While the usual in-person Memorial Day commemoration has been nixed due to bans on public gathering, there are many ways we can honor Shelter Island’s fallen soldiers:
- American Legion Mitchell Post 281 has pre-recorded a service that will be broadcast on Channel 22 starting at 10AM on Memorial Day, after a community-wide moment of silence (find details in this Gazette post)
- As part of that service, Father Peter DeSanctis of Our Lady of the Isle Roman Catholic Church will read the names of the 19 men who died in while serving in the U.S. military on behalf of Shelter Island (see the complete list here)
- Members of the post and its Legion Auxiliary will also honor those who died in service, and all Island veterans who have passed away, by placing American flags at their gravesites
For our part, we decided to learn more about some of the fallen and bring their stories to you. We begin with those who served and died during the Civil War. In future issues, we’ll look into and share the stories behind others on the list.
A while back, local historians, Edward Shillingburg and his late wife, Patricia, had pulled together excellent research about many of the seven Island men who died in the Civil War. We tapped online resources that weren’t available to them at the time, to bring you this updated information.
Shelter Island losses in U.S. Civil War
Dozens of Islanders answered the call to preserve the Union. The records they left behind can never tell the whole story about their experiences. But they do give us a sense of what these young soldiers went through, and of the long reach of the complexities of warfare. Below are stories of the seven young Shelter Islanders who lost their lives during the Civil War — a time when injury, illness and imprisonment exacted an enormous toll, and no community was immune.
(They’re listed alphabetically by last name with year of death)
Robert J. Congdon — 1865
Robert J. Congdon was born on Shelter Island in 1840 to Joseph Congdon, a farmer and blacksmith, and his wife, Esther (née Case). Robert enlisted on August 28, 1862 in Brooklyn.
On September 9, 1862 he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 139th New York Infantry. The 139th was stationed at the tip of the Del-Mar-Va peninsula at Camp Hamilton, Department of Virginia during the ensuing winter. It joined engagements in Virginia during the remainder of the war, eventually participating in the siege of Richmond in 1865 and the ultimate occupation of the Confederate capital on April 3.
On January 11, 1863, Congdon was listed as “absent in arrest and confinement at Fort Norfolk under sentence [of] court martial.” Whatever he was accused of, he does soon appear again on the muster rolls through the spring and summer of 1863.
But he’s again marked absent in February 1864, and dropped from the roll as a deserter. There are no details given, so it’s impossible to know the cause. Perhaps he simply got separated from his unit and quickly rejoined. The word “straggler” is used elsewhere in his records and may better express the situation.
A problem on both sides
During the Civil War, desertion was rampant on both sides, historians say. To keep soldiers in line, authorities imposed strict penalties — up to and including execution. But given the unusual nature of the war, with Americans fighting against other Americans, some advocated for clemency.
There was no guarantee of safety for soldiers slipping over to the other side; they might be imprisoned — kept as a valuable commodity for possible exchanges. Prisons on both sides were bursting with captives, and conditions were deplorable.
At the time Private Congdon was last marked absent, the 139th was engaged in one of the largest Union raids against Richmond, a massing of some 7,000 troops from Williamsburg. The raiders were spurred on by stories of ill treatment of Union prisoners by their Confederate captors.
The planned raid relied on information from Confederate deserters. It was upended when a Union soldier who’d been granted clemency for murder bribed his jailers, escaped and tipped off Confederate commanders. Other attempts to free Union prisoners at Richmond also failed, and in late 1864 many were moved from Virginia to the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
Dying by dozens daily
After February 1864, Shelter Island’s Robert J. Congdon does not turn up in Union records again until he’s found to have died on April 13, 1864 in a Confederate prison. He’d been held at Richmond’s overcrowded and squalid General Hospital No. 21, a former tobacco factory. The cause of death was chilblains, a type of swelling of the extremities caused by excessive exposure to cold.
A few weeks after his death, an account in the Richmond Examiner said that in that hospital, prisoners “are dying by dozens daily.” It’s worth noting that historians estimate that more than half of the 700,000+ soldiers who died in the Civil War perished of diseases not caused by war wounds.
Zebulon V. Flowers — 1863
(He’s been memorialized on Shelter Island as Zebulon B. Glover. But little information was known about him. We could find no Civil War records under that name, and realized it was probably due to a transcription error. Eventually we found his true name, and with that information, his story emerged.)
Zebulon was born in 1848, the fourth child of Lewis Flowers, a carpenter in Hempstead, according to the 1850 US Census.
Ten years later, 14-year-old Zebulon was living with his widowed mother, Elizabeth, and three younger brothers in Brooklyn. That’s where he enlisted at age 16, on September 9, 1862, joining the 159th Regiment of the New York State Volunteers.
How he became connected to Shelter Island is not clear but certain military records do refer to this place as his home. And by 1865, some of his family lived here. Perhaps, like so many others in Brooklyn, the family had a seasonal connection to the Island.
Filling quotas
During the Civil War, communities were assigned quotas. These could be met with local volunteers as well as outsiders willing to register in exchange for an offered bounty.
Shelter Island seems to have enlisted many soldiers in this manner. In the official Town roll, some hometowns are crossed out and replaced by the words ‘Shelter Island’. The Town Clerk wrote a note in the margin that says: “It appears that anyone credited to a Town must be put down resident of said Town.”
When the clerk, J.D. Tuthill, signed the final roll on October 11, 1865, he also included a note pertaining to the whereabouts of some these off-Islanders after they’d enlisted: “All I can ascertain regarding them is their names, times they were mustered in, and the amount that the community paid each.”
Zebulon Flowers at Irish Bend
Whatever his connection to Shelter Island, Zebulon V. Flowers joined the 159th as a private. At 16, he was Company F’s youngest member, and records say variously he was a clerk or a drummer.
The 159th steamed out of New York Harbor on December 1. It made its way to Baton Rouge, where after more than two weeks at sea, on December 17 the soldiers again set foot on land.
There was snow on the ground when they left their training camp on Staten Island, but it was hot in Louisiana and the men marveled at “orange trees laden with their golden fruit,” the 159th’s regimental history says.
Soon, they were making their way up the Atchafalaya River and along its tributary bayous into enemy territory. They traveled on floating transports protected by Union gunboats, the regimental history says.
Their purpose: cut off Confederate troops coming out of Vicksburg into the delta region. Despite the early promise of those orange trees, they found the land had been heavily foraged by others, and as the swampy forests thickened around them, rations thinned, the regimental history says.
They progressed through a number of skirmishes, going ashore to take up positions. On April 14, under commander Col. Edward L. Molineaux, they engaged the enemy at Irish Bend, a horseshoe-shaped turn in the twisting Bayou Teche.
Union troops won the day, but so heavy was the fighting that a fence between the forces “was found almost cut to pieces with bullets,” the regimental history says. While leading the initial charge, Molineaux was shot through the jaw, but survived.
Zebulon V. Flowers died at Irish Bend of gunshot wounds — or as it was recorded in the records in Latin, vulnus sclopeticum. Weeks later a letter writer described awful conditions in the heat of the deep South, “One has no idea how difficult it is for wounds to heal in this climate.”
Two months later, his death was reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on Wednesday, June 10 in a notice that said “Colonel Molineaux spoke very highly of him.” Molineaux went on to become a celebrated Major General of the Union Army.
Zebulon’s’ mother was awarded a pension. She lived for a time on Shelter Island, where her elder son, George, was listed in New York’s 1865 census as a seafarer.
Randolph Campbell Griffing — 1861
Randolph C. Griffing was born on Shelter Island on June 18, 1843, to Charles and Mariah (Havens) Griffing. His father died when he was young, leaving a family of four children — one girl and three boys.
The middle son, Randolph enlisted on August 1, 1861 in Sag Harbor and mustered in the 48th New York Infantry Regiment, Company H in Brooklyn two weeks later.
The 48th arrived in Washington, D.C. in mid-September and camped out on Capitol Hill, according to a diarist who kept careful notes that were later published as part of a regimental history.
President Abraham Lincoln visited the regiment before it shipped off down the coast to South Carolina. There it joined in naval skirmishes on the Sea Islands around Savannah. On Thursday, November 7 the New York volunteers came ashore on Hilton Head where, according to the diarist, “our men landed and planted a flag in Dixie at half past two.”
The diarist, John G. Abbott, was in charge of guard duty at Hilton Head and wrote down numerous details of camp life. For instance, that small pox broke out on December 1, and some in the company received vaccinations.
He noted that at 2AM on December 10, “Griffin of Company H died” and was buried at 4PM. Other records show this was a reference to Shelter Island’s Randolph C. Griffing, and that the cause of death was pneumonia, which killed some 20,000 Union soldiers during the war.
Griffing’s remains were reportedly moved when the federal government established a National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1863. But we had trouble finding any record of his reinterment there.
Then we came across a Hilton Head archive that noted his name had been incorrectly recorded. We found he had indeed been laid to rest at Beaufort in plot #12-1042, but under the name Rudolph Griffin.
James Madison Hempstead — 1864
Known as Madison, he was born on Shelter Island, the second eldest of four children of James Madison Hempstead and his wife, Rachel. She was a daughter (or niece — records vary) of Jason and Peggy Case, who’d formerly been enslaved.
In July of 1863, Madison Hempstead, 26, and his brother Henry, 24, registered for the draft, as required under the Civil War Enrollment Act. At the time, Madison reported his occupation as a mariner and Henry as a farm laborer.
Madison enlisted and mustered in on January 4, 1864 in New Haven as a member of the 29th Regiment of the Connecticut Infantry. According to archives.gov, nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Most were assigned to a portion of the U.S. Army created to oversee all African American regiments, known as the United States Colored Troops.
Like so many other young men who joined up, James Madison Hempstead didn’t survive long enough to see any fighting. The 29th left New Haven in March for Annapolis, where upon arrival the soldiers pitched tents just as a heavy snowstorm began.
From there, the 29th went to Beaufort, South Carolina for training, arriving April 13. Private Hempstead died there on May 31, 1864 at the regimental hospital. The cause of death was inflammation of the lungs.
The 29th became known for “gallant service” and two of its companies were the very first to enter the city of Richmond when it fell after a prolonged siege, prompting General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox soon after.
Back on Shelter Island, Henry Hempstead had married a woman named Sarah. The NYS 1865 census lists them with their three children, including a 9-month-old son they had named James Madison Hempstead.
The soldier James Madison Hemsptead was buried — like fellow Shelter Islander Randolph C. Griffing — in the Beaufort National Cemetery. His plot is 36-4101.
Charles Henry Havens — 1862
Born December 17, 1843, Charles was the only son of Augustus Havens, a boatman, and his wife, the former Phebe Jennings. He had two younger sisters, Helen and Mary.
Havens enlisted in Greenport on August 22, 1862 with the 127th New York Infantry Regiment. He’s described in his Union Army records as 5 foot 7 with brown hair, brown eyes and a light complexion. Seaman was his occupation.
Before departing for war, he had his photograph taken at the H Terry studio in Sag Harbor. Wearing his uniform, he looks directly at the camera appearing full of youthful confidence and expectation.
The 127th mustered in at Brooklyn on September 8, 1862 and left two days later to serve in the defense of Washington, D.C. Havens was a member of Company H, which included men from across the East End.
But just two months later, Private Havens died of typhoid fever on November 13, 1862 at Washington D.C. in the Branch General Hospital and was buried there. He was 18.
The 127th went on to participate in many important battles. According to regimental records, during the entirety of the war the 127th lost a total of 130 men; a whopping 73 percent died of disease — 94 enlisted men and one officer.
Joseph Howard Hudson — 1862
Joseph Howard Hudson, known as Howard, was born on Shelter Island in 1840, a son of Joseph Bellamy Hudson and his wife, Maria Louise Griffing. He had an older sister, also named Maria.
A younger brother, Benjamin C. Hudson, was born in 1841, and their mother died shortly after. Their father married Mary Ann Havens of Shelter Island, who raised these step-children along with four half-siblings after their father died in 1859.
Howard Hudson was working as a school teacher in De Witt, Illinois when he signed up to fight in 1862. On March 24, he mustered in with Company E of the 20th Illinois Infantry at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.
Pittsburg Landing, a small port town along the Tennessee River, is best known as the location of the bloody Battle of Shiloh, which took place there on April 6 and 7, 1862. The 20th Illinois was engaged in that battle, and was credited with capturing an important Confederate battery during the first day of fighting.
Historian David Wilson Reed wrote this about that day: “Thirteen hours the battle had raged over all parts of the field without a moment’s cessation.” So exhausted were the soldiers “that they sought their bivouacs with little regard to battle lines, and that both armies lay down in the rain to sleep as best they could with very little thought, by either, or any danger of attack during the night.”
What specific role Howard Hudson may have played at Shiloh — where nearly 24,000 men in all were killed, wounded or missing — is not recorded. But not long after, he was in the General Hospital at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, where he died May 7 of typhoid fever.
His brother’s story
Benjamin C. Hudson, a carpenter, volunteered for war, too. In fact, he presented himself in Brooklyn on the same day and in the same place as Shelter Island’s Robert J. Congdon (see the first listing). Benjamin Hudson became a sergeant in the New York 139th Infantry, Company G, in which Congdon served as a private.
While Benjamin didn’t die in war, a battle injury may have cut short his life. The Shillingburgs relate the rest of Benjamin’s story as follows: “He lost an eye by a bullet wound. He married Sarah Ann Cartwright on May 29, 1867. He died in 1868 at age 27 years 6 months, a month before his only child, Eva Benjamin Hudson, was born on March 22. Eva eventually married David Harries Young who ran the general store with Byron Griffing.”
Joseph Howard Hudson is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in De Witt, Illinois, where it is reported a marker was erected to honor him in 1879. His brother, Benjamin, is buried in the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
Sylvester D. Nicoll — 1862
Sylvester D. Nicoll was born into a prominent Island family (Mashomack Preserve is a remnant of the Nicoll family’s land).
He enlisted for the war on October 5, 1861. An experienced whaler who worked out of Sag Harbor, on December 9, 1861 he was chosen to be captain of Company A of the 1st Regiment, Marine Artillery of the New York Volunteers.
Nicoll was given command of the USS Picket, a small ship that had been retrofitted for use as a Union gunboat. It worked the bays and rivers of Virginia and the Carolinas, as Union forces focused on cutting off Confederate supplies and reinforcements arriving by sea.
According to an excellent history by the Encyclopedia of North Carolina (find it a ncpedia.org), the Picket was one of seven armed propeller vessels accompanying an 1862 expedition led by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
“The ships were collected in haste and formed a motley fleet that inspired skepticism among Burnside’s officers and men as to their seaworthiness,” the ncpedia.org account says. “Therefore, to demonstrate his own confidence in the vessels, Burnside chose the Picket (the smallest ship in the fleet) as his flagship for the voyage.”
“After the Burnside expedition began operations in North Carolina waters, the Picket, with its shallow draft, proved to be particularly valuable for covering the landing of Union troops at Roanoke Island, New Bern, and Fort Macon,” the account says.
“On the morning of 6 Sept. 1862, as the Picket lay with the navy gunboat Louisiana in the Tar River at Washington, North Carolina, a Confederate force made a surprise attack on the town,” ncpedia.org says. “Both gunboats went into action to shell the advancing Confederates, but the Picket was able to fire only one gun before it exploded and sank in the river.”
Nicoll died, along with 18 crewmen. He was 42. Six others were wounded. Among those who died were several Sag Harbor seamen.
If you have additional information about any of these soldiers, please send it to us so we can update this post. Reach us at editor@shelterislangazette.com.
