The monument to the 128th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was erected in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1908. The regiment was raised in Dutchess and Columbia counties and the 128th served in both the East and the Gulf regions during the Civil War. Dutchess and Columbia counties are in the Mid-Hudson Valley region, between New York City and Albany.
The regiment began its life in the second year of the war when Colonel David S. Cowles was authorized on July 19, 1862 to begin recruitment. Men entered the unit in Hudson, New York and trained at Camp Kelly there. The regiment was mustered into service on September 4, 1862. The next day it left Hudson for Baltimore. There it supported the defenses of Washington, including a march to Gettysburg to thwart a Confederate cavalry raid. In December 1862, it sailed to New Orleans.
The 128th New York monument is on Reservoir Square, a hill at the top of Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie. The eleven foot high statue stands atop a fifteen foot high granite shaft. It depicts a Union infantryman bearing the colors of the United States.
In May, 1863 the regiment from Hudson, New York began its part in the Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana. Port Hudson was a port city on the Mississippi River that became a key Confederate fortress. On May 27 and June 14 the regiment fought stoutly in assaults on Port Hudson.
An artillery piece is positioned in front of the monument.
The Union forces lost heavily in the assaults at Port Hudson and they did not capture the city until July 9, 1863. Among those killed was Colonel David S. Cowles, the founder of the regiment, who died as a result of the May 27 assault.
The base of the monument announces the unit’s service in Louisiana.
The Port Hudson assaults are engraved on the granite shaft.
In 1864, the regiment was sent back East and it joined Major General Phil Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah in the Shenandoah Valley. The regiment fought in a number of engagements in the Valley, including Third Winchester and Cedar Creek.
One side of the base of the monument recounts its service in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
According to New York in the War of the Rebellion 3rd ed. Frederick Phisterer. Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1912 the regiment drew its companies from the following communities:
Company A at Hudson, Ghent, Chatham, Austerlitz, New Lebanon, Canaan, Germantown and Claverack; B at Washington, Amenia, Dover, Pawling, North East, Stanford and Pine Plains; C at Rhinebeck, Milan, Red Hook, Clinton, Stanford and Hyde Park; D at Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Beekman, Fishkill, Pine Plains, Pleasant Valley, Clinton, Livingston, Greenport and LaGrange; E at Kinder-hook, Chatham, Valatie, Hillsdale and Austerlitz; F at Fishkill, Pawling, Pine Plains, North East, Washington, Amenia and Hudson; G at Stuyvesant, Hudson, Ancram, Cler-mont, Taghkanick, Gallatin, Claverack, New Lebanon, Stockport, Ghent and Hillsdale; H at Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park and Beekman; I at Poughkeepsie; and K at Chatham, Hudson, Claverack, Greenport, Hyde Park, Clinton, Germantown, Red Hook and Copake.
The new regiment was commanded by Colonel David S. Cowles, who was from Hudson, N.Y. According to a report on the Hudson armory:
David Smith Cowles was born in Hudson in 1817. The son of a Congregationalist preacher and
educated at Yale, he entered the practice of law and eventually established his own practice.
Cowles served as district attorney in Columbia County for three terms. When war erupted in
1861, he felt compelled to volunteer and served as a Colonel in the 128th Regiment. On May 27,
1863, at the Battle of Port Hudson, he was killed after leading his troops against a rebel surge,
preventing the lines from being overrun. His death and subsequent funeral were well
documented in the media and he remains a celebrated figure in the history of the City of Hudson.
During the Reconstruction period, a militia company was organized in the City of Hudson called the Cowles Guards. In the 1890s, an armory for the Cowles Guards was constructed in Hudson. The armory was built on the medieval model of the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City. By the 1960s, the building was no longer being used by the National Guard and it has now been converted into a public library.
A week after photographing the Poughkeepsie monument, I drove up to Hudson to see Camp Kelly, where the 128th trained in 1862. There is a New York State historic marker at the site on the outskirts of Hudson but no other sign of the training ground. The marker is located at the intersection of Fairview Avenue (U.S. 9) and Oakwood Boulevard.
Much more impressive was the restored and repurposed armory of Cowles Guards. Although built a generation after the Civil War, it is a reminder of the central place that memory of the commander of the 128th had in the decades after the conflict.
The abandoned building was reopened as a library and community center in 2016 with the help of the Galvan Foundation. The armory is located at 51 N 5th St, Hudson, NY 12534.
The drill area of the armory is now filled with books.
Note: All color photos taken by Patrick Young.
is the monument so historic to the people there?