This tale highlights the key role railroads played in the civil war based on records of the short 21 year life of the author’s distant relative, a volunteer in New York State’s 144th Infantry Regiment. It’s written at Phil Wirdzek’s request after the author recounted it to Phil upon reading his description in the July PCRC Newsletter of Lincoln’s 1900 mile rail trip to the White House. Luckily for the Union, it had a superior railroad network at the civil war’s onset and quickly learned to use it effectively after the debacle of the First Manassas--won by the Confederates after rushing in reinforcements from the Shenandoah Valley via the Manassas Gap Railroad. In the first years of the war, Washington, DC was quite vulnerable, with Lincoln calling for 75,000 volunteers in 1861 and 300,000 more a year later. Farm boy Addison Griffin heeded Lincoln’s call; he and 851 others from Delaware County in the Catskill Mountains formed the 144th NYS Volunteer Infantry Regiment and were mustered into federal service on September 27, 1962. Within 6 days after leaving home on October 8, 1862— thanks to railroad transportation, the 144th was in defensive positions in and around the nation’s capital. After April 1863, the 144th saw action in South Carolina and Florida. The unit suffered 218 deaths, including 174 from disease. 500 Miles or so by 4-4-0 steam: After starting a 39 mile march on October 8, 1862 from Camp Delaware to the Erie railhead at Hancock, NY, the 144th was transported westward by the Erie Railroad to Elmira, NY, a rail and military training center. Departing Elmira on October 11, the Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania brought the 144th to Baltimore and the B&O delivered the unit to Washington, DC on October 13. Later in 1863, the Northern Central brought Lincoln to Gettysburg, where he delivered his famous address.
In 1864, Elmira opened a notorious prison camp for Confederates, dubbed “Hellmira” and the “Andersonville of the North.” Before the war’s end in 1865, 2,944 prisoners died; the death rate was 25%. Most of the dead are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery, where Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) also rests. His wife was an Elmira native and he wrote many of his stories there. At the war’s end, prison survivors reportedly were given rail passes and some money to go home. Family legend has Addison Griffin, a son of the author’s great-grandfather, dying in a train wreck on July 30, 1863. However, military records state it was due to “chronic diarrhea” or dysentery—the leading cause of death during the civil war. He is buried in one the first national cemeteries--created in 1861 near DC’s Rock Creek Park and whose modern name is the US Soldiers and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery.
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PCRCThe Page County Railroad Club has a wealth of railroad information shared between it's members. In this blog we will do our best to share that knowledge. Archives
September 2020
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