A History of Long Island, Vol. 2 by Peter Ross

Author:Peter Ross [Ross, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-09-20T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXXIX. THE CIVIL WAR.

In the beginning of 1860 the military resources of Brooklyn included a little over 1,150 officers and men, with vague notions of discipline and rather picturesque ideas of drill and duty. They were good men, most of them, in a fighting sense, but for many years all ideas of fighting had been abandoned, real war was something that might only be encountered in picture books, and the principal aim of the soldier was to wear an original sort of uniform: the more original and outré the more gallant a soldier was he. The Thirteenth Regiment had 250 men on its roll, the Fourteenth had 150, the Twenty-eighth had 400, and the Seventieth 350.

The Thirteenth was in point of years a historic command, for, although only organized in 1847, it was a gathering together of several military companies, some of which could trace a descent, more or less direct, to commands which were ready to do battle on the earthworks in 1814. They included the Brooklyn City Guard, the Pearson Light Guard, the Washington Horse Guard, Oregon Guard, Jefferson Guard, Williamsburgh Light Artillery, and the Brooklyn Light Guard. All wore different uniforms: some had white coats, some had red, and one was rigged up in facsimile of the old Continentals when the latter were on dress parade. In 1858, when a gray uniform was ordered by the State to supersede the various fantasticalities, it nearly disorganized the command and the strength of the regiment was greatly reduced. The Fourteenth Regiment came into existence in 1846, and was also made up of a number of separate companies each wearing its own uniform. It was originally known as the Brooklyn Chasseurs, probably for no other reason than that the name sounded much more heroic and dignified than light infantry would have done. In 1861 it adopted the zouave dress, which it wore during the war. This garb won for its wearers the title of "Red-legged Devils," a compliment to the fighting qualities they constantly and gloriously exhibited. The Twenty-eighth Regiment was organized in 1860, when it seemed certain that war was about to be the outcome of the trouble between the States, and when war was inevitable and the North began to put its military force in order it was deemed advisable to disband the Seventieth Regiment. It was a nondescript body, half artillery and half cavalry, and in that form not easily handled. But the men were not lost to the State. The artillery portion organized what was known as the First Battalion of Light Artillery, and rendered good service in manning the forts in the harbor, while the cavalry formed the nucleus of a regiment of horse.

The news from Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call for troops aroused the utmost excitement and enthusiastic patriotism throughout Kings county. The existing regiments at once began recruiting, and found no difficulty in swelling their ranks. Money began to be poured out from every quarter to help those who proposed to do the fighting.

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