Judge McKean’s Call to Arms

The Hon. James B. McKean of Saratoga Springs, the representative in Congress from this district at that time, issued the following stirring circular to his constituents:

“Fellow Citizens of the Fifteenth Congressional District: Traitors in arms seek to overthrow our constitution and to seize our capital. Let us go and help to defend them. Who will despond because we lost the Battle of Bull Run? Our fathers lost the battle of Bunker Hill, but it taught them how to gain the victory at Bemis Heights.

Let us learn wisdom from disaster, and send overwhelming numbers into the field. Let farmers, mechanics, merchants, and all classes—for the liberties of all are at stake—and in organizing companies. I will cheerfully assist in procuring the necessary papers. Do not misunderstand me. I am not asking for an office at your hands. If you who have most at stake will go, I will willingly go with you as a private soldier. Let us organize a Bemis Heights Battalion, and vie with each other in serving our country, thus showing that we are inspired by the holy memories of the Revolutionary battlefields upon and near which we are living.

James B. McKean/Saratoga Springs, August 21, 1861

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Judge McKean followed this up by a campaign of patriotic speeches throughout his district. At once the young men began to enlist by scores and hundreds, and military companies here and there were organized and began to drill. Soon Saratoga Springs was appointed as a recruiting station and rendezvous. The fairgrounds was appropriated for the camp, and was christened Camp Schuyler.

Thither the recruits were sent, and by the middle of November, 1861, had been drilled into some semblance of a regiment. Judge McKean was fittingly selected as colonel of the regiment, and he proved to be a most excellent selection. At first this body called itself the Bemis Heights Battalion, but in the numbering of the Regiments of the State, the number 77 fell to it, which, considering that it was chiefly raised and recruited in Saratoga county, and that the great battle of Bemis Heights of Saratoga was fought in 1777, that seemed an appropriate number.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1861, the regiment marched out of camp, 864 strong, and started for Washington, where it arrived Dec. 1st. On the fifteenth of February following, it joined the third Brigade, of the second Division of the sixth Army Corps, which connection it retained throughout the whole period of its service. Immediately on coming into close proximity with the enemy, the usual sifting process began. The                and cowards got out on one pretext or another, leaving only the true hearts and brave to face the music, but fortunately the latter were in vast majority.

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Hardships Decimate the Regiment

The regiment received its first baptism of fire at Lee’s Mills, Va. on the 4th of April, 1862. But that proved to be only the preliminary skirmish of many a hard fought battle. The peninsular Campaign which followed, with its hardships of mud marches and battles, and camp fevers, sadly decimated the regiment. Because of this, some of the most efficient officers were sent back, to recruit the depleted ranks. Colonel McKean among others, lost his health and was forced to retire.

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Schuylerville Raises a Company

At that time, Schuylerville greatly distinguished herself by raising an entire company of men, which became known as Company K of the 77th. The first ten men received all the way from fifty to three hundred dollars, bounty money. The company chose for its captain, John R. Rockwell, then editor of the Saratoga American (the local paper). First lieutenant, William H. Fursman, second lieutenant, Cyrus F. Rich. This company by no means represented all that went from this township, for no less than 340 marched from this historic town and marched to the defense of the Union. Three fourths of them however were members of the 77th and shared in the glory of her achievements. Colonel W.B. Frinch became commander of the regiment after the retirement of Colonel McKean. Quite a number of the men from this township served in other distinguished regiments, as the 30th and the 44th, also in other arms of the service.

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List of Battles in Which the 77th Fought

The history of the achievements and experiences of each of these regiments, especially the 77th, and the famous Sixth Corps, of which it formed a part, is well worthy of the volumes that have been written upon them. Dr. George T. Shermens’ history of the 77th is specially worthy of perusal. To that and other works we would refer the interested reader for further details. We must give space, however, to the following important facts: The 77th served under McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant, each of whom for a time had command of the Army of the Potomac. It went through the Peninsular Campaign in 1862, the Campaign of 1863 which took it again into Virginia and afterward into Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1864 it served for a time in the Wilderness Campaign under Grant; but after Spottsylvania it was withdrawn with the Sixth Corps for the defense of Washington; there it was sent into the Shenandoah Valley, where it served through that remarkable campaign under Sheridan, participating in the Battles of Winchester and especially Cedar Creek, where a reinforcement of one man (Sheridan) turned ignominious defeat into glorious victory.

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The 77th was in the following battles:

Lee’s Mills, April 4, 1862

Williamsburg, May 5, 1862

Mechanicsville, May 24, 1862

Goldings Farm, June 5, 1862

Savage Station, June 19, 1862

Garnett’s Hill, June 28, 1862

White Oak Swamp, June 30, 1862

Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862

Crampton Gap, September 14, 1862

Antietam, September 17, 1862

Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862

St. Mary’s Heights, May 3, 1863

Franklin’s Crossing, June 5, 1863

Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, 1863

Spottsylvania, May 10, 1864

Defense of Washington, July 13, 1864

Winchester, September 19, 1864

Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864

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It was at the battle of Ceder Creek that the stand made by the 6th Corps, of which the 77th formed a part, saved the day, and was holding the Confederates in check when Sheridan arrived on the scene—“From Winchester twenty miles away.”​

 

Mustered Out

Says Colonel French, in his sketch of the 77th, ”With this grand and glorious battle, the fighting experience of the 77th regiment closed and its term of service having expired, it was ordered to Saratoga Springs to be mustered out, where it arrived on the 23rd of November, 1864, just three years after the day of its mustering in. The regiment of 105 men and 14 officers, all that remained of the 1,369 that had served with it, was received with all the love and honor a patriotic people could bestow. They were received by a series of speeches in the public hall, and were then treated to a splendid banquet, tendered by the citizens of Saratoga Springs at the American Hotel.” (So much of Company K as returned to Schuylerville after having marched through the streets, were given a collation by the ladies of the Reformed Church.)

“This is the history in brief of Saratoga county’s pet regiment, the 77th, a record of noble deeds without a single blot. It never, by any act on the field or in the comp, on the march or in the flight, disgraced the county from which it was sent. It never flinched or wavered from any duty, however perilous, which was assigned to it, nor until properly ordered, did it ever turn its back upon the fire. From the beginning to the end of its service the regiment bore its colors untouched by the hand of the enemy. They were often shattered and torn by shot and shell, often leveled to the dust by the death or wound of their leaders, but they were always kept sacred, and on the muster out of the regiment, were deposited in the Bureau of Military Statistics at Albany.”

What Colonel French has said of the 77th could be said with equal truth, we are assured of the other regiments which were partially recruited form the town of Saratoga.

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Taken from the Story of Old Saratoga and History of Schuylerville by John Henry Braudow, M.A. Sometime Pastor of the (Dutch) Reformed Church, Schuylerville, and member of the New York State Historical Assn.

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The flag was afterward sent to the Historical Room in the Casino at Saratoga Springs and rested furled in a case—I have seen it there. When a flag becomes too old it is burned and the ashes placed in an urn. The urn is now upstairs in the Museum in the Casino.

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Sufferings and Sacrifices of Wives and Mothers

Thus we see that many of the boys who marched forth returned no more forever; those who came back were greatly changed. The health of many were greatly shattered. Some were crippled and maimed in body, most of them returned with new habits and altered ambitions. There were empty places in almost every household in those days. Everywhere was seen the badge of morning worn by women; old and young were in black gowns, or, if there was no crepe on their persons, it was quite sure to be upon their hearts. For the men at home as well as at the front, there was excitement in the description of a charge, the fierce struggle and victory. But precious little excitement or consolation was there in this for the wife, the mother or betrothed, left behind at home; no glory in it for her; only silent suffering and abiding anxiety. No adequate history of the women of the Civil War; but it is strange indeed, that no great sculptor or architect has been commissioned to erect some mighty monument to commemorate in enduring marble and bronze her heroism, her sacrifice, and her achievement.