Seven Southern states had seceded from the Union by February 1, 1861, and formed the Confederate States of America. On April 12, shore batteries in Charleston Harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter. After thirty-four hours of bombardment, the fort surrendered. On April 15, President Lincoln declared that "insurrection" existed and called for volunteers. With this pronouncement of the American Civil War, Lincoln introduced all nineteenth-century Americans to the event that would inexorably alter their lives. In Ithaca as elsewhere, there were meetings, rallies, and enlistment drives. The Cornell family was caught up in the war effort. Ezra Cornell headed a citizens' committee to organize aid for the dependents of volunteers and personally subscribed $1000. Mary Ann Cornell was president of the Ladies' Volunteer Aid Association.
In mid-July, as a member of the Volunteer Aid Committee, Ezra traveled to Washington with medical supplies. Refused a pass through the lines to the main camp of the Union Army, the group journeyed to Alexandria and joined a troop train to Fairfax Station. Setting out on foot for the front, they found themselves at the first battle of Bull Run, an adventure Ezra recounted in a letter to the Ithaca Journal. He remained in Washington, visiting hospitals and traveling to the camp where the Tompkins County volunteers were stationed.
While in Europe at the International Exposition in 1862, Cornell sponsored the passage of four volunteers who were anxious to join the Union Army. Many of his relatives served in the army. His younger brother Daniel was wounded while with Grant's army at Vicksburg, and his nephew Irving died of wounds received in battle. As a state legislator, Cornell received letters from constituents requesting his assistance in obtaining promotions for local officers. Throughout the war, he continued to visit the wounded and to aid soldiers and their families.
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Paul J. Cornell to Ezra Cornell, April 22, 1861. Autograph letter signed. Ezra Cornell corresponded with a cousin in North Carolina, Paul Cornell. Paul did not believe that North Carolina would secede. After Lincoln's call for volunteers, North Carolina voted for secession along with the other border states of Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Paul's sons served in the Confederate Army. When they were captured, Ezra arranged for their release from prison.
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| Ezra Cornell to Mary Ann Cornell. July 23, 1861. Autograph letter signed. We went by RR to Fairfax Station, thence we moved on in advance of the De K. Reg. with the 32nd boys and reached the battle field just in time to see that division of our army make its panic stricken retreat. (Full transcript) |
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| William B. Bradbury. Hold on Abraham! Uncle Sam's boys are coming right along. New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., [ca.1863] Rare Book Collection |
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W. Irving Wood to Ezra Cornell. Camp near Alexandria, Va., April
26, 1864. Autograph letter signed.
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D.B. Cornell to Ezra Cornell, August 3, 1863. In this letter, Daniel B. Cornell gives a detailed account of his participation in the Battle of Vicksburg and the near fatal injury he suffered in the assault.
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Petition by members of New York State Senate to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, May
13, 1864. Autograph document. The undersigned respectfully request a pass for Hon.
Ezra Cornell to go within the lines of our Army to render assistance to the wounded. |
John G. Apgar to Ezra Cornell. July 24, 1864. Apgar informs Cornell of the death of his nephew W. Irving Wood from wounds received in battle, July 24, 1864.
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Sarah A. Palmer. The Story of Aunt Becky's Army-Life. New
York: John F. Trow, 1867. Sarah Palmer was an Ithaca woman who served as a nurse with the 109th New York Regiment. An article in the Ithaca Journal, December 28, 1864, referred to her as "Our 'Florence Nightingale.'" Rare Book Collection |
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