October on The Historians and the print story today "The Storming of Fort Fisher"

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Friday, October 6-Episode 495-David Brooks on the 115th New York Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War.  The regiment was composed of men from Montgomery, Fulton, Saratoga and Hamilton Counties.  Commanded by Simeon Sammons the troops went to war from Fonda.  Brooks is a member of the board of the Fulton County Historical Society.  

Friday, October 13- An encore performance of Historians Podcast Episode 408, first aired February 4, 2022-WGY radio’s 100th anniversary in 2022-featuring Kolin Hager, Martha Brooks, Howard Tupper, Earl Pudney, Don Tuttle, Elle Pankin, Diane Ward and Bob Cudmore.  WGY news anchor Mike Patrick describes podcasts he has recorded with WGY veterans.

Friday, October 20-Episode 496-David Pietrusza on organized crime in the 1920s in New York City, Gangsterland.  

Friday, October 27-An encore performance of Historians Podcast Episode 416 from April 1, 2022-Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future. 

Listen and download The Historians Podcast on Soundcloud (search for Bob Cudmore), Google and Apple iTunes. 

Anderson spent the last years of his life in Illinois and Amsterdam.  He died in 1922 at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam.

Storming Fort Fisher in the Civil War

By Bob Cudmore

   Bruce Anderson, an African American war hero buried in Amsterdam, fought alongside a Canajoharie white man, Zachariah Neahr, in a daring mission during the battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, near the end of the Civil War.

   Anderson was born in 1845, presumably in Mexico City, then worked as a farmer in New York.  He was among a small number of African Americans who enlisted in white Union regiments.

   Neahr was born in Palatine in 1830 and lived most of his life in Canajoharie.  Neahr married Sophia Martin in 1854. 

   He and Anderson enlisted in Company K of the 142nd New York Infantry Regiment at Schenectady.

   Fort Fisher protected the rebel port of Wilmington, North Carolina, where blockade runners brought in supplies for Confederate troops.  The Union tried unsuccessfully to capture the fort in late 1864.

   Union warships sailed to Fort Fisher again in January, 1865.  Major General Alfred Terry’s soldiers approached by land. 

   The Union armada shelled the fort.  A landing party went ashore but the lightly armed force was decimated by Confederate fire.  The 142nd New York was one of four regiments approaching Fort Fisher by land.

   A wall made of wooden stakes was held by rebel sharpshooters, making the Union advance impossible.  General Terry asked for volunteers to move forward with axes and chop a breach in the wall.  Privates Anderson and Neahr were among the volunteers.

   Neahr later said, “Right there I gave up my life for my country.” 

   The small party cut an opening in the wall that other soldiers passed through.  Most of the volunteers with axes, however, were killed. 

   Only Anderson, Neahr, Alaric Chapin, George Merrill and Dewitt Hotchkiss survived.

   The Confederates surrendered that night.  The next day the main powder magazine at the fort exploded, killing 200 men on both sides.

   The survivors of the raid on the wooden wall or palisade were recommended for Congressional Medals of Honor after the battle but the paperwork was lost. 

   Neahr returned to Canajoharie later in 1865.  He had a son Charles and a daughter who became Mrs. Albert Hatter.  A prominent Democrat, Neahr held some government jobs--post inspector and overseer of the poor. 

   Neahr received his Medal of Honor in the 1890s after petitioning for it.  He died from tuberculosis on July 21, 1903.  He was living on Mill Street in Canajoharie and was buried at Canajoharie Falls Cemetery.  His death and the Fort Fisher connection received newspaper coverage in New York City, Syracuse and Rochester.

   Anderson then hired a lawyer and finally got his medal in 1914, as did two other Fort Fisher attack survivors, Alaric Chapin and George Merrill. Dewitt Hotchkiss never received his medal.

   Anderson spent the last years of his life in Illinois and Amsterdam.  He died in 1922 at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam.

   According to an article by historian Daniel Weaver, Bruce Anderson’s grandson, Ambrose “Cowboy” Anderson of Gloversville, learned of his grandfather’s bravery a few years ago.  Ambrose Anderson attended a recent cemetery tour that included a stop at his grandfather’s grave conducted by Montgomery County historian Kelly Farquhar.

   Ambrose Anderson was one of the first African American Montford Point Marines, who entered World War II in 1943. 

   Anderson survived Japanese kamikaze attacks getting to the island of Iwo Jima. He hauled ammunition and supplies to infantry units while under fire from the Japanese during the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima.

   Anderson, a corporal, served in Japan during the U.S. occupation after the war.  In 2012 he received the Congressional Gold medal, the nation's highest civilian award.

Episode 494-Highlights edition #5-Christopher Gorham with the story of FDR aide Anna Rosenberg; Gregg Ficery tracing the origin of the National Football League; Scott Shane chronicling the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad and interviews from the 2015 Fort Plan Museum conference on the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, October 1, 2023

55 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:13AM 

Herb Kopper

Lubbock, TX – A long-time resident of Galway, Herb Kopper passed away at 88 of natural...

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