Hilltowns Civil War Memorial

Civil War Flag

Battle of Cold Harbor

HILLTOWNS CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL

Senior Editor: Harold Miller

Editor: Betty Fink

Those who helped with this project are too numerous to name but we thank them sincerely.

Hilltowns during the Civil War

Monument to Rensselaerville's Fallen Soldiers
Photo by Janet Haseley, 2008

On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War we offer these memorial pages in honor of the men from the Hilltowns who served in the Union Army who died or were left disabled from their injuries or disease.

Perhaps over half of the men from the Hilltowns that enlisted either died, went missing and were presumed dead, or were permanently disabled in the war. The only monument to the dead is in the Rensselaerville Cemetery where on July 4, 1867, a 17-foot marble Civil War monument was dedicated to the 29 soldiers from the Town of Rensselaerville who died in the Civil War.

For story of how the men of each of the Hilltowns served their country during the Civil War, click on the links below.

[ Rensselaerville ][ Berne ][ Knox ][ Westerlo ]

Regiments

Pvt. Reuben L. Weidman, Company I, 15th Cavalry<br.>NYS Military Museum

letter home from Jesse Denison

There were more than 600 documented men from the hilltowns that enlisted to serve in the Civil War. Of those, 31 were killed in action (15 of whom were members of the 7th Heavy Artillery), and another 11 died as a direct result of battlefield wounds. In addition, 65 men were wounded in action and disabled, but survived. 57 men were captured and imprisoned, of them 38 died while in prison and 19 survived the ordeal. 51 men died of disease, and another 35 were disabled as a result of disease, combat or non-combat events. 3 men died accidental deaths.

The regimental links below contain the names of the Albany County Hilltowns Civil War casualties and a brief description of the event.

First Regiment of Mounted Rifles 3rd Cavalry 3rd Infantry Regiment 4th Heavy Artillery 5th Heavy Artillery Fifth Cavalry 7th Heavy Artillery 9th Heavy Artillery 11th Light Artillery 15th Engineers 15th Artillery 16th Heavy Artillery 17th Infantry 18th Cavalry 25th Infantry 30th Infantry 41st Infantry 43rd Infantry 44th Infantry 48th Infantry

50th Engineers 61st Infantry 76th Infantry 80th Infantry 81st Infantry 91st Infantry 93rd Infantry 115th Infantry 125th Infantry 134th Infantry 137th Infantry 140th Infantry 150th Infantry 151st Infantry 164th Infantry 177th Infantry 21st Illinois Infantry 64th Illinois Infantry 38th Wisconsin Infantry

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• 177th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry. The 177th was stationed at Port Hudson, Louisiana, which was swampy and disease ridden. Hundreds of men died of yellow fever, typhoid and chronic diarrhea.

• 7th Regiment New York Heavy Artillery. The men of the 7th Heavy Artillery were in some of the heaviest combat of the war. A number of area men were captured and held at the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia where they either starved to death or died of disease first. The story of the 7th Regiment is told in the Carnival of Blood, by Richard Keating.

• 113th Regiment - One hundred and Thirteenth Regiment N.Y. Volunteers, later re-organzied as the Seventh Regiment, N.Y.H.A. Volunteer Artillery was organized first as the Albany County Regiment in the 13th Senatorial District.

Confederate Prisons

Andersonville
Memorial Day

• Andersonville, GA
• Libby Richmond, VA
• Millen, GA
• Salisbury, NC

Books

• Carnival of Blood - The story of the 7th Regt. N Y Heavy Artillery in the Civil War. Many of the men from the Hilltowns served in this Regiment and are individually listed with a sentence or two about them.
• Heroes of Albany- Men from Albany County in the Civil War