The Civil War - A Local Perspective

Ginny Wright, member of the Corning-Painted Post Historical Society, entertained some 40-plus retirees with reflections of local people and events during and after the Civil War 150 years ago.

The Underground Railroad

She told of the role our area played in the Underground Railroad for slaves fleeing the South for Canada. A slide of the Erwin home on Canada Road, so named because it went northward to Canada, and another showing the stately Erwin House – now the pastorate for the Victory Highway Church – offered refuge and of how engineers of trains rolling through the area would slow down to a crawl as slaves hustled aboard to make their way to Buffalo and, hopefully, freedom in Canada.

The Great Struggle

At the Civil War’s outset, dozens of states had well organized militia for defensive actions within their states. After the fall of Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC, in April 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 enlistments for the Federal Army and many state militiamen enlisted for three months…the thought being the war would not go on that long. The New York State enlistment sites were Elmira, Albany and New York City. Patriots from throughout the region swarmed to those cities to sign up. By May, Elmira – a city of 8,800 – was overrun by 6,000 Federal recruits that needed to be sheltered, equipped and fed. The “temporary” housing set up along the Chemung River to house 2,000 troops would later become the nucleus of the infamous Elmira Prison Camp holding 12,200 Confederate prisoners. Prisoners who died there are buried in Elmira’s National Cemetery.

A Corning structure built as an arsenal for the State militia in the 1850’s was the headquarters for two companies of the 60 th Regiment (the Irish Brigade) of the NYS Militia. On President Lincoln’s call for Federal enlistments, many of the Irish Brigade joined the Federal Army. The Arsenal continued until 1873 when it was sold at auction, and later became the property of St. Mary’s Catholic Parish for use as an orphanage. By the 1960s, it had become a derelict and was demolished in 1965 only to rise again not long afterward as Castle Garden Apartments.

In 1855, Erastus Corning, an Albany entrepreneur, acquired substantial parcels of land in eastern Steuben County where he foresaw opportunity of a town that promised to be a transportation hub with east-west turnpike, a canal port, and the roadbeds of several regional railroads. Among his many war supply contracts was the steel from his Albany Iron Works in Troy, NY, for cannon, rail car fittings -- and one special contract for steel plates. The latter played an important role in the war’s major sea battle, the Battle of Hampton Roads off the coast of Virginia. In that battle, the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac, built on an abandoned US Navy vessel in the Norfolk Navy Yard, and the Federal Navy’s Monitor battled it out. The Monitor’s two guns in its revolving turret -- the “cheese box on a raft” -- was the more maneuverable, rendering the Merrimac’s 10 fixed guns ineffective in a three hour standoff that ended with the Merrimac sailing away never to fight again. The blockade remained in place.

Foot Soldiers

Wright recounted wartime exploits of several individuals, impressing on her audience the tremendous territory the soldiers covered on foot, especially those who managed to survive the war having served in battles from Bull Run to Appomattox.

The Wixon Road Log House now at the Benjamin Patterson Inn was the home of Henry Wood, the second husband of Elisa Mack whose first husband had died and left her with three small children and the hardscrabble cabin in the hills above Meads Creek. Shortly after they were married, Henry went off for a “three-month” enlistment in the Federal Army, one of 76 Town of Campbell men to sign on in the fall of 1861. His service started with a posting outside of Washington, DC. then went through nearly every major battle, He survived being wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness to be among the Union soldiers at Appomattox Courthouse.

While he was off to war, his wife, like most other war wives who filled multiple roles of mother, household and farm manager, assisted the war effort by making clothing for the troops, writing letters, and providing sewing supplies and even Testaments for spiritual uplifting.

At war’s end the soldiers who survived returned to life in the Chemung Valley, among them were Col. William Murell, Capt. Charles A. Rubright and Col. Henry G. Tuthill, who changed the face of Corning for generations to come.

From Slave to County Hall of Fame

William Murell, born a slave in Georgia around 1845, was kidnapped from his master’s plantation and taken to Alabama. When the war broke out, he was a messenger at the state capital and was able to join the Confederate Army’s 44 th Regiment. When he learned of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, he fled north and ended up joining Company D, 138 th U.S. Colored Army. Ironically, he found himself in Sherman’s march to Atlanta. After the war, he became a landowner with the purchase of a plantation in Louisiana, served in Louisiana Legislature and Senate and as state commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also published several newspapers in Louisiana, Maryland and New Jersey. As an elderly man, he became ill, entered a series of National Soldiers’ Homes, the last one being in Bath where he recovered his health, married a Bath woman and took up residence in an apartment on Corning’s Market Street. Forbidden by law to learn to read and write in the South, Murell, with his wife’s help, learned to do both and got an education. His persistent message to the blacks of Corning was “Get an education. Nobody can take it away from you.” When he died in 1932, he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. His was a commendable life and he is installed in the County Hall of Fame for his efforts in encouraging black students to stay in school and graduate.

Rubright, born in Germany, came to America as a 3-year old. After his father died, his mother married Daniel Dorman and moved to Williamsport where Charles learned the bricklaying trade. At 19, he enlisted in the army and was appointed Chief of Engineers in the 106 th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Like Wood, he fought in most of the major battles: Yorktown, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg (where he commanded the 22nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 2nd Army Corps) and Petersburg, where he was wounded, captured and taken to Andersonville Prison Camp. At war’s end, he was released and returned to Williamsport where he established with his half-brother, Henry O. Dorman, a masonry business. By 1878, they came to Corning and established the Corning Brick and Terra Cotta Works. The firm employed 80 men and specialized in designing custom made masonry. A stroll down Market Street gives ample evidence of the firm’s works.

Too young to be in the war with his half-brother, Dorman had by 1877 established H.O. Dorman & Co., a contracting firm with 50 to 200 employees. His firm constructed buildings for Corning Glass Works, Keuka University, the Corning Opera House and a large business block in Seneca Falls as well as much of Market Street.

Tuthill, a cabinetmaker from Cattaraugus County who came to Corning in 1850 enlisted in the Army and participated in seven battles and, like Wood, was injured in the Battle of the Wilderness. He attained rank of colonel before mustering out and resuming his trade as a carpenter. There were so many carpenters in Corning he became an architect and was joined in 1891by his son, S. Eugene, an architecture student at Cornell. Their firm was noted for its stylish residences, building blocks and sturdy school buildings, opera houses, churches and little cemetery chapels.

What these three builders had in common was their membership in Corning’s First Methodist Episcopal Church. They were given free hand to incorporate the best of the fashionable Richardsonian Romanesque style with its soaring spires, various series of arched windows and elaborate terra cotta surrounds. The result is the church that stands at the northeast corner of Cedar and West First Street and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Our Main Street Initiative

To preserve the architectural history of our area, the Corning-Painted Post Historical Society developed the “Main Street Initiative” which has won recognition of our historic buildings and downtown. Today, more than 2,080 handsome “Main Streets” across the United States have benefited from the Corning project.

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