05/31/2023
On Saturday May 27 I attended a very special grave commemoration. It's not often we get to memorialize a Civil War soldier for the first time. Adding a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) marker for William Appo Jr. at his stone in North Elba, NY.
Until recently William's service in the war has gone mostly unrecognized. What makes his service special was that he was a black man that enlisted in the Union army to fight, two years before the army created regiments for black troops.
We actually don't know much about William Jr. as opposed to his father.
William Sr. born in 1808 in Philadelphia, senior was a well educated master musician playing multiple instruments and conductor. He was well renowned in multiple bands, toured England and even played for Queen Victoria. In 1848 William Sr. bought a tract of land in North Elba from abolitionist Gerrit Smith in the Timbuctoo settlement. Up here is where he met and befriended John Brown.
William Appo Jr. was born in 1840 in Philadelphia but evidently traveled with his father to North Elba. It is likely he would have known and befriended the Browns and heard about the struggles against slavery in Bleeding Kansas
He also would likely have followed the news when Brown and his sons Oliver and Watson were part of the 1859 raid on the Harper's Ferry arsenal. Oliver was 21 and Watson was 24 and both died in the fighting not much older than William Jr. at 19. John Brown was executed in December of that year.
When Southern states seceded in 1861 and fighting broke out between North and South tens of thousands of volunteers were raised to put down the rebellion. Abolitionists realized this was the beginning of the end of slavery while most people were enlisting to save the Union.
However at that point in the war people of African descent were officially barred from joining the army. (Interestingly the U.S. Navy did not have that same prohibition and there were many black sailors in the war and even sailors of Asian descent.)
William Jr. must have been anxious for his chance to get into the war. Unfortunately there are no known photographs of William Jr. but he must have been light skinned enough to pass as white or enough people turned a blind eye to him as he enlisted on September 15, 1861 in Company I, 30th NY Volunteer Infantry.
The 30th NY was raised early in the war around the Albany to Saratoga area as a two year regiment and accepted by the state in May 1861 and headed South in June 1861.
Because of losses, mostly due to sickness, recruiters would be detached to enlist new volunteers and William must have met one of these when he enlisted from North Elba.
We don't know a lot of his service but he must have been an effective soldier as by February 1862 he was promoted to corporal. By the summer of 1862 the 30th NY would be involved in campaigning with the rest of the army and had it's first major battle August 28 - 30 at Second Manassas or the Second Battle of Bull Run as part of General John Pope's Army of Virginia. Second Manassas came after the failed Peninsular campaign of General McClellan.
During Second Manassas the 30th NY was heavily engaged suffering a total of 66 men dead out of 183 total killed, wounded or missing. Second Manassas was a Confederate victory with the Federal forces being pushed back. Out of the battle the federal army suffered 14,462 casualties with 1,747 dead and the Confederates having 7,298 casualties and 1,096 men dead.
Somewhere in that battle William Appo Jr. fell and died. His body was buried somewhere on the battlefield with his comrades and never recovered like so many men in the war. His family placed a marker for him in the family grave site in North Elba.
While William Jr. fell at Second Manassas and the battle was a loss for the North it had long lasting consequences. After forcing Northern troops to retreat Robert E. Lee began a campaign to invade Southern Maryland. Lee wanted to take pressure off Confederate territories, try to resupply his army from untouched Northern food sources and embarrass the North in time for the November elections.
This action culminated in the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day in American military history. A Northern victory that forced Lee to retreat back to Virginia. The victory of Antietam lead Abraham Lincoln to announcing the Emancipation Proclamation which not only focused a war effort on the end of slavery but when it went into effect in January 1863 would begin the formation of African American army units where nearly 179,000 would serve during the war following in William Appo Jr.'s footsteps.
