WILLIAM
HOMAN
57th New York Volunteers
Company I
Yaphank
William Homan
57th New York Volunteers, Company I
Yaphank
William Homan was born in Yaphank on December 3, 1839. He
worked as a farmer until he enlisted in the army at the
age of twenty-one. At that time, Homan stood five feet
nine inches tall and had brown eyes and black hair. When
he applied for a pension many years later, he wrote,
"I enlisted in Company I 57th NY Volunteers May 7th
1861. I was mustered in US service on August 14, 1861 at
Dobbs Ferry."
The 57th NY Volunteers spent two months
organizing in New York City, beginning August 12, 1861.
On November 14, the regiment left by rail for Camp Wilder
in Washington, D.C. The 57th broke camp on November 28
and marched to Camp California in Virginia singing
"Dixie" as they marched. Homan finally received
his first army pay while at Camp California.
On March 3, 1862, the 57th began a
three-day march to Manassas in Virginia. The regimental
band played as the men sang the Star Spangled Banner and
Yankee Doodle while they marched. Their time in Manassas
was uneventful. In May, they moved to Fair Oaks,
Virginia. While there, Homan visited the camp hospital
from May 14-17 where he was treated for diarrhea.
By this time, President Lincoln and
General McClellan had decided that the Army of the
Potomac would enter Virginia by way of a peninsula
southeast of Richmond. Known as the Peninsula Campaign,
their goal was to capture Richmond.
The 57th began a series of battles with
Confederate forces on June 1, 1862. Homan was with the
regiment at Fair Oaks where they lost seven men and
eleven were wounded. Soon after, he came down with
typhoid fever, and was admitted to the hospital from June
13-21.
Homan returned to the unit in time to
participate in the Seven Days' Battle, which began at
Gaines Mill and ended at Malvern Hill. Even though Union
forces defeated General Robert E. Lee's forces at Malvern
Hill, they were unable to capture Richmond. As a result,
they were forced to pull back. The Seven Days' Battle
resulted in over 16,000 Union casualties and 20,000
Confederate casualties. The 57th suffered fifty-two
casualties.
In September of 1862, Robert E. Lee,
feeling confident after his decisive victory over the
Federals at the second battle of Bull Run, decided to
move northward. He crossed the Potomac into Maryland,
hoping to bring that border state into the Confederacy.
Union General George McClellan moved his forces to meet
this challenge. On September 17, 1862, both armies met at
a place called Sharpsburg.
Main Street in Sharpsburg. Robert E. Lee and his troops
marched down this street on their way to Antietam Creek.
The 57th engaged in combat on Thursday,
September 17, at a place known locally as the Sunken
Road. The road had been worn down over the years by the
weight of wagons and by erosion so that it lay several
feet below the bordering fields. Sunken Road at first
made a perfect rifle trench for concealed Confederate
troops. By the end of the day, however, it acquired a new
name, Bloody Lane.
Corporal Joel Ruland of Manorville.
Ruland was one of several local men, who enlisted in
Company I, of the 57th New York. Ruland was killed in
action at Antietam. A soldier next to Ruland heard him
exclaim "My God I am dead" as he was shot.
Photo from the collection of Nate Carter.
Union troops, led by the 69th NY,
advanced on the Sunken Road and their concealed enemy. As
they closed in, the Confederates opened a deadly fire
into Union troops. The 69th suffered 540 casualties and
were forced from the field. A hill overlooking the Sunken
Road gave Union soldiers a clear firing zone into the
Confederate trenches. As a result, the Confederates
suffered staggering losses. With Confederate losses
mounting, Union forces, including the 57th NY, charged
across the Sunken Road.
Confederate dead piled up on "Bloody Lane."
On June 29, 1863, the 57th NY began a
two-day forced march to Gettysburg. On July 2, the second
day of the battle, they were deployed to the left center
of Cemetery Ridge. Earlier in the day, General Dan
Sickles, commander of the III Corps, made a controversial
move with his troops. Seeking higher ground, he moved his
troops forward to the Emmitsburg Road, far in front of
Union lines. This move left his right flank exposed.
Confederate forces were able to break through, crossing a
peach orchard, the woods, and the Wheatfield, to a little
stream called Plum Run. Here they ran into Union reserves
and a fierce battle ensued.
At 4:00 in the afternoon, the 57th NY
received orders to engage the enemy. General Samuel Zook
led the 57th across the Wheatfield under intense fire.
During this initial charge, Zook was shot and killed. The
Wheatfield was the scene of intense fighting, and control
of the field changed many times. Combat was so close that
it was often hand to hand fighting. At one point, the
Confederates were pushed back into the woods; they
regrouped and pushed the 57th back to a stone wall on the
field. During this withdrawal, Homan was slightly
wounded. Worse, he was captured. The 57th suffered
thirty-four casualties that day at Gettysburg.
57th New York Regiment lined up during an ambulence
drill. Members of the regiment are lined up behind the
ambulances.
Homan spent the rest of the war, twenty
months, in Confederate prisoner of war camps. He was
first confined at Richmond, Virginia, and on March 14,
1863, he was moved to the infamous prison of war camp at
Andersonville. Homan suffered greatly while there. The
unsanitary conditions, poor food and constant exposure to
the elements affected him the rest of his life. Homan was
paroled from Andersonville on March 2, 1865. He was
discharged from the army two months later, on May 8,
1865.
William Homan returned home to Yaphank.
He married Isadore Hawkins just a few months later, in
September of 1865, at the Middle Island Presbyterian
Church. William and Isadore had two children: Effie, born
in 1866; and Llewelyn, born in 1873.
When Homan applied for a pension after
the war, his physician, Dr. Louis Terry, sent the
following deposition:
Before the war William Homan enjoyed
good health. But since his return from the service he has
suffered a great deal from pectoral trouble and fever,
which he no doubt contracted during the war and the
result of continuous exposure and imprisonment for 20
months at Andersonville.
Homan returned to Gettysburg in 1893 for
the unveiling of the monument of the 57th NY Volunteers.
He and fifty-nine other members of his regiment received
bronze medals for their participation in the Battle of
Gettysburg.
In 1890, Homan moved from Yaphank to
serve as the Postmaster in Brooklyn. He returned to
Yaphank six years later, after retiring from the post
office. His wife, Isadore, died in 1906. At the age of
seventy-five, Homan married his second wife, Ruth
Hammond, on September 9, 1914.
William Homan passed away January 7, 1920, at his home in
Yaphank.