Sidney Burroughs
Sidney was born on July 19, 1843 in the town of Varick, on the shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. He grew up with nine brothers and sisters. His father, Thomas Burroughs, was a well-to-do farmer, and the wealthiest man in town. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Seneca Cayuga Canal a few years later created eager markets for the products of Seneca County farmers. His family's wealth did not spare Sidney any hard work, however, as the Burroughs had only one farm laborer, and no servants.
In 1860, at the age of 17, Sidney was sent to school in Binghamton, NY. In August 1861, Sidney entered the Albany Normal School, a teacher training school that also served as higher education for rural students who could not attend a university. War had already broken out; the first battle of Bull Run had been fought, and the "Ellsworth Avengers," the 44th NY Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was forming with great fanfare in Albany. Students at the college formed drill companies that were supervised by math professors Rodney Kimball and Albert Husted, but were not concerned with participating in the actual fight. Most Northerners still expected a brief war and an easy Union victory.
The war did not end quickly, and as Lincoln issued two separate calls for 300,000 men during the summer of 1862, play ceased for the students and the call to serve their country took on serious overtones. After Sidney left for the summer break in July, the two professors mailed recruitment circulars to their favorite students. Sidney returned to Albany and enrolled in the army on August 14. Kimball and Husted recruited twenty-five students for the new company, including four men from the town of Varick – Sidney, John and Thompson Barrick, and Cyrus McDuffie. When it became clear that they would need to recruit beyond the college, the two professors encouraged their students to invite friends and relatives to join the company. Sidney convinced his sister Phebe's husband, James Woodworth to join, and a total of twenty young men enlisted from Seneca County.
Sidney was already at the organizing camp, Camp Ellsworth in Albany, before Woodworth and the other Seneca County men arrived on September 13. Life at Camp Ellsworth, located on the outskirts of Albany, alternated between levity and monotony. They spent much of their time drilling and guarding the camp (the most common duty of a Civil War soldier). It was not endless work, however, giving the men plenty of time for personal activities. Sidney joined the others, frequenting the downtown restaurants and visiting the homes of the local men in the company. He brought his guitar with him to camp and accompanied the other soldiers as they sang and entertained visitors to camp. When they were not working the men had so much fun they almost forgot they were in the military.
Kimball, now captain of the Normal School Company, negotiated its attachment to the 44th NY. The company, now known as "new" Company E, left Albany on October 16, 1862 and joined the regiment on the north shore of the Potomac River ten days later. The 44th welcomed the new men; after suffering heavy losses during the Peninsular Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run, its strength had been cut to less than 200 men. The regiment was on picket, watching Robert E. Lee's Confederate army, which had slipped back into Virginia after the Battle of Antietam.
Sidney withstood army life well; the long marches, the Battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and the mud. He never gambled, and was always willing to share the food he received in boxes from home with other soldiers. His fine sense of humor, including a popular joke about visiting his mother's cellar, lightened the dreary moments of camp life between drills and picket duty, and put a smile on the face of anyone within listening distance.
While digging trenches at night along the Rappahannock River in June 1863, he developed a cough and a sore throat. His friends thought he was improving, but just before the march north to head off the Confederates, regimental surgeon Morris Townsend sent him to the division hospital, even though he had never reported sick. From there he was sent to McVeigh Hospital in Alexandria, where his sister Sarah helped nurse him. James Woodworth, writing to Phebe after the Battle of Gettysburg, was surprised to hear that Sidney was home on furlough. On his return to the army, he was assigned to a hospital in Baltimore, where he remained until March 1864.
While ill, he had become interested in the abolition movement and the formation of the colored regiments, and used his free time to study for the officers' examinations. He rejoined the 44th at its camp in Alexandria on March 25, 1864, and immediately applied to the Examination Board for officers in the colored regiments. He was called to Washington during the third week in April, and passed the exam for a second lieutenancy. He knew of his success before leaving Washington, but had to return to the 44th and await an official assignment to a new regiment.
Sidney returned to camp on April 29, just as the regiment was about to board a train to return to the front. The 44th had been on detached duty in Alexandria since January, guarding the daily trains to the front from enemy guerillas. Sidney boarded the train without any of his belongings. A few days before leaving Alexandria, the soldiers lightened their loads by packing their extra winter belongings and sending them into storage. When Sidney returned from Washington, he discovered that his friends had sent all of his possessions into storage. He would be forced to wear his Zouave dress uniform, with its bright red trim, on the march. He also lacked a gun – rifles had been distributed in Alexandria, and there were no spare guns available. After the regiment disembarked from the train, it rejoined the Third Brigade, and began marcingh towards Richmond.
The 44th crossed the Rapidan at Germania Ford on May 2 with most of the army, and by May 4 was camped near Wilderness Tavern, on the outskirts of the Wilderness, the same thick brush, swamps, and low trees that stymied General Hooker at Chancellorsville. Commanding Union General Ulysses S. Grant planned to lead his army quickly through the Wilderness and meet the Confederates on an open field. Robert E. Lee's army was closer than expected, and Richard Ewell's Corps was already digging trenches on the southern fringe of Saunder's Field, one of the few clearings in the dense forest.
At about eleven in the morning of May 5, the Third Brigade moved south along the Orange Turnpike toward the northern edge of Saunder's Field. It stopped, and quickly built crude trenches of its own. The brigade then advanced across the field towards John Jones' brigade of Ewell's Corps. The 44th, on the right of the brigade, and with its right resting on the turnpike, halted after a brief advance and was placed in reserve. The men hurriedly scooped up whatever dirt and rocks they could find and built a small wall to protect themselves from enemy fire.
Sidney, without a musket, could have skipped the battle, but "he did not like to see the other boys going in, and he remain behind," so he followed the regiment into its position. He planned to pick up a musket from a dead or wounded soldier once the battle began. The remainder of the Third Brigade crossed the rest of the field, and crashed into the enemy's lines. The charge broke Jones' line, mortally wounded the Confederate brigadier, and the Union men advanced through the enemy's lines and into its reserve. Without any support to follow up their success, however, Confederate reinforcements led by General John Gordon counterattacked and drove them back in disorder. As the Union men filed back past the 44th NY, Sidney and the others waited for the "gray line" to appear. The enemy did not disappoint, rushing forward "like a swarm of locusts," with "gray to the right, and gray to the left, and a swarm of gray in front."
All remained quiet in the regiment in the moments before the fight began. With a "wild" cheer for their commander, Colonel Freeman Conner, the Ellsworth Avengers received their final orders. At the command "Ready," the hammers clicked back on the guns. Next came "Steady, men. Aim! Fire low. Fire!," and the fight had begun. The advancing Confederates returned fire, and the men of the 44th NY went "down like ripe wheat in a tempest." The remaining men fixed bayonets to meet the next charge and protect the regimental colors, a dirty, ragged, and blood-stained flag, "dearer to its soldiers than their own heart's blood."
Led by its "demon" yells, the enemy attacked again, but the 44th rallied around its flag and drove the enemy back. Sidney picked up an abandoned musket and entered the battle, but fell to a bullet in the chest. After about half an hour of fighting, Colonel Conner ordered his regiment to retire to the trenches built that morning. Captain Bradford Wood, now in command of Company E, misinterpreted the command and ordered a charge. The men advanced and continued to fire at the retreating Confederates. Wood quickly rescinded the order, but had to run up to several of his men, who were so intent on firing that they never heard him countermand the order.
Twelve men from the regiment were killed and fifty-seven wounded, including Sidney Burroughs. He was carried off the field and brought to a makeshift hospital. Orsell C. Brown, a quartermaster clerk pressed into nursing duties, cared for Sidney. He bathed his hands and face for him, and "talked with him some" about the battle. Brown was sorry to see such a "splendid fellow" from a "very fine family" in such a grave condition.
Sidney knew his wound was mortal by the time his friends visited him on the morning of May 7. He talked with them for a short time, and as their conversation neared its end, Sidney began to speak – "Boys, when you march home, tell them how we did this, and how I died. Tell them they asked us to bring that flag home, and we have done it, for boys you must remember!" – And then he died.
They buried him near the hospital, with a board at his head plainly marked with his name and regiment, so that his remains could one day be brought to his own "soil." His body was moved after the war, along with thousands of others, to Fredericksburg National Cemetery, where he rests today, having sacrificed his life for his country. Two strangers he met in the final two days of his life could not erase Sidney's final moments from their memories. Orsell C. Brown wrote his sister Olivia a long letter on May 25, and mentioned his fondness for him. An unnamed observer from Seneca County, who was traveling with the army and was with Sidney's final visitors, included Sidney's story in a letter sent to the Seneca Courier on May 30.
James Woodworth lived only one more day after Sidney's death. He died while leading the charge on Laurel Hill as a member of the color guard, and remains an unknown soldier. On August 9, 1864, Captain Bradford Wood received a special order discharging Private Sidney Burroughs from the 44th NY and appointing him Second Lieutenant of the 31st United States Colored Infantry. Captain Wood forwarded the commission to Sidney's father. Sidney Burroughs was one of the many young men who nobly sacrificed a promising future for the welfare of his country, and must never be forgotten.