Irish” regiments the 155th and the 164th New York State Volunteers

21. 155th New York Volunteers Lt. Hugh C. Flood155th New York Infantry Cpt. John W. McAnally155th New York InfantryCompany I

22. Notes on the 155th New York

23. Notes on Col. Peter A. Porter’s8th New York Heavy Artillery

24. Obituary of Col. Peter A. Porter

25. Lt. Col. Willard W. Bates 8th Heavy Artillery

26. 1st Lt. Samuel K. GreenCompany A8th Heavy Artillery

27. Pvt. James P. ShortCompany M8th Heavy Artillery

28. Pvt. Edwin P. HoytCompany I 8th Heavy Artillery

29. Notes on the 8th NY Heavy Artillery

30. Erie County Medal of Honor Winners in The Civil War • Andrew Bringle • Lewellyn P. Norton

31. Federal Bounties • Early war enthusiasm generated sufficient volunteers • By February 1862 the Federal Govt. offered $100 bounty payable at the end of two years of service • By 1864 the Federal Govt. offered new recruits $300 with an additional $100 payable to volunteers who re-enlisted.

32. State Bounties • State and local governments also paid bounties in addition to the federal bounty • New York State spend over $86,000,000 in payments to volunteers. • Erie County paid our more then $2,000,000 for bounties.

33. The Draft • First true draft of the Civil War was provided by the Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863 • Earlier drafts were THREATENED if localities did not meet the quota of soldiers assigned to them. Erie county exceeded its quota of 2,195 in 1862 and had an estimated 3,406 men in the field that year. • In July of 1863 as more men were needed draft riots erupted. The bloodiest riots were in New York City (estimated 1,000 people killed) • 65th New York state militia regiment called out to active duty in NYC July 15th – July 19th 1863

34. Fort PorterSite of Buffalo’s draft on August 5, 1863

35. Additional view of Ft. Porter

36. Fort Porter about 1916

37. Money • The Civil War was the most costly in America’s history until WWI. • Union government spent an average of $2 million dollars each day. • Report by the secretary of the Treasury in 1866 put the cost to the federal govt. at 6.2 billion dollars. By 1910 the cost including pensions and burial of veterans had reached 11.5 billion dollars

38. Loans Money was obtained by selling bonds and Treasury notes Interest was from 5 – 7.3% People were reluctant to purchase these notes Investment firm of Jay Cooke and Company given the job as selling agents for the U.S. government. The firm sold about 2.5 billion dollars in bonds earning Cooke the title “financier of the Civil War” Jay Cooke

39. Jay Cooke’s Gibraltar Island Castle

40. Income Tax! • For the first time in U.S. History a tax on incomes was applied during the Civil War. • Became a source of Federal Revenue for ten years from 1863 – 1872 when it was allowed to lapse • Total collected during the period was $346,911,760 and during the war years alone (1863 – 1865) about $55.000,000.

41. Who Earned How Much in 1863? • George W. Tifft $157,767 • A. J. Blackmar 76,601 • George Howard 68,715 • Mayor William G. Fargo 68,037 • Charles Ensign 67,128 • Sidney Sheppard 66,128 • F.H. Root 52,900 • Thomas Clark 50,576 • S.S. Jewett 48,900 • H.B. Miller 44,800 • Lawrence Woodruff 41,064 • B.C. Rumsey 40,000 • D.P. Rumsey 40,000

42. Elbridge G. Spaulding • Member of Congress from Erie County reported income of $14,815 in 1863 • Member of the House Ways and Means Committee • Main sponsor of bill that allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to issue “Greenbacks” paper money • This bill eventually resulted in the printing of $150,000,000 in greenbacks and by war’s end the figure reached more than $400,000,000.

43. Spaulding House in Buffalo

44. Sidway Building on site of the Spaulding home today

45. Spaulding Cenotaph in Forest Lawn Spaulding Grave

46. Materials The equipment, apparatus, and supplies used during wartime

47. The Civil War: The First Great Modern Conflict • Union had superiority in both men and material – union armies were better clothed, better equipped, better housed and better fed • Union Navy was superior to the Confederate navy which was almost non-existent • The Monitor and Merrimack were the first ironclad ships

48. The Monitor & The Merrimack

49. U.S.S. Monitor

50. County contributions to the War Effort • Erie County’s tanneries produced leather for a horse-and-mule drawn army • 1862 Pratt & Co. were casting iron for ship’s boilers • David Bell’s shipyard was preparing to build several tugs for the Union navy. • 1863 New York Central RR opened huge stockyards on the east side of Buffalo • Increased commerce on the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal created new wealth in Buffalo.