Otsego County, New York
in the Civil War

The following is taken from Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Military Statistics of the State of New York, Albany: [The Bureau], (C. Wendell), 1866.

As Cherry Valley is the oldest town in Otsego county, and distinguished for her suffering in the revolution, so she was the first to respond to the call for 75,000 men after the fall of Sumter. She raised a company and tendered its services, but it was not accepted owing to the organizations of what was known at Albany as skeleton regiments. The company, after being in barracks for some time, were disbanded, and several of the men enlisted in other organisations. Two of the young men active in raising this company, Olcott and Campbell, and who were the lieutenants, subsequently enlisted as privates in the Forty-fourth (Ellsworth), and by successive promotions became Colonels—the former of the famous One hundred and twenty-first New York, and the latter of the Twenty-third United States Colored troops, and a member of the Army Board at Washington. In the course of the summer of 1861, large numbers of young men enlisted both in the infantry and cavalry— especially in the Mix (3d) and Ira Harris (5th) cavalry. Eight or ten young men, representing some of the principal families in Cherry Valley and Cooperstown, enlisted as privates in the Forty-fourth. With one or two exceptions; all rose to be field or line officers, and all thus promoted, were either killed, wounded or prisoners in Southern prisons. The bodies of more than half of them were brought back for sepulture in their native valleys. In the fall and winter of 1861-'62, there was a recruiting station at Cherry Valley and three companies wereraised for the Seventy-sixth New York--one company, of Berdan's sharpshooters was also organized at Cherry Valley, and most of the men enlisted in that vicinity. The First and Second Lieutenants, both afterwards captured, and brothers, were killed in battle, and their remains, lie in the Cherry Valley burying ground. Up to the time of the establishment of the senatorial or military districts, Otsego county, had furnished about one thousand men. In 1862, Otsego and Herkimer raised the One hundred and twenty-first and One hundred and fifty-second, the former under the command of Colonel now Major-General Upton, was known in the army of the Potomac as Upton's regulars, and was a regiment greatly distinguished in that grand army. It proved its gallantry and left its blood in profusion on almost every battle-field. Of the One hundred and twenty-first and One hundred and fifty-second, Otsego furnished nearly fifteen hundred men. Before, the first draft she had sent about 2,500 men to the field, almost all of them native-born sons of the county. This was a large contribution from an agricultural county, with no cities and no floating population. She responded to all the orders for drafts.

Index to Newspaper Articles from Albany County periodicals.
Indexed by David Moore.

An Excel spreadsheet with this data is here.

See also The Communites of New York in the Civil War

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