Tax increases. Polarizing politics. Commercial disruptions and hints of impending war on the horizon. A county with a diverse population, largely allied with one political party going into a national election where the sitting president was perceived by many as weak and ineffectual. Newspaper accounts suggesting strongly that Washington wasn’t paying enough attention to local interests. A surprise attack on a perceived enemy’s fortifications.
A mere 77 years after the end of the American Revolution, strong political currents preceded the Nov. 6, 1860 election. As Southern interests threatened succession from the Union, many found President Buchanan weak. Republican Abraham Lincoln was popular and narrowly won in Suffolk County, a mostly Democratic stronghold of farmers and baymen. Less than a year after his inauguration, Lincoln and the country were plunged into a civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, forcing Union troops to surrender the following day.
Antiwar sentiment had been especially strong on the North Fork. Sympathizers to the Southern cause were called “copperheads.” In a time before modern media, newspapers were the source for information and opinion, and Long Island’s papers were full of editorials both decrying the situation and exhorting the Union efforts to withstand rebellion. Sentiments ran high following the attack, however, with editor of The Republican Watchman, Henry A. Reeves, arrested and imprisoned for his political views and editorials against the war.
That summer preparations for war were everywhere. Villages held flag-raising ceremonies. The Long Island Rail Road offered free transport for men who enlisted. Notices were printed seeking women’s help procuring supplies to outfit troops, including 100 dozen pairs of socks and bandages for hospitals.
And in villages like those in the Moriches, young men signed up to serve at recruitment drives. At first, Suffolk did not have a regiment. Instead, these early volunteers left home to join regiments in NYC, often within the same units so they could be together. The 127th NY Regiment had the largest number of Suffolk recruits, with companies K and part of G including many from the South Fork.
As the war continued, its toll was apparent. Newspapers carried death notices filled with soldiers’ names: killed in battle; wounded; captured; dead of sickness, chiefly typhoid and dysentery.
In September 1862, 21-year-old John Gelston Floyd Jr., great-great-grandson of William Floyd, enlisted with others recruited from Brookhaven, including at a meeting held in Center Moriches; he reached the rank of second lieutenant, 145th NY Volunteers Regiment, Company G.
At first, the war offered opportunity. Many who enlisted early lacked other prospects. Unemployed or unlikely to inherit land, they saw the war as an opportunity to advance economically.
But as the war dragged on and quotas were assigned to congressional districts, Brookhaven Town was among those finding it difficult to fulfill them. In 1862, Congress authorized President Lincoln to institute a draft, anticipating that 300,000 men would be called up. “Ballots” were created for 4,024 eligible men in Suffolk County, of whom 1,120 would be pulled to meet the quota for the First Congressional District.
In Brookhaven Town, population 9923 in 1860, 70 men, most between 18 and 29 years of age, were drafted through lotteries between August and November 1862. Most were farmers or farm laborers, mariners, fishermen—the chief trades of the largely unpopulated area. Thirty-four men from the Moriches area were among them, their names drawn by town supervisor Nathaniel Miller. The 1860 census indicated the total population of Moriches, Center Moriches, and East Moriches was just over 2,000 people; in Eastport, it was 135.
On Sept. 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam, the first fought on Union soil on the Eastern coast, became “the bloodiest single day in American history.” In 12 hours, 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. Among them was 22-year-old Cpl J. Edwin Ruland, 57th NY Infantry, as he led 150 to 200 men into battle at Sunken Road, dubbed “Bloody Lane.”
At Gettysburg, Pa., July 1 to 3, 1863, saw a battle with some of the heaviest loss of life. A combined list of dead and wounded totaled over 50,000. After more than three years, of war every person on Long Island had been affected. There were shortages of goods, increases in taxes, interference with commerce, draft riots in cities.
“When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” captured the need to raise spirits and anticipate an end to the conflict. Once Lincoln signed the Emancipation, the formerly all-white military opened service opportunities to men of color to form segregated ranks. Many were eager to enlist, including Edward C. Edwards and Charles Perdue from Moriches, and Philip Smith from East Moriches.
When the war ended on April 9, 1864, families faced the impact of four years of civil conflict.
In 1882, “A History of Suffolk County” published a list of names, hometowns, units and the fate of soldiers, if known. Charles Chichester died at Andersonville prison. Philip Smith, Lewis S. Osborn and William B. Hulse died of sickness—Hulse of typhoid or malaria in Pensacola, Fla. Gideon H. Terry and J. Edwin Ruland were killed in battle. Many more had nothing next to their names, their fate unknown.
On May 30, 1868, the United States observed the first Decoration Day to honor those who had died defending the Union. Thereafter, The Grand Army of the Republic’s—forerunner to today’s Veterans Administration—Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan proclaimed the last Monday in May an annual observance in their honor. It was officially adopted in NYS in 1873, then soon after nationally.
Among other lasting influences of the war:
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