11th Census of the United States ~ 1890

This transcription lists the surviving soldiers and sailors or the surviving widows found by the enumerators in Allegany County, New York, at the time of the special census of 1890.  Current wives and living family members are not listed in this census.  As a group, these men fought in every major theatre and almost every major battle of the Civil War.  It should be remembered that Allegany County was going through its oil boom in 1890 and surviving veterans came from all over the country to participate.  There are even a few Confederate veterans listed here.  My primary source was the census itself.  I used as a secondary source the National Park Service' Civil War Soldiers and Sailors website (referred to throughout as NPS).  Spelling errors are inevitable with a record like this.  In most cases, the enumerators were themselves veterans of the Civil War. Some were very conscientious, others were not. Some were quite literate and had legible handwriting and others were less literate and had handwriting that is almost indecipherable.  I did a lot of cross checking using the rich Allegany County sources listed on the County GenWeb page and by consulting both excellent histories of Allegany County written after the Civil War.  I also found much useful information from the many cemetery transcriptions available on the Web site.  I welcome corrections to any errors anyone may find in this transcription.  This was more of a voluntary census than the typical census. After examining cemetery records, I am convinced that were many men who served in the Civil War who were still living in Allegany County in 1890 that this census missed.  Undoubtedly, some of these men will be found in the 1890 census for adjacent counties including some counties in neighboring Pennsylvania.  Men from Allegany County who served in the Civil War were as young as 13 and some were 50 or older at the date of their enlistment.  Almost all men of prime military age in the South served in the Civil War. That was not the case in the North. Many men were exempted form service because they were married and had children.  Others, who were quite prosperous, hired substitutes.

Many veterans from Allegany County served in the 64th and 154th New York Infantry regiments and I am greatly indebted to Barbara Van Vlack and Mark Dunkelman for the superb work they have done respectively on these regiments.  These two along with many other regiments, including the 76th and 136th New York Infantry, listed here fought at Gettysburg. I am aware of no rosters taken before Gettysburg or any other battle that would indicate whether an individual soldier of the regiment actually was engaged in fighting in any particular battle.  But in many cases, the individual lists wounds incurred in a particular engagement.  A large number of men from Allegany County were members of the 85th New York Infantry Regiment.  This entire regiment surrendered to Confederate forces on April 20, 1864 at the conclusion of the siege of Plymouth, North Carolina. The enlisted men of this regiment endured the horrors of the infamous prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia.  Another noteworthy regiment in which many Allegany County men served was known as the 1st New York Dragoons.  But it was also known as the 19th New York Cavalry and the 130th New York Infantry Regiment.  NPS uses the designation 19th New York Cavalry Regiment as do I in this transcription because it avoids confusion with several other New York Regiments that used a 1st New York Cavalry designation. Sometimes the census says an individual served in the 9th New York Volunteers.  This could be a reference to either the 9th New York Infantry or the 9th New York Cavalry.  When I know with certainty that the regiment is either cavalry or infantry, I designate it as such.  The artillery designations are particularly confusing.  The 4th New York Artillery could mean either the 4th New York Light Artillery or the 4th New York Heavy Artillery.  When I can ascertain which regiment it is, I will call it either 4NYLtArt or 4NYHA.  It should also be noted that most of the men serving in the various Heavy Artillery regiments were converted to infantrymen starting around the time of the Battle of the Wilderness in early May of 1864.  Many of these men endured some of the worst fighting of the Civil War in Grant's “on to Richmond”campaign.

I abbreviate diarrhea as “diar.”  Rheumatism is abbreviated as “rheum.”  KIA means killed in action.  WIA means wounded in action.

One might wonder how so many men could give their precise dates of service 25 years after the conclusion of the Civil War.  Most of these men still had their discharge records in their possession when the 1890 census enumerators arrived.