HARFORD
CIVIL WAR SERVICEMEN
1865

(Many thanks to George Chevalier, Harford's Town Historian who has compiled and donated this material)
If you wish to use this material please contact:
George Chevalier
Box 115, Harford, NY 13784

    On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. A few days later, President Lincoln was assassinated and later that month Confederate General Johnson surrendered to General Sherman. On May 10, Confederate president Jefferson Davis was captured, and on June 2, General Grant proclaimed the end of hostilities.

    On June 1, 1865 John Tanner, a Harford man began taking a census of all the people of Harford. Along with many other things, he was to list all the servicemen. On August 10, 1865, New York State issued an order that all town clerks were to compile a list of all servicemen from their town who had served in the military since April, 1861. None were to be omitted. Benjamin Franklin Jones was Harford's town clerk, and he compiled another list of all Harford's servicemen.

    Tanner completed his census on July 15, 1865, and Jones completed his list on September 12, 1865. Tanner came up with 888 citizens for the Town of Harford, including 61 servicemen then living. Most of them had not yet returned home when the census was taken. He also lists 24 servicemen who had died. By the late summer of 1865 when Jones made his list, most of the men had returned. He listed the names of 99 servicemen including 23 who had then died.

    The list presented here is a snapshot in time from the summer of 1865 as recorded by Hartford's census enumerator and by Harford's town clerk. No names have been added because they may have been overlooked, although there probably were some. No names were removed because other towns claimed them, and there are some of those. Those names were included if Tanner or Jones claimed them. The name of one man who Jones says deserted shortly after enlistment is not included here. The names of the other men who were said to have deserted are included as they may have also fought in the war. The combined total for this Harford listing is 116 men with 29 of them then dead by the summer of 1865.

    Benjamin Franklin Jones was no stranger to the military. He served twice in the Civil War. He enlisted on May 13, 1861, was wounded at Bull Run on July 18th, and he was discharged October 30, 1861. He reenlisted in 1862, attained the rank of second lieutenant, but he resigned on April 26, 1863.

    Nine of the men on Jones list reached the rank of sergeant. All the other soldiers were privates or corporals except for Jones himself, and Charles Burlingame who achieved the rank of first lieutenant and then was promoted to captain. Uri Hemenway was Harford's only sailor and he was listed as a "landsman." He served on the ship Maumee from August 1864 to June 1865.

    Most of the men enlisted in Hartford, but some enlisted in Cortland, Homer, Virgil, Dryden, Auburn, Ithaca, and Richford. Most enlistments were for three years, but a few for one or two years. Nearly all of the men were put into the infantry, but some served in the heavy artillery, the cavalry, and the engineers. Erastus Babcox, Asahel Tillotson, Benjamin Decker, and Henry Tarbox were permitted to enlist for just one year in the engineers, but got out in slightly less as the war ended.

    Of the 99 men Jones listed, 49 were said to have the previous occupation of farmer, 31 were laborers, 6 were carpenters, and 3 were blacksmiths. There was only one each for: wagon maker, joiner, physician, student, music teacher, cooper, shoemaker, and mason. (Two didn't indicate previous occupation.)

    Besides the 23 dead, Jones listed another 18 as having been wounded. One was listed as "has not been heard from since the Battle of the Wilderness." Of the 23 dead, 5 probably died in battle, 7 were said to have died of disease, and the remainder probably died from the effects of their wounds, or from the primitive surgical procedures, or from disease caused by the harsh and unsanitary conditions.

    Jones own younger brother Leander was among the dead. He died of disease at age 19 shortly after Jones second enlistment. Two soldiers, Albert Taintor and Josephus Haskell came home on furlough and died here. They are buried in the Harford Cemetery. Wesley Norwood and Adam Shafer were discharged and died before Jones made his list. (Wesley Norwood was the son of Philip Norwood, a noted Underground Railroad operator.)

    Miles Culver, wounded on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg died on July 15, 1863, and was buried there. It is said that he lay on the battlefield for three days with a leg wound before he was taken to the hospital where he died of gangrene. James Elmer Joiner had a similar fate as he too was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, and died there on July 18, 1863. He also is buried there. Most of Harford's dead are buried near the place they died.

    Miles Culver and James Elmer Joiner were members of Company E of New York's 157th Regiment. Harford had 34 men in the 157th and 30 men in New York's 76th Regiment.

    Of the dead, Taylor Maricle is the youngest at age 15. The oldest is David Douglas, age 40. Most of the dead were single and between the ages of 18 and 29. However David Douglas was married and left a widow and four children. Miles Culver, also 40, left a widow and six children.

    David Douglas and Emery Smith of NY 9th Heavy Artillery were wounded in June of 1864 at Cold Harbor, but died in hospitals at New York City in July of 1864. Darius Ellis was taken prisoner in 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley and later released, but died at Annapolis, Maryland, probably due to the effects of his stay in prison. Six others were taken prisoner, but survived. William Norton was held at Andersonville, Georgia, and survived.

    Henry Lason lost an arm at Bull Run and was discharged in 1862. Richard Ballard was wounded in May of 1863 at Chancellorsville, and again at Gettysburg that July, but apparently served throughout the war. Orville Dickinson was wounded at Gainesville, Virginia in 1862 and mustered out in 1864. Daniel Shapley, Horace Bradley, and Charles Kingkade, all of Company E, NY 157th, were wounded at Gettysburg, but served throughout the remainder of the war.

    Several families had more than one man in the military. The three Neff's on the list were brothers. All survived the war, although Alexander had been wounded. Amos Foster, age 49, served as did his three sons, Miles, John, and Sylvester. All survived, although Miles had been wounded. James Joiner Jr., age 49, served as did his sons Robert, and ill-fated James Elmer Joiner. Both the fathers were released early on account of disability. Several other men were sent home early on Surgeons Orders or as disabled.

    Besides our town clerk Jones, Benjamin Haskell enlisted twice and survived. Rudgar Marsh was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, discharged, then reenlisted, and survived. Edmund Rice also enlisted twice. He served out his first two-year enlistment in the infantry and then reenlisted in the cavalry. He was then mortally wounded in the battle before Petersburg in 1864. He is buried at City Point, Virginia.

    Benjamin Franklin Jones did not serve as Town Clerk for very long. The 1865 census lists him as a 26-year old farmer living with his 21-year old wife and month old daughter. The 1870 census shows him living with his wife and two young children, and working as a railroad agent. In 1872 he died at the age of 33 and he is buried in the Harford Cemetery.

    Jones clearly made a serious effort to list all the servicemen, and his is the best surviving list. He was instructed to include all servicemen "from your town," but do not include any who might be claimed by another town. Hence, he did not include the men who came from elsewhere to collect the bounty money that was offered in the later part of the war. Tanner also skipped over most of the same men.

    On October 17, 1863, a $300 bounty was offered to each new recruit. Twenty-three men enlisted for Harford's quota, and for the money. Jones lists all but five of them. On July 18, 1864, a call for recruits went out again. $1000 was offered to recruits, along with a $25 fee to the broker who brought them. Fifteen men responded for the Town of Harford, but only four of them are recorded on Jones list. The third and last bounty call was made on December 19, 1864. $600 was offered to recruits, and $15 to the broker. Nine recruits responded for Harford, all of them from the same broker. Jones lists none of them. We may conclude that those who Jones and Tanner did not list probably came from outside the town.

    It was acceptable for a man who had been called to serve to then hire a substitute to go in his place. Two such Harford men are listed with the second bounty call in the Cortland County Supervisors Proceedings of 1866. Henry C. Gray apparently hired Gilbert James to go in his place for $500, and Abram Rockefeller hired Isaac Hultz to substitute for him for $700.

    As Tanner made his rounds, he was asked to list many diverse facts pertaining to each farm and to each household. His estimate of the value of most of the houses was just a few hundred dollars, with many of the poorest at less than $100. so the bounty offers were very serious money to a young man in 1864.

    Frances Stowe, Harford's first Historian was born 1868. She compiled a list of Civil War soldiers in 1921 or possibly before that. She included ten additional names on her list of the brave sons of Harford who served as soldiers in 1861. Further study could reveal that both Jones and Tanner overlooked them. More likely however, these men were veterans who may have moved to Harford after serving, or perhaps they served at a slightly different time. They are not included here, but their names can be found in Stowe's history.

    Frances Stowe also includes the bounty lists for Harford pretty much as they appear in the Cortland County Supervisors Report of 1866. These lists appear in her "History of the Town of Harford" published in 1988. The bounty men are not included in this present listing unless they are recognized by Jones or Tanner as coming from Harford.


Allen, Smith
* Babcock, John W.
Babcox, Erastus
Babcox, Valentine
Ballard, Joseph Clark
Ballard, Richard
Banker, Isaac
* Banker, Lawrence Marcellus
Barnes, George Schuyler
Barnes, George Stephen
* Boyce, George
Boyce, Lyman
Bradley, Horace Woodard
Brayman, James
Burlingame, Charles Carroll
* Card, James
Carr, Peter
Caton, Hugh
Cheney, Franklin
Collins, Bartholomew
* Culver, Miles
Decker, Benjamin
Deo, Moses
Dickinson, Orville
* Douglas, David
Douglas, George
Ellis, Charles
* Ellis, Darius Simon
Ellis, Joseph
* Ellis, Oren
* Ellis, Van Buren
Foster, Amos
Foster, John L.
Foster, Miles Rigs
Foster, Sylvester
Gleason, Ransom
Hammond, Thomas Jefferson
Haskell, Benjamin
* Haskell, Josephus
Haskell, Josiah
Haskins, William Wallace
Heath, Edward E.
Hemenway, Uri
* Hoffman, Thomas
Holbrook, Warren Lathrop
* Holden, Benjamin Franklin
Holden, Samuel
Hulslander, Samuel Isaac
Humiston, Henry James
Hutchings, Rufus Edwards
* Joiner, James Elmer
Joiner, James Jr.
Joiner, Lyman
Joiner, Nelson
Joiner, Robert
Jones, Benjamin Franklin
* Jones, Leander Terah
Keech, George Graham
Keech, Isaac Edward
Kingkade, Charles
Lane, John Henry
Lason, George
Lason, Henry P.
* Lawrence, Lucas F.
Leonard, Harley
Maine, William Orlando
Maricle, Francis Marion
Maricle, Leonard
* Maricle, Taylor
Marsh, Augustus
Marsh, Ozias Clark
Marsh, Rudgar Bleeker
Matteson, George
McDargh, Joseph
Miller, Franklin
Morrison, Cornelius
Morton, Squire Johnson
Nash, David
Nash, Philander
Neely, William
Neff, Alexander Watson
Neff, Harrison Asabel
Neff, Joseph VanBuren
Norton, Frank J.
Norton, William
* Norwood, Wesley
* Perkins, Edward
* Rice, Edmund Oscar
Rockefeller, Simeon
Seamon, Ephriam
* Shafer, Adam
Shapley, Daniel Newton
Shapley, George
* Sheldon, Eugene
Shepard, Hallet
* Shevalier, Aron Gaylord
Shevalier, John Sutton
Smith, Edwin
* Smith, Emery Wood
* Stephens, George Clinton
* Taintor, Albert
* Talbot, Josephus
Tanner, Daniel
Tanner, Lyman
Tarbox, Henry
Tarbox, Wordin
Teed, Manville Paige
Terpening, Arthur
Terpening, Cyrus
Thomas, Theodore Freelinghuysen
Tillotson, Asahel
Todd, Edward Edgar
* Weiler, George
Williamson, Clark
* Yates, Harvey
Yates, Marovah

* Deceased by summer of 1865

Acknowledgment: This report could not have been prepared without the very helpful assistance of Cathy Barber, County Historian

Bibliography:
1. Record of the Town of Harford, prepared by the Town Clerk Benjamin F. Jones as required by chapter 690 of the laws of 1865, Sept. 12, 1865.
2. US census of 1865 for the Town of Harford, June and July 1865.
3. History of the Town of Harford by Frances Stowe from 1921, published in 1988, town of Harford.
4. Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors of Cortland County, 1866.


Town of Harford
Cortland County site


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