Cavalry depot at Giesborough Point, May 1864 (Library of Congress)
Those magnetic greenbacks.
The New York First Veteran Cavalry left the state without being paid the state bounty. As SENECA reported, that act of faith was rewarded 150 years ago today.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:
CAMP STONEMAN,
Geesbow Pt., Nov. 3, 1863.
The long agony is over at last. Yesterday Col. Van Buren, the Paymaster General of New York, arrived and immediately paid us the State Bounty. The boys are happy now – their pockets stuffed with “greenbacks” and their cheeks distended with good humor and huge quids of tobacco.
Watch peddlers, Jack-knife dealers, Pie women and Apple boys are reaping a rich harvest. The money comes easily and goes as freely, although many of the boys are sending a large proportion of their bounties home, and I am glad to be able to inform you that Co. K has done well in this respect, in fact better than any other in the regiment, sending $2,100 to Seneca Falls; $1,300 to Waterloo and about $600 to other places, making in all over $4,000 from their Bounty money beside allotting $500 per month from their pay. So you see that the Seneca Co. boys are not unmindful of the “Old folks at home.”
Since my last the following promotions have been made in Co. K:
Sergt. D.W. Loring to be Commissary Sergt.
Corp. Peter Hartruff to be Sergt.
Private C.R. Deppen to the Non. Com Staff.
Private James Hall to be Corporal.
” Joseph Herper ” ”
” Robert H. Hanna ” Bugler.
Our camp is named after our Corps Commander Gen. Stoneman but all letters must be directed to Washington as heretofore.
Yours &c., SENECA
You can read an excellent article about the Giesboro Point Cavalry Depot at Civil War Washington, D.C..
I looked at a couple of the mentioned promotions in the regiment’s roster, which has them occurring in September before the troops left Geneva, New York.
Civil War bugler (Library of Congress)
