Storming Fort Fisher in the Civil War By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 09-13-14 Bruce Anderson, an African American man buried in Amsterdam, fought alongside a Canajoharie white man, Zachariah C. Neahr, in a daring mission during the second battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina near the end of the Civil War. Anderson was born in 1845 in Mexico City then worked as a farmer in New York. He was among a small number of African Americans who enlisted in white Union regiments. Neahr, whose friends called him Z.C., was born in Palatine in 1830 but lived most of his life in Canajoharie. Neahr married Sophia Martin in 1854. He and Anderson enlisted in Company K of the 142nd New York Infantry Regiment at Schenectady. Fort Fisher protected the port of Wilmington, North Carolina where blockade runners brought in supplies for Confederate armies. The Union tried unsuccessfully to capture the fort in late 1864. Union warships sailed to Fort Fisher again on January 12, 1865. Major General Alfred Terry’s soldiers approached by land. The Union armada shelled the fort. A landing party went ashore January 15 but the lightly armed force was decimated by Confederate fire. The 142nd New York was one of four regiments approaching Fort Fisher by land. A palisade, a wall made of wooden stakes, was held by rebel sharpshooters, making the Union advance impossible. General Terry asked for volunteers with axes to move forward and chop a breach in the palisade. Privates Anderson and Neahr were among the volunteers. Reports say General Terry had tears in his eyes at the sight of Neahr kneeling to pray. Neahr later told a comrade, “Right there I gave up my life for my country.” The small party cut an opening in the palisade that other soldiers passed through. Most of the volunteers, however, were killed. Anderson, Neahr, Alaric Chapin, George Merrill and Dewitt Hotchkiss survived. The Confederates surrendered that night. The next day the main powder magazine at the fort exploded, killing 200 men on both sides. Taking the fort, however, did help end the war. The survivors of the raid on the palisade were recommended for Congressional Medals of Honor after the battle but the paperwork was lost. Neahr was mustered out of the Army in June 1865 and returned to Canajoharie. He had a son Charles and a daughter who became Mrs. Albert Hatter. A prominent Democrat, Neahr held some government jobs--post inspector and overseer of the poor. He was a trustee of the Methodist Church and a Mason. He belonged to the Farrell post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Neahr received his Medal of Honor in the 1890s after petitioning for it. He died from tuberculosis on July 21, 1903. He was living on Mill Street in Canajoharie and was buried at Canajoharie Falls Cemetery. His death and the Fort Fisher connection received newspaper coverage in New York City, Syracuse and Rochester. Anderson then hired a lawyer and finally got his medal in 1914, as did two other Fort Fisher men, Chapin and Merrill. Dewitt Hotchkiss never received his medal. Anderson spent the last years of his life in Illinois and Amsterdam. He died in 1922 at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany and is buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam. According to an article by Gazette contributor Daniel Weaver, Anderson’s grandson Ambrose Anderson, who lives outside Gloversville, learned of his grandfather’s bravery a few years ago. Ambrose Anderson attended a recent cemetery tour that included a stop at his grandfather’s grave conducted by Montgomery County historian Kelly Farquhar. Ambrose Anderson was one of the first African American Marines, called the Montfort Point Marines, entering World War II in 1943. He fought at Iwo Jima in 1945.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 21:08:38 +0000
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