Oyster Bay historian pens Civil War book

Oyster Bay town historian John Hammond gingerly pulled a yellowed document sent from South Carolina out of its antique envelope and unfolded the fragile paper.

"This is what's called a soldier's power of attorney," the Civil War equivalent of an absentee ballot for soldiers who could not return home to vote, Hammond explained excitedly. The form had been filled in by Wait Mitchell, an Oyster Bay resident who had enlisted in the 26th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, composed of black volunteers.

Hammond found the 1864 document, along with 20 similar affidavits and other rare Civil War records, in Town Hall while researching a new booklet, "Civil War Records: Town of Oyster Bay," which is to be printed in March.

The free publication will be a guide to official Oyster Bay records and include an alphabetical index of the more than 600 soldiers and sailors from the town that then had a population of about 8,000. It will also contain places of birth, military units, occupations and other information. In addition to the military and personal detail, Hammond is adding letters and photos of local veterans as well as biographies of some soldiers, such as David Carll, great-great-grandfather of actress Vanessa Williams.

Hammond previously prepared town booklets about historic cemeteries, death records before 1920, and records of births, marriages and deaths from 1847 to 1849. The timing of the Civil War booklet - advancing the 150th anniversary of the start of the war in April - was entirely serendipitous, he said.

"I started doing this a few years ago out of frustration with the records that were not alphabetized," he said. But in the process of creating an alphabetized list he found more records that expanded the project. Among the historic records were the rare absentee ballots, especially Mitchell's.

"Whether his vote got included in the tally we don't know," Hammond said. "At the time blacks were not allowed to vote. But New York had passed a law that anyone away in the service could vote in the 1864 election. They didn't say black or white."

Mitchell filled out the power of attorney, his commanding officer signed it and he sent his ballot to Justice of the Peace John Rushmore, whom he authorized to cast his ballot. Voting, in that era, meant picking the state "elector" who would then vote for president. Mitchell voted for Horace Greeley, elector in New York for Abraham Lincoln.

Hammond also found records detailing Civil War-era practices such as local governments offering payments to men who enlisted. Draftees with the means to do so could pay a substitute to take their place in the war and the switch was recorded in town ledgers. Those documents also noted why some men between the ages of 18 and 54 could not serve, including not having enough teeth to bite off the end of a paper musket cartridge.

"It tells us so much about some of the things that went on during the war," he said. "Oyster Bay didn't have a town hall until 1887, so these records survived in the basement or attic of whoever happened to be town clerk at the time."