11/11/2024
Close to the Canadian border, in an area that was home to many abolitionists. Oswego County, New York, housed many of last stops on the Underground Railroad in the United States. On 12 April 1861, southern rebels fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, resulting in what became the Civil War. Although Oswego County was almost 1,000 miles from Fort Sumter, according to historians, “No portion of the Empire State exhibited more patriotism, or responded with greater alacrity to the president’s call for volunteers, than the county of Oswego.”
Forty-six year old Hillman Pierce enlisted in the Union Army in Rome, New York, on 2 October 1861. His 13-year-old son Willard enlisted 3 weeks later, claiming to be 17 years old. Willard mustered in as part of Company “B”, 81st New York Infantry, on 23 Oct 1861, but was discharged on 20 December when it was discovered that he was underage. Hillman mustered in at Sandy Creek on 6 November 1861, as part of Company “B,” 7th New York “Black Horse,” Cavalry. The Calvary was discharged in Washington, D.C., in March 1862, for “excess of cavalry” before even having been mounted. Hillman returned to New York, where he took up work as a carpenter.
On 20 February 1864, Hillman again mustered into the U.S. Army, this time with his 18-year-old son, Lewis. They joined Company “A,” New York 2nd Heavy Artillery. They fought with 108,000 other Union soldiers in the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia, in June 1864. In a battle that lasted 2 weeks, resulted in 17,000 casualties, and saw General Lee’s troops victorious, the father and son survived.
The following year the regiment found itself in battle near Farmville, Virginia. This was likely the Battle of High Bridge, one of the last conflicts of the war. One of Lewis’s military commanders described the injury Lewis sustained in the April 7, 1865, battle as follows:
"While in an engagement [Lewis received] a severe gunshot-wound from the enemy, the ball occasioning said wound being reserved in his neck & passing through the same & lodging near his left shoulder & in its passing cutting & passing through his wind pipe & so affecting his voice as to render him unable to speak above a whisper & entirely rendering him unfit for military duty."
The service of Hillman and Lewis is commemorated on a monument in front of the Pulaski, NY, town hall.
