Mention the words “The Soldiers of the Civil War” in the Town of Montgomery and most will automatically think about the 124th NYS Volunteers, the “Orange Blossoms.” How many, I wonder will recollect the twenty-eight men from the Town of Montgomery who served the cause of the Union in the USCT?
According to “New York in the War of the Rebellion” colored men had been formed into military organizations under State designations as early as May 1862; but such recruitment was not officially commenced by the US War Department until May 1863. The regiments formed were designated the United States Colored Troops (USCT). It is estimated that 4,125 New York men of color served the Union and three regiments in particular, the 20th Infantry, the 26th Infantry and the 31st Infantry were considered the New York Regiments composed almost entirely of men from this state.
Twenty-eight men in the Town of Montgomery answered the call. Of that group, three men were non-combatants. Pvt. George Brown and Pvt. John A. Diamond served in the 19th NYS Volunteers for three months during 1862. Brown served as a waiter to the officers: he was 46 years old. Diamond’s record in the Town of Montgomery Register states that he guarded Rebel prisoners; no location given. Pvt. James Moran was 33 years old when he enlisted in Dec. 1862 in the 168th Infantry for 9 months. One of three Moran brothers who enlisted, he was a waiter.
Fifteen of the other twenty-five men from Montgomery served in the 20th Infantry. They enlisted in Goshen in December 1863 and were mustered in at Rikers Island in New York in January 1864 for three years of service. This regiment was attached to Department of the East to March 1864; Defenses of New Orleans, La., Department of the Gulf to December 1864; District of West Florida and Southern Alabama, Department of the Gulf, to February 1865; Defenses of New Orleans to June 1865; and, District of La Fourche, Department of the Gulf, to October 1865. Most of the Montgomery men served in the Defense of New Orleans in 1864 and 1865. This regiment lost a total of 285 men during service; 2 officers and 283 enlisted men died of disease.
The Montgomery men in the 20th were: Pvt. Charles Dubois, Pvt. Isaac Lewis, Pvt. George Moran, Pvt. Marcus Moran, Pvt. Alexander Anderson, Pvt. Andrew Ludlow, Pvt. James Dewitt, 1st Cor. Hiram Vandevort, Pvt. Oliver Haines, Pvt. Jacob Sears Johnson, Pvt. Abraham Graham, Pvt. Alfred S. Robinson, Pvt. Charles Palmer, Pvt. Henry Johnson, and Pvt. Samuel Roosa. The primary occupation of all twenty-eight men was either farmer or laborer.

Three men in this regiment died while in service. The service record of Pvt. Charles Dubois states that he “performed his duty as a true soldier” until taken ill in the fall of 1864 and died in November near the City of New Orleans. Similarly, brothers Pvt. George Moran and Pvt. Marcus Moran died of diarrhea a few weeks apart in August and September 1864 in the regimental hospital in Carrollton, La. near New Orleans. Pvt. Jacob Sears Johnson enlisted in December 1863 but was determined unable to serve and was discharged with a physical disability in March 1864 at Rikers Island.
Two men in the 20th Infantry faced disciplinary charges while in service. 1st Corp. Hiram Vandevort was promoted, demoted, and then had his rank reinstated in 1865. He was imprisoned on a charge of “disobedience of orders.” Vandevort had been ordered to arrest a soldier of the 20th who was drunk in the streets. He was released after a successful defense proving that the incident was over when he arrived at the scene and there was no one to arrest. Pvt. Samuel Roosa was not as fortunate. He was charged with desertion and served six months at hard labor with a ball and chain attached to his right leg for the term of his sentence. After his discharge from the Army, he returned to Montgomery and worked for Seth M. Capron at the woolen mill in Walden.
Eight men from Montgomery enlisted in the 26th Infantry. This unit saw action in 1864 near Charleston in the Battles of John’s Island and Burden’s Causeway (July), Honey Hill (Nov.) and Tulifinny (Dec.). The regiment was one of the three raised by the Union League Club of New York and mustered in on Rikers Island in February 1864. The Commanding Officer was Col. William Silliman an Orange County native. Silliman died of a wound to the thigh on December 9, 1864 at Beaufort, S.C. and is buried in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Serving in this regiment from Montgomery were Pvt. James Hasbrouck, Pvt. John James Brown, Pvt. Charles Henry Jacklin, 1st Sgt. George W. Johnson, Pvt. Caesar Jackson, Pvt. Albert C. Jackson, Corp. Charles H. Deyo and Corp. Marcus Kelly. The Town Register reports Kelly “Missing in Action” at John’s Island in 1864.
Two other Montgomery men served in the following regiments: Pvt. Oliver Brown served in the 31st Infantry, and Pvt. George Eager who enlisted in Massachusetts, was in the 5th Mass. Cavalry. Born in Montgomery, Eager is buried in the Riverside Cemetery. This is also the resting place of Pvt. Alfred S. Robinson of the 20th Infantry.
Dedicated in 1890, the people of the Town of Montgomery collected $8000 to commission Emil Koch of Middletown to create the Soldiers Monument which stands in the Village Square in Walden. The names of Civil War battles are memorialized on the monument: Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Appomattox, and Wilderness. The monument bears the following inscription:
“Erected by the Town in honor of the men of Montgomery
Who fought and to the memory of those who died in the
War for the unity of the Republic. 1861—1865”
Nowhere is there mention of the Defense of New Orleans or the battles of John’s Island, Honey Hill, and Tulifinny near Charleston. Certainly, it is time that the Montgomery men who served in the US Colored Troops be honored for their courage and bravery and their role in protecting the Union. May we always hold their memory sacred as we recall the words of President Lincoln at the dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg—important words then, and equally important now.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

          Abraham Lincoln
          November 19, 1863