Company G — Context and Discussion

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In Category - Modern Nations

Authors: Barlow, A. R. (Albert Rowe), 1841-1913 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2013 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories; United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 157th (1862-1865). Company G Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 51,363

Reading time 224 min

Text sections 5

The source record for Company G — Context and Discussion measures this digital text at 51,363 words, 3 hr 44 min estimated reading time, and 5 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 15.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #43562

A company-level Civil War memoir by a 157th N.Y. veteran, blending precise dates, casualty lists, and candid accounts of combat and captivity, with deliberate grammatical liberties to match the unit's unique experiences.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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File: pg43562

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They were in rebellion and were known to the boys as rebels, or johnny rebs. A false delicacy only would prompt the writer to deprive those Southern men of a title which, apparently, they bore with pride.

As stated, this is not a work for the public eye. It is an offering to comrades, from a comrade who marched with them, and experienced with them the fortunes and misfortunes of war. And in performing this work, care has been taken to omit such occurrences as might not be understood by others than the actors; and while thus avoiding over-coloring by a faithful portraiture of events, and suppressing nothing worthy of record Co. G go into history.

In performing this duty, individual names have been used, illustrative of passing events. Should any person feel aggrieved over such freedom, let it be known, it was, indeed, born of familiarity with the subjects, and is indulged in a spirit of good comradeship, without thought of disparagement.

No man who marched with those boys can think of them unkindly. If there were ever differences of a serious nature, the writer is unmindful of them.

To travel over the old roads, to hunger and to thirst again; to sleep where night found them; in sunshine, in storm out on the picket-line; to toss upon a bed of suffering and weaken, day by day, for lack of tender care;--in brief, to march away to the wars and enjoy the rich compensation of an honorable return, all this and more, has been lived again while preparing this record. And so with the old boys, as long as they live, will they by this effort be enabled to travel Virginia roads in all kinds of weather, without danger of sticking fast in the mud, or of being stifled amid clouds of gray dust.

Why Co. G did not cut a broader swath along the pathway of glorious attainment, they cannot understand. They were a willing body of men, and were of a regiment of noble hearts. Misfortunes of war, simply, were not the only elements at work defeating their best endeavors. The true causes can be learned, only, in a huge compendium of tragical, whimsical and amusing facts, concealed within the folios of that unwritten or mythical history of the war, which never will be published, a history that would tumble war-idols to the ground, and elevate men who have passed into obscurity.

But Co. G have never permitted their escutcheon to lie prone in the dust, that they might more readily engage in wrangling over such small matters as position and preference. They do not grumble, they do not boast. They learned, thirty-five years ago, to accept the inevitable, which has been awarded to them in large quantities.

Co. G were boys of Lenox, who served in the name of Lenox. They belonged, then to Lenox, as her offering in the war, and their record is a part of the history of the town. Divested of verbiage, their deeds will still be found honorable and manly. For, as once said the lamented Capt. Frank, Co. G did "as well as any of them."

A few words should be given in memory of the dead, who, in life, stood shoulder to shoulder with the boys of Co. G Dead?--a word applied to express a religious belief; but how inexpressive of a new-birth.

"Death is but another name for change. The weary shuffle off their mortal coil, And think to slumber in eternal night. But, lo! the man, tho' dead is living still; Unclothed, is clothed upon, and his Mortality Is swallowed up of Life."

Thus sang an inspired woman, and thus shall it be said of the boys who gave their lives for the flag, and for their comrades who shall follow them. And some day, upon the great plain of Light, the hosts will once more marshal for a grand review.

ROSTER OF CO. G, 157TH N.Y. VOLS.

Abraham Tuttle. [1]Harrison Frank. [2]Lafayette McWilliams.

Maurice D. Bailey. Harrison Frank. Marshall Hemstreet. [2]Frank E. Gates. [2]Robert E. Grant. [2]Jerome Forbes. Clark Pierce.

Israel P. Moore. Marshall Hemstreet. Frank E. Gates. [2]John H. Roe. Jerome Forbes. Hubbard Suits.

Marshall Hemstreet. Frank E. Gates. Henry C. Jarvis. John H. Roe. James B. Hooper. [2]Nicholas Binges. John H. Fancher. Wm. H. Barlow. [2]Harvey Lindsley.

Jerome Forbes. [2]Irwin A. Sayles. [2]James B. Hooper. Clarence L. Spencer. [2]Asa E. New. Wm. J. Peck. Wm. H. Barlow. Nicholas Binges. Hubbard Suits. [2]Charles A. Near. Daniel A. Betsinger. [2]Albert R. Barlow. [2]Jerry Murphy. [2]William Miller. Wm. H. Kimball.

William Mallows. Ziba Cloyes. Patrick Matthews.

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Company G is a regimental history with a difference: its author, A. R. Barlow, served in the company he writes about and openly admits to taking grammatical liberties. In his preface, Barlow states that the experiences of Company G were “unique” and that the record should be “drawn uniquely,” warning readers that they will find departures from “good old grammatical paths.” This is not a polished staff report but a veteran’s effort to preserve the deeds of his neighbors from Canastota and vicinity. The book covers the company’s service from September 19, 1862, to July 10, 1865, and includes a full roster. Barlow’s voice is direct, occasionally wry, and unapologetic about calling Confederate soldiers “rebels” or “johnny rebs,” a term he says the men bore with pride.

A Deliberately Unpolished Record

Barlow’s preface is a rare author’s note that foregrounds the book’s limitations. He writes that the work makes “no claim” as a literary effort, only for “general accuracy in the matter of events and dates.” He expects critics to notice his unusual grammar—individualizing a collective noun while retaining plurality, and “pervert[ing] mood and tense.” This is not carelessness but a conscious choice: the unit’s experiences were themselves irregular, so the telling should match. Barlow also states that he has omitted occurrences that “might not be understood by others than the actors,” suggesting that some inside jokes or local references remain unrecorded. The book is explicitly an “offering to comrades,” not a bid for public acclaim.

The Human Cost at Gettysburg

The Gettysburg section provides a stark accounting. Barlow describes the 157th’s remnant lying “very flat” on July 2 under concentrated rebel artillery. A night movement goes wrong: a volley from behind a stone wall, the color-bearer wounded, and Captain Place captured while trying to recover the flag. Barlow lists casualties with precision: two officers and twenty-one men died of wounds, making the casualty list “nearly two hundred and sixty men, and fifteen officers.” He names the dead and wounded—Colonel Arrowsmith, Captains Backus and Frank, Lieutenant Lower—and notes that Captain Stone died in prison at Macon, Georgia. The roll call after the battle: thirty-nine privates, eight corporals, four sergeants. The regiment’s entire strength on July 2 was Colonel Brown, Major Carmichael, three officers, and fifty-six men.

Prisoners and the Fate of the Missing

Barlow tracks the fates of men who were captured, including Francis M. Gault of Company G, who volunteered to accompany Captain Place and was taken. Gault “had a taste of rebel prisons from Richmond to Andersonville,” returning to the company in April 1865. Another soldier, “Schimmel,” was thought dead but emerged “mighty stiff, but otherwise in fair condition” when Union troops reentered the town on July 4. His comrades “wept; they hugged and kissed the little man.” Barlow also notes that three lieutenants were sent to Macon and later to Charleston, South Carolina, where they were “impounded with other officers.” These details underscore the book’s focus on individual soldiers rather than grand strategy.

Readers should approach Company G as a primary source written by a participant who valued accuracy over polish. Barlow’s frankness about his methods—and his admission that some stories were left out because only the actors would understand them—makes the book both frustrating and valuable. The roster at the end provides a concrete link to the men named in the narrative. For those interested in the Civil War from the perspective of a single company, this is a direct, unvarnished account.

Reading Company G, the clipped casualty lists felt like counting stones in a wall. It put me in mind of sitting with my grandfather, who once showed me a ledger from his great-uncle’s fur trade post—small, careful marks for each pelt, each man lost to winter. Pelts and palisades: The story of fur and the rivalry for pelts in early America — Themes and Context whispered the same quiet ache: how meticulously we record what we cannot keep, hoping the ink holds the warmth.