Civil War regiment saw plenty of action
‘Iron Hearted’ 115th were sent off from Fonda
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, for 9-17-05
Many of them died, all of them suffered and they were called the Union Army’s “Iron Hearted Regiment.”
Recruited from Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery and Saratoga counties in fewer than 40 days, the 115th Regiment of the New York Volunteers trained at Camp Fonda, near the village. About a thousand men left Fonda for the Civil War on August 29, 1862 amid a glorious sendoff.
“Reader, do you know the suffering of a day's march through the hot sun?” asked Lieutenant James H. Clark, author of a regimental history published in 1865 and transcribed on the web site of the New York State Military Museum by Nick Niemczyk. Clark was a native of Fonda who was a farmer in Clifton Park when he enlisted.
By September 2, 1862 the men were on patrol in Maryland and the region’s planters refused to feed them. The regiment contracted with local blacks who baked the soldiers 100 hot cakes.
When the 115th Regiment finally came home, it left behind hundreds of men buried on “southern soil,” according to Lieutenant Clark.
In 1865, the Schenectady Daily Evening Star gave this account of the 115th: “Their first experience was at Harper’s Ferry, which place they reached (four days after leaving home) just in time to take part in the fight which resulted in the loss of the place, they among others, being taken prisoners. From there they were sent to Chicago, under rebel parole, which they remained some months awaiting the proper exchange. While there with other regiments, a portion of the barracks burned, and this regiment was wrongfully charged with the deed. They were immediately sent, under sealed orders, to Hilton Head, where they remained several months as prisoners. The representations of their colonel, Simeon Sammons, obtained their release, and they immediately entered again upon active service, since which time they have made their mark as among the bravest of our brave soldiers.”
Colonel Sammons was from Fonda and commanded the regiment until he was discharged because of wounds suffered in 1864 in Cemetery Hill, Virginia. The regiment fought in 30 battles, some of the bloodiest being in Florida, including the battle of Olustee. The Upstate soldiers helped capture Fort Fisher, North Carolina in early 1865.
“They were really steadfast, especially toward the end,” said Gloversville author Marcia Buffett. A genealogist with ancestors who served in both the Revolutionary and Civil wars, Buffett began writing while recuperating from a serious illness. Encouraged by members of the writers’ circle at the Gloversville Senior Center, she now has published “From the Mountains,” a work of historical fiction about the men of the 115th and the families they left behind.
In the book, Buffett tells a fictionalized version of the experiences of her ancestor Dwella Groff, who was wounded, captured and sent to a Confederate prison at the battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia in 1864. Groff survived prison and later worked in the family lumber business in Hope and Northville. He died in 1923 and is buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Northville.
Groff passed down the story of the blue ghost or man in blue--a Confederate spy who wore chain mail beneath a blue uniform. When shot by Union soldiers, the man in blue would fall but then his body would be gone when soldiers went to pick up his corpse. Eventually, the spy was captured and his body armor discovered.
In her novel, Buffett also focuses on family stories passed down of the hardships that women endured back home during the war—blizzards, financial hardship and childbirth with no help.
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