Goshen, New York is in the Hudson Highlands just fifty miles north of New York City. Many of the buildings along Main Street in the village’s historic district were build before the Civil War or during Reconstruction and it is a nice neighborhood to tour on foot. A number of sites have either New York State historic markers or more detailed signage from Orange County. One of its most historically prominent sites is the monument to the “Orange Blossoms Regiment”, the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry, from the Civil War.
The regiment got its nickname because Goshen is the county seat of Orange County and the unit was recruited from that county. Although the regiment’s men came from all over the county, the unit assembled in Goshen, was trained there, and was mustered into service there on September 5, 1862.
Goshen has 5,777 people today, and at the time of the Civil War about 2,000 people lived there.
“The Standard Bearer” sculpture was designed by artist Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. It was unveiled on September 5, 1907. In 2007, the statue was removed at the order of the Orange County legislature for restoration. Nearly $100,000 was spent on preserving the monument.
In September 2011 the monument was rededicated. More than two hundred gathered to recall the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and to lay flowers at the monument.
The regimental history, the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York State Volunteers, is considered one of the best written Civil War regimental histories.
The monument shows a color bearer carrying the units flag forward on a little island on Main Street.
The statue has memorial plaques listing the war dead from each company. It is surrounded by four Civil War cannons. The different companies were organized in the different towns in Orange. According to the regimental history, “Company ‘I’ was composed principally of volunteers from Newburgh. It had in its ranks men of all sizes, classes, trades, and professions — and though the majority of its members were American born, Old Erin and the land of ” Sir Walter ” and ” The bonny Bobby Burns ” were well and strongly represented.”
The monument is located at the intersection of Main Street and Church Street.
The regimental history describes how the flag in the hands of the standard bearer was presented to the regiment in August, 1862:
ON the 24th of August orders were received from Washington, directing Colonel Ellis to hold his command in readiness to move on the 27th instant.
Thursday, the 26th, had been designated by the ladies of Orange, as the day on which they would present to the regiment that stand of colors beneath which he whose hand should receive them, and so many of the brave men over whose heads they were that dav to he unfurled, should sutler, bleed, and die, that the Union and Liberty might live.
It was a clear bright day, and with the rising of the sun the friends of the American Guard’ began to arrive; and for hours there poured into the village of Goshen such a, throng of men, women, and children, as had seldom before been seen in its streets.
At three p m. the regiment was formed, and Colonel Ellis, having placed himself at the head of his field and staff, in front of it, the Hon. Charles H. Winfield stepped forward, and at the close of a most patriotic speech, on behalf of the donors handed the colors to Colonel Ellis, who, loosing them to the breeze, promised the multitude there assembled they should never be disgraced • concluding with these words : ” If you never again see these colors, you will never again see those who bear them from you.” The Hon. David Cedney then delivered, in behalf of the recipients, an impressive speech of acceptance. After which Miss Charlotte E. Coulter stepped forward, and with a modest, but grand little speech, presented a pair of embroidered silk guidons — a gift from the four daughters of the little town of Wawayanda.
This ceremony over, the regiment was dismissed, and the companies returned to their respective streets, where many of their officers were formally presented with swords and trappings of various kinds. After which, the men were soon surrounded bv friends and loved ones anxious to spend a few short hours with their soldier boys before the final parting came. [P. 30-31]
The monument says that it was erected by Col. Thomas W. Bradley, who served with the regiment. Bradley was an English-born immigrant who came to the United States as a child. Bradley was a shop boy at his parents’ knife shop in the Hudson Valley. During the Civil War he enlisted and was wounded three times. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor in 1896 for his heroism at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Bradley was promoted to colonel after the war as part of the New York State Militia. In the late 19th Century, he entered politics and he served ten years in Congress from March 4, 1903, to March 4, 1913.
The plaque reads:
ERECTED BY
HON. THOMAS M. BRADLEY, M.C.
IN MEMORY OF HIS COMRADES
OF THE 124TH NEW YORK INFANTRY
WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY
PRESENTED BY
COLONEL CHARLES H. WEYGANT
IN THE NAME OF THE DONOR AND THE REGIMENT
TO THE PEOPLE OF ORANGE COUNTY
ACCEPTED FOR THE PEOPLE BY
JOHN J.E. HARRISON, CHAIRMAN OF THE
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF ORANGE COUNTY,
AND BY CAPTAIN ROBERT B. HOCK,
PRESIDENT OF THE VILLAGE OF GOSHEN
SEPTEMBER 5, 1907
“STAND BY THE FLAG! IMMORTAL HEROES BORE IT
THROUGH SULPHUROUS SMOKE, DEEP MOAT, AND ARMED DEFENCE;
AND THEIR IMPERIAL SHADES STILL HOVER O’ER IT.
A GUARD CELESTIAL FROM OMNIPOTENCE.”
At the Battle of Gettysburg, the regiment’s commanding officer Col. Ellis was killed. As the regimental history says of that sad day of July 2: Presently the foes in our front slackened their fire, and turning for a moment to view the bodies of our late leaders, I saw the brains protruding from a small round hole in Ellis’ forehead, and discovered glistening on Cromwell’s blood-stained breast a gold locket, which I knew contained the portrait of one who but a few moments before was his beloved young wife, but then alas! though she suspected it not — his widow.
While the unit officially entered the Union Army in Goshen, when it was mustered out on June 3, 1865 it was in Newburgh, New York on the hill where George Washington had mustered out his Revolutionary forces
The local newspaper, The Daily Union, described the homecoming of the 124th to Newburgh:
Many who expected to welcome their brave friends home, learned for the first time of their death ; and others were left behind in hospital. Of the original regiment only one hundred and thirty returned. Company C was mostly a Newburgh company — only six of its original members came home. It was first commanded by Captain Cromwell, then Captain Silliman, then Captain Finnegan, and now by Captain Thomas Taft. Its first three captains all fell. Mr. Thomas Foley had three sons in Company C, every one of whom fell in the war. [Daily Union June 14, 1865]
The total enrollment during service was 1,320, of whom 11 officers and 137 men, or 11.2 per cent, were killed and mortally wounded; 1 officer and 94 men died of disease and other causes; 11 men died in Confederate prisons; 516 officers and men were killed and wounded. [From: The Union army: a history of military affairs in the loyal states, 1861-65]
Plaques flank the statue listing men who died during the Civil War arranged by the company they were in.
The statue is a life-sized figure of a soldier standing six feet tall. He is holding a four-foot high flag. The statue is on a ten-foot shaft of granite.
The plaque reads:
New York Infantry Volunteers
“Orange Blossoms”
Third Army Corps, 1862, 1863.
Second Army Corps, 1864, 1865.
Army of the Potomac
Mustered into the United States service, Goshen, Sept. 5, 1862.
Disbanded at Washingtons Headquarters Newburgh, June 16, 1865.
As you can see by the surrounding buildings, many structures there today were already built when the monument went up. Just a block behind these buildings is the historic harness track for racing.
Before moving towards the theater of war, the regiment trained, without guns, at their training camp in Goshen in 1862. According to the regimental history:
Continuing our drills without arms, and with sticks and the few guns we could borrow, several well improved and pleasant days were spent at Camp Wickham.
If you continue on up Main St north you will come to the intersection of Main Street (New York State Route 207) and Erie Street. There is an historic marker next to the Orange County government complex that identifies this as Camp Wickham, where the unit trained back in 1862.
The marker for the camp is on the side of the sign for the County Office Complex.
All color photos were taken by Pat Young. To see more sites Pat visited CLICK HERE for Google Earth view.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
Great Union regiment! Thanks for this visit to its home ground…
Thanks.