Civil War
As is the rest of this website, this is a partial (work in progress) list of those who served in the American Civil War between 1861 and 1885. Those listed here were from the Dansville Area or had other Dansville connections. By the end of the American Civil War, 46 North Dansvillians lost their lives in the conflict.
The militia company, Canaseraga Light Infantry, familiarly known as the Canaseragas, was organized in 1847 and disbanded fourteen years afterward, at the beginning of the civil war. They had held meeting in place that was known as Canaseraga Hall located on Main Street, south of the Maxwell block. It became one of the most famous companies of the state on account of the character and standing of its members and the superiority of its drill. Col. Timothy B. Grant, who had been one of the Union Grays in Rochester, was its captain during the entire fourteen years of its existence, except a very brief interval, and a more capable and thorough drill master than he was not to be found. He brought the Canaseragas to a skill and exactitude of maneuver and movement that surprised lookers-on, and infused them with a military spirit and community of feeling which held them together and made them cheerfully obedient. They were in demand at celebrations near and remote, and wherever they went excited admiration and cheers. They took the lead in social gatherings, and gave an annual ball Jan. 8, the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, which was the most important social event of each year. Not until war became inevitable was the company broken up, and this was because the most of them enlisted, to help save the country. It furnished the Union army with a large number of brave officers, who distinguished themselves in drill and march and battle.
The well-drilled and much-admired Canaseragas had mostly gone to the war when in April, 1862, the Washington Zouaves were organized as a local company with the following officers and privates: Captain, Charles Reeve; lieutenant, Henry Faulkner ; ensign, Theo. Chapin; 1st sergeant, Wm. Bulkley; 2d sergeant, James Williams; privates, James Edwards, Wm. Knowlton, Charles Niles, Henry Porter, Edward Readshaw, Edward Sweet, Eugene Sprague, Percy Jones, James Lindsay, Edward Niles, Jr., Wm. Readshaw, Charles Shepard, Wm. Spinning, Rockwell Lozier, John Wilkinson. How long this promising’ military organization continued is not on record. When the war closed the military spirit which it had excited perceptibly diminished in a short time. The returned soldiers devoted themselves to the arts of peace. Money was plenty and prices high, new industries were started and neglected old ones revived; every able-bodied man could get work at good wages, and from 1865 to Black Friday the country prospered as it never had before.
Allen, Samuel – Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment
Bailey, John J. – First Lieutenant Company B 136th Infantry Regiment
Bradley, John M. – Seaman on the USS Indianola
Bunnell, Mark J. – Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment, Recruitment Officer (1963)
Coon, Wing ( -1862) first local casualty of the Civil War. Pvt. Coon had died in Camp McGraw of typhus fever at age 22; he had never seen battle.
Chapin, Barna J. ( – 1863) – Lieutenant Colonel (killed at the May 1-3 Battle of Chancellorsville)
Curtis, Henry R. – Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment, 14th NY Heavy Artillery Regiment
Dippy, George B.
Dorr, S. G. Jr. – Recruitment Officer
Drehmer, William H.
Faulkner, Lester B. (c.1838 – 1890) – Lieutenant Colonel Company B 136th NY Infantry Regiment
Foote, Baldis (1843 – 1928) – Company B 136th NY Vol. Infantry, buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Dansville, NY
Gunther, Peter (1835 – 1864) Sargt. Co. K, NY Dragoons, Killed at Summit Point, VA, buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Dansville, NY
Hartman, A. J.
Hartman, Edmund -Second Lieutenant Company K 130th Infantry Regiment
Hasler, George W. ( – 1862) – Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment, (wounded and captured during 2nd Bull Run, died of wounds Sept. 16)
Hedges, Job C. (1835-1864) Company B?, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment, Company B 136th Infantry Regiment?, Major – 14th NY Heavy Artillery Regiment, died in action at Petersburg
Hedges, Seth (1839-1881) 14th NY Heavy Artillery Regiment
Hyland, George Jr. – Captain Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment
Leach, Andrew J. – Recruitment Officer, Captain Company K 130th Infantry Regiment
Lema, Albert S. – died in the regiment at Gaines Mills; he did not survive the amputation of his leg
Morrison (or Morris), George M.
Mundy, Nicholas V. – Second Lieutenant Company B 136th Infantry Regiment
Pickell, George ( – 1862, @ 2nd Bull Run), son of John
Pickell, John – Col. 13th NYS Infantry Regiment
Pratt, E. H. – Captain Company B 136th Infantry Regiment
Richardson, E. G.
Schlick, Henry N. (1841 – 1905) – Colonel
Schlick, Theodore M. (1834- 1864) Major 22nd NY Cavalry
Stephan, Carl – Captain Company B, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment, Militia leader of Dansville’s, Canaseragas
Slayton, James O. – First Lieutenant Company K 130th Infantry Regiment
Stillwell, Duane D.
Stone, Charles B.
Stone, Elias V. ( -1862) Private Co. H. 12th Illinois volunteer cavalry.
Stone, Henry R.
Stone, George Clinton (1842- ????) Co. H. 12th Illinois volunteer cavalry
Stone, John T.
Wall, Jerry – Private, Company B, 126th NYS Infantry
Wood, Ralph T. – Recruitment Officer Company G, 13th NYS Infantry Regiment
Woodruff, Oscar – Cavalry (Chancellorsville and Gettysburg)
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Springfield, Illinois, and growing to include hundreds of posts (local community units) across the nation (predominately in the North, but also a few in the South and West), it was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota. Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans’ pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans
GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) posts in Dansville:
Post Barna J. Chapin, No. 95 (1869 – ????) Seth N. Hedges, Commander; H. Pratt, Senior vice-commander; Jay J. Bailey, Junior vice-commander; L. D. F. Poore, adjutant; H. N. Schlick, Quartermaster; T. W. Drake, Surgeon; W. H. Drehmer. Sergeant-major; William Kramer, Quartermaster sergeant.
Post Seth N. Hedges Post, No. 216 (1881 – ????) It was first named Barton Post in honor of a deceased relative of Miss Clara Barton.
The records for each GAR post had been given Daniel Goho Post 87, of the American Legion.