In the last two posts, I’ve regaled readers with tales of
two of the Woolsey children, Mary and Charles, the offspring of a prominent
abolitionist family from upstate New York. For this post, I’m going to discuss another
Woolsey sister, Eliza, and her connection with the Army of the Potomac.
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| This is Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland, philanthropist, social reformer, abolitionist, and purchaser of Union headgear. |
First: a little biography. Eliza Woolsey was born in 1835, the
fifth daughter of Charles and Jane Woolsey. At age nineteen, she married Joseph
Howland, the orphaned son of a prominent New York City merchant. In 1859, the
young couple moved into a massive estate called Tioronda, which is south of
Beacon, New York, where Fishkill Creek empties into the Hudson River. At the
outbreak of the Civil War, Joseph Howland sought a commission as an officer,
and after impressing the governor, he mustered in on May 15, 1861, as adjutant
of the 16th New York Volunteer Infantry.
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This is Joseph Howland, depicted as captain. He mustered in as the 16th New York's adjutant, rose to the rank of colonel, and retired as a brevet brigadier general.
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Eliza Howland made herself instrumental in the mobilization
of her husband’s regiment, purchasing items and apparel for the soldiers. In so
doing, she wrote herself into the Army of the Potomac’s history in a rather
unfortunate way. In May 1862, after her husband rose to the rank of colonel,
Eliza Howland purchased several hundred white straw hats for the soldiers of
the 16th New York, believing they would prefer them to the
standard-issue forage caps during the summer months because straw hats would be
cooler and provide more shade. On June 13, Colonel Howland and his field
officers presented one straw hat to each man, and at first, the men received
them exuberantly. Unfortunately, the introduction of the straw hats proved a dangerous
element on the battlefield. At the Battle of Gaines’s Mill, June 27, 1862,
while defending the McGehee farm, the 16th New York lost 231
officers and men killed and wounded. One soldier, Private Cyrus Stone, argued
that the new straw hats led to the regiment’s devastating losses. The white
hats were easy targets in the deep brush, he opined, and the Confederates “must
have aimed at our hats.” Stone argued that he got down on one knee and did his
fighting while crouched. He concluded, “I think it saved me from being shot.”
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This painting by Don Troiani depicts a soldier from the 16th New York wearing one of the straw hats purchased by Eliza Howland.
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Years after the war, the story of Eliza’s Howland’s
death-hats became an old chestnut for historians. Stephen Sears put the story
on the map with his epic tome about the Peninsula Campaign, To the Gates of Richmond, in which he
repeated Stone’s story, blaming the straw headgear for the casualty figure in
the 16th. Since then, books about Gaines’s Mill invariably mention
the straw hats whenever they get to the 16th New York’s defense of
the McGehee farm. For instance, Brian Burton’s recent book on the Seven Days’ Battles
explained, “The men of the 16th New York went into the battle
wearing white straw hats given them by Howland’s wife earlier in the month.
They were pleasant, helping the men in the heat before the battle started. But
the hats only drew extra attention from southern marksmen—perhaps making the
rebels shoot high—and many were gone before the battle ended.”
So, here’s my point. It’s a common thing nowadays to see
Eliza Howland indirectly blamed for the losses in the 16th New York.
However, I’m not sure this is the way to go. It seems strange to me that historians
never emphasize Eliza Howland’s more positive contribution to the regiment, her
purchase of the regiment’s battle flags, under which the regiment lost many men
on June 27, 1862. In the summer of 1861, when the 16th New York got
the call to leave Albany and make haste for the front, it had no regimental
emblems. Using family funds, Eliza Howland approached Tiffany’s (now the famous
jewelry dealer) and asked them to design a state flag and national banner for
her husband’s regiment. She planned to hand them over to the regiment when it
stopped in New York City on its way to Washington.
Tellingly, for all the money she spent, Eliza Howland did
not want her philanthropy to be heavily recognized. After going to Tiffany’s to
purchase the flags, she wrote to Joseph, telling him that she did not want to
appear in front of the regiment when the flags were presented. Instead, she
arranged for a family friend, Robert S. Hone, to present the flags in her stead.
On June 23, she wrote:
I write chiefly to remind you of the stand of colors which
Tiffany is making and promises [to have ready] for Wednesday. You may want to
have them presented to the regiment the day they pass through New York, and, if
so, [I] will have to arrange the affair with the Colonel. I do not wish to
appear in the matter, but you can present them in my name, or, if you like,
perhaps Charley [her younger brother] will be willing to, but don’t have any
fuss or parade about it, and don’t let the men tramp through the city a la McChesney till they are exhausted
[a reference to another regiment that departed amid too much fanfare]. The
colors will remain at Tiffany’s till the Colonel sends for them or notifies me.
The flag presentation ceremony went splendidly. On June 26,
1861, the 16th New York paraded through New York City. At 3:30 P.M.,
the regiment reached Washington Square, where it received its stand of colors, a
blue state banner and a national flag. Despite Eliza Howland’s modest desire to
keep her name out of the proceedings, her husband, Joseph, and her friend,
Robert Hone, insisted that her name be mentioned.
When Robert S. Hone handed the colors over to Colonel Thomas
A. Davies, he made it clear that she had been the one to donate the money to
give the regiment such a proud emblem. Hone spoke:
It is my privilege
to stand here this day as the representative of Mrs. Joseph Howland, to
present, in her name, these beautiful colors to the gallant regiment under your
command. She wishes me to make this presentation in as few words as possible.
Her heart is, as you know, full of the tenderest emotions at this moment of the
departure of the Sixteenth Regiment for the seat of war, to take its full share
of the perils, and to reap its full share of the glories of the campaign, and I
can vouch for it that she, as fully as any of you, is doing her duty, making
her sacrifice at the altar of her country. Your mission is a sacred one. You go
forth, representatives of this great State, battling for the nationality of
your country, ready to lay down your lives, if need be, for the maintenance of
law and order, on which rest all the foundations of society. The safety,
happiness and well-being of yourselves, your families, your fellow-citizens,
are dependent upon your success in this holy cause. Go forth, then, fearlessly
and cheerfully, in the full assurance that the prayers of those you leave
behind will daily ascend to the throne of Grace in your behalf, to nerve your
arm, and to cheer your absent hours. I cannot more fittingly conclude than by
quoting two lines from that beautiful hymn to the Flag of Our Country:—
“Then conquer you
must, for our cause it is just,
And this be your
motto,—In God is our trust.”
By the end of the ceremony, Eliza’s name was on the lips of every
soldier. So remembered Private William Thompson of Company C, “Mrs. Joseph
Howland, who from first to last, as mother and nurse, was ever the guardian
angel of the Sixteenth. This noble lady . . . unostentatiously, contributed
lavishly in money and time to the alleviation of the suffering of the sick and
wounded and in every way did [her] full duty and made [her] ‘great sacrifice at
the altar of [her] country’.”
As usually happened in such flag-presentation ceremonies, Colonel
Davies thanked Eliza Howland (even though she was not physically present to
hear it), and he vowed to protect the flags with his life. Then, Davies gave
the State colors to one of his color-sergeants, who walked down the line,
asking each company if they would defend the flag with their lives. According
to Private Thompson, a “prolonged, ‘Yes’ rang from one end of the line to the
other, followed by deafening cheers and waving of caps, with wild enthusiasm.”
Captain N. Martin Curtis of Company G later reflected, “The response was in
earnest of the valor and gallantry they afterwards displayed in making good
their promise; during the service of the regiment more than a score of men in
the color guard were killed or seriously wounded in holding the colors aloft,
but never once were they lost, or touched by an enemy’s hand.”
It is worthy of note that a dozen men fell killed or wounded holding
the flags at Gaines’s Mill, the same battle in which the straw hats supposedly
played a deadly role. Indeed, one soldier bore aloft a flag so conspicuously
that he won a Medal of Honor for it. Twenty-year-old Corporal James Henry
Moffitt of Company C took up the flag until he was wounded. (Moffitt
received his Medal of Honor on March 3, 1891.)
When the 16th New York returned home from the war, mustering
out in the spring of 1863, the survivors took pride because they could deposit
their two flags at the State House for posterity, pointing out how these—the
original flags received in June 1861—had been torn to shreds by enemy bullets
and shells, but they had never been touched by enemy hands.
My final point is this. Maybe it’s time to stop saying that the
Gaines’s Mill casualties incurred by the 16th New York died because
of Eliza Howland’s comfy straw hats. Maybe it’s more accurate to say they died
for the flags she gave them on June 26, 1861.
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This photograph depicts the colors of the 16th New York, after they had seen heavy use. The soldier are: Sergeant John Lyon (left, holding the National banner) and Corporal Melvin Tucker (right, holding the State flag.)
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