9th NY Heavy Artillery

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The 9th NY Heavy Artillery in one of the forts defending Washington DC.

9thNYHA.jpg
 
The 9th NY Heavy Artillery in one of the forts defending Washington DC.

View attachment 100377

New York
NINTH REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY (HEAVY).
Second Auburn Regiment; Cayuga and Wayne County Regiment.
(Three Years)
The organization of this regiment was determined August 8,
1862, and Col. Joseph Welling received, August 12, 1862,
authority to recruit the regiment in the, then, 25th Senatorial
district of the State. September 29, 1862, this regiment was
designated the 138th Regiment of Infantry. It was organized at
Auburn, and there mustered in the service of the United States
for three years, September 8 and 9, 1862. It was converted
into an artillery regiment December 9, 1862, and designated,
December 19th, the 9th Regiment of Artillery. February 5,
1863, the 22d N. Y. Volunteer Battery was, by the War
Department, transferred to the regiment as Company M. Company
L was organized at Albany and there mustered in the United
States service for three years between November 4 and December
9, 1863.

The companies were recruited principally: A at Red Creek,
Huron, Wolcott and South Butler; B at Williamson, Ontario and
Walworth; C at Conquest, Cato and Victory; D at Lyons, Sodus,
Huron, Rose and Galen; E at Venice, Scipio, Auburn, Moravia,
Miles, Summerhill, Fleming and Montezuma; F at Geneva, Auburn,
Owasco, Sennett, Niles, Lansing, Mentz and Aurelius; G at
Wolcott, Savannah, Butler, Sterling, Huron and Rose; H at
Galen, Butler, Savannah, Rose and Victory; I at Auburn, Owasco
and Sennett; K at Clyde, Ira, Lyons, Wolcott, Galen, Williamson
and Ontario; L in Albany county; and M at Batavia, Bergen,
Bethany, Alexander, Darien and Oakfield.

The regiment (ten companies) left the State September 12,
1862, and served as infantry and heavy artillery in the
defenses of Washington, D. C., north of the Potomac, from
September, 1862; in the 2d, and later 3d, Brigade, Haskins'
Division, 22d Corps, from February, 1863; the 1st and 3d
Battalions in the 2d Brigade, 3d Division; the 2d Battalion in
the Artillery Brigade, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from May
25 and 31, 1864, respectively; the 2d Battalion in 1st Brigade,
Hardin's Division, 22d Corps, at Washington, D. C., from July
10, 1864; in Colonel Keim's Provisional Brigade, from September
23, 1864; all in the 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 6th Corps, Army
of the Potomac, from October 3, 1864; with the Army of the
Shenandoah from October, 1864, and with the Army of the
Potomac, from December, 1864.

It was honorably discharged and mustered out, under Col.
James W. Snyder, July 6, 1865, at Washington, D. C., the men
not entitled to be discharged then having been formed into four
companies and transferred, June 27, 1865, to the 2d N. Y.
Volunteer Artillery as Companies I, K, L and M of the latter.

Source: The Union Army, vol. 2

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The 9th NY Heavy Artillery in one of the forts defending Washington DC.

View attachment 100377

Very nice! I own the shoulder straps and a few other items that belonged to Lt. Col. Joseph Holmes who commanded the 8th N.Y.H.A. after their colonel was killed at Cold Harbor.
 
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Neat photo. I like the little white gloves on the yankee officers
 
The 9th NY Heavies served as Infantry at Monocacy, after being moved out of the defenses of Washington. I have online a memoir, Recollections of Monocacy, by private A. S. Roe. Roe was captured there, and never rejoined his regiment. His subsequent memoirs detail his captivity, exchange, and return home -- they are also available at my Civil War Miscellany.

Alfred S. Roe also wrote the 9th NYHA regimental history.
 
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I think I found the section of the fort shown in the photo (most likely taken in 1865, after Appomattox when other photos of the Defenses of Washington City, DC were taken). But I had to flip the photo to figure it out.

Here is the fort as you would have seen it if you were looking at it:

ethan allen flipped.jpg


So based on the placement of the 10-inch mortar in the bottom left of the photo; the row of guns on the fort's wall on the left and the magazine on the right, I think this is where this was in the fort:

ethan allen section.png


The same spot today:

ehtan allen now view.png
 
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The top left corner. I didn't know how big one of these forts was.

The forts were all different sizes. In the case of this fort, It stretched from the intersection of North Glebe (now North Old Glebe) Road and Military Road down to James Madison Elementary School (now Madison Community Center) and fit in the space of the triangle.

google topo ethan allen.png
 
But I had to flip the photo to figure it out.
Good detective work. But I'm going to throw you a curveball. I don't believe the image should be flipped. My reasoning is this: the privates standing in the rank behind the limber are at " order arms." That means with the musket butt next to the privates right foot and held by it's lower barrel band with their right hand, and with the barrel pointing straight up. This is how they appear in the original photo. If the photo is flipped, the muskets are on the left side of the men and there is no command in Hardee's or Casey's manual of arms to ever have the muskets held on the left side in that manner. In addition, the officers are wearing their sword scabbards on their left hip, which is also the correct side.
 
In addition to what I just stated, if you look at the gun crews in the original posted photo, we can see a cannoneer positioned with a ramrod to the right of the cannon. This is the correct place for that particular soldier because he is the number 1 of the artillery crew and his spot is to the right front of the gun. So I'm pretty convinced that the way the photo was first posted is the correct view.
 
Good detective work. But I'm going to throw you a curveball. I don't believe the image should be flipped. My reasoning is this: the privates standing in the rank behind the limber are at " order arms." That means with the musket butt next to the privates right foot and held by it's lower barrel band with their right hand, and with the barrel pointing straight up. This is how they appear in the original photo. If the photo is flipped, the muskets are on the left side of the men and there is no command in Hardee's or Casey's manual of arms to ever have the muskets held on the left side in that manner. In addition, the officers are wearing their sword scabbards on their left hip, which is also the correct side.

Thanks for the responses. While I didn't consider the positions of the soldiers, I do know what "order arms" is. I'm a reenactor and I did order arms all day Saturday at the 155th Manassas event this past weekend.

I based my flip- and I think you're right about what you've pointed out- on three things in the photo: the mortar; the magazine; and the row of artillery pieces on the wall of the fort (and with that, I even considered the guns themselves. The trail of one of the guns seems to match the positioning angle as seen in the topographical drawing). There were only two mortars in the fort so there are only so many places this could be. When I flipped it, it appeared to match the layout of the top left corner of the fort. But apparently, this is incorrect. But something could be flipped in the original photo: the mortar itself. It appears that it could be positioned on either side of its platform.

While I am certain that this is Fort Ethan Allen, another possibility is that there could be structures in the fort that were not identified on the map- an extra magazine; a third mortar; or perhaps repositioning a mortar to another location in the fort.

So, while I don't think I was able to do much with your curveball, I'd say I made contact and perhaps put the ball in play. :smile:
 
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In addition to what I just stated, if you look at the gun crews in the original posted photo, we can see a cannoneer positioned with a ramrod to the right of the cannon. This is the correct place for that particular soldier because he is the number 1 of the artillery crew and his spot is to the right front of the gun. So I'm pretty convinced that the way the photo was first posted is the correct view.

Do you think you can determine where in the fort the picture was taken?
 
I'm a Federal reenactor myself, but I'm too old and ornery to do an event down in Virginia during July. I heard it was HOT! :hot: How did you hold up?

Yes it was extremely hot but I got through it with no problems. I started hydrating a couple of days before the event. I drank plenty of water and Gatorade while I was there and ate bananas, peaches, hard-boiled eggs, melon, trail mix and chicken. I left after Saturday's battle and went home to a shower. When I woke up the next morning, I was a little sore but I felt fine.
 
The following is the transcription of a newspaper article taken from the unit history found on the New York State Military Museum website. Colonel W. H. Seward, Jr. was the son of Secretary of State William H. Seward. Other articles note the regiment spent the spring and summer of 1863 at Fort Mansfield (NE of DC on the Maryland side) and was in Fort Foot(e) and then back at Fort Mansfield by March 1864.

The writer notes in the March 1864 letter "Allow me, also, to disabuse the minds of your readers in regard to another point. This regiment has been styled the "pet Regiment," Life Insurance Regiment, &c. Probably there is not a Regiment in the Defences of Washington that has done more fatigue duty and real hard work than the Ninth. If it has not fought as many battles as some Regiments, the work which it has done has been as valuable to the Government. Besides building Forts Simmons, Mansfield, Bayard, Gaines andd Foote, (one of the largest in the Defences,) it helped build Forts Reno and Sumner, two very large Forts, and has dug miles upon miles of rifle pits and built miles upon miles of Military roads and in addition chopped over more land then a good many of the farms in Wayne County put together would compose." Those conditions would change beginning in May, 1864.

https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/artillery/9thHeavyArty/9thHeavyArtyCWN.htm

WASHINGTON, July 12.
The following is a partial list of the casualties in the Ninth New York heavy artillery, Colonel W. H. Seward, Jr., at the battle of Monocacy:
Company A-Wounded--Sergeant M. H. Crawford, side and arm, severe; Corporal P. McWiggin, where not known, supposed prisoner; John McNeil, head and shoulder, severe, and prisoner; Edward Rider, where not known; M. Martin, leg, severe; M. Shalt, spent ball, severe; John Elmer, breast, slight; E. P. Merrill, back, severe; George Strickland, side, severe; Charles Carpenter, hand, slight; Ungel Phillips, leg, severe; Amos Smith, arm, severe; Albert Derby, hip, severe; George Mullice, arm, slight; George Ellsworth, head, severe; William Boll, where not known, supposed a prisoner; William Merrill, supposed a prisoner; James Windouer, head and leg, severe; Fideles Searles, thigh, severe; W. Mitchell, where not known.
Company A--Missing—Captain J. H. Hyde; Corporal Judson Mead, prisoner.
Company B--Wounded--Anthony Cooman, hip, slight; Josiah E. Nath, arm, slight.
Company C.--Wounded, Lieutenant W. B. Burke, elbow, severe; Lieutenant James Tifft, thigh, severe; Granger Van Kleeck, back and neck, severe; William Todd, arm, severe; Charles Grant, leg, severe, and prisoner; Simeon Lewis, breast, severe.
Company C.--Prisoners--J. B. Lasher, James Tucker, Charles Earlly, Levi Emrick and eighty men, names not known, were taken prisoners near
Frederick city.
Company D—Wounded-Lieutenant Lewis D. Williams, hip, severe; Sergeant Lewis Barton, head, slight; George _phar, leg, severe; Captain Eben Newburg, foot, slight; Henry Houghkirk, foot; Dennis McCarty, thigh; Leonard Stormer, arm, slight; Byron Brown, arm, slight; Ely Davis, head; Melvin Fleming, breast; William Anderson, arm, slight; Daniel Roys, arm, severe; Frederick Still, Joseph Williams, arm, severe; Thomas Wilson, foot; Davis Haskill, arm; Walter Duell, shoulder; John L. Comstock, side; Vincent E. Clark, where not known.
Company E--Wounded—Captain William Hawley, arm, slight.
Company E--Killed—Lieutenant James H. Ellis.
Enlisted Men Killed—Norman Lawrence, Oliver A. Wilson, Henry L. Biglow.
Wounded--Barrett Riggs, thigh, severe; Patrick Kirby, where not known; Edward Yorkhead, severe; John Main, wrist; Henry Lansing, back, severe; Dwight Brown, thigh, severe; Cornelius Dobson, thigh, slight; Anson Moorhouse, finger, slight; B. F. Barnes, arm, severe; Fredalin Thomas, arm, slight; Anthony Fales; J. E.Merrill, neck, slight; Michael Doyle, leg, slight.
Company H—Killed—Corporal James Conklin. Wounded—Corporal J. D. Pettys, shoulder; Corporal E. Turner, thigh; Henry Bluff, H. Cronkite, arm; Benjamin Fowler, ankle; Sanford Forbes, missing; A. J. Hutchins, thigh; John Tape, lungs; John Kewman, finger; Dallas Pantry, hand; John Vanderberg, wrist; C. Warner, lungs; W. Wilkins, thigh.
Company K-Killed—Adelbert River, and Charles Prine.
Company K--Wounded--Sergeant P. G. Morgan, back and side; Corporal Timothy Foley, ankle; Andrew Hutchings, back and neck; William Allen, body; Charles Clark, hip; Joseph Ebart, shoulder; Cornelius Collins, eye, severe; George Mann, arm and side; Patrick Wallace, face; W. Blake, shoulder; W. Church, head; Augustus Mitchell, leg; Daniel Black, throat; A. Crosselman, missing; L. Keely, hands; C. Monroe, missing.
Missing--Company K—Lieutenant P. King and eighteen men.
Company M--WOUNDED—G. Dobson, arm, severe; H. Multy, leg, slight; M. Carney, arm, severe, and prisoner; Elias Eastman, side, severe.
Killed--John Barnhart and J. B. Miller; Lieutenant-Colonel E. P. Taft, wounded and taken prisoner; Assistant-Surgeon D. S. Chamberlain, prisoner; Lieutenant E. C. Comstock, acting battalion adjutant, missing.
The regiment has about one hundred and seventy-five missing, names not yet fully ascertained.​
 
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