While no whole regiments were recruited from Long Island, a number of companies were raised that fought in the Civil War
. Additionally is is quite possible that young men left Long Island to volunteer in New York City and elsewhere. Even some of the companies were not composed entirely of men from one area. This list is probably not complete. Keep in mind too that, at this time Nassau County did not exist by itself (not until 1899), it was part of Queens. Queens itself was not yet part of New York City, that would happen in 1897 or 1898.
At the outbreak of the war, there were four regiments of the New York National Guard in Brooklyn (13th, 14th, 17t, 28th).
Hewitt J. Long and George S. Sammis helped to form Company E of the 127th Regiment in Huntington.
Below are some examples of companies from some regiments that were recruited from parts of Long Island (only those companies with recruits from Long Island are listed). Union regiments had 10 companies (most of the time and they were not usually at full strength as the war wore on). Companies were lettered A through K. For some reason, there was not usually a Company J, the skipped that letter and went to K.
127th New York Infantry Regiment:
Company D - New York city, Brooklyn, Huntington, Southampton and Greenport
Company E - Huntington, Amityville and Babylon
Company G - New York city, Riverhead, Sag Harbor and Greenport
Company H - Greenport, Southold, Mattituck and Orient
Company I - Brooklyn and Huntington
Company K - Greenport, Sag Harbor, Riverhead, Southampton and Bridgehamptonsource
155th Infantry Regiment:
Company D: Brooklyn, Huntington, Islip,. Hempstead, Southold, Oyster Bay and New York city
Company E: New York city, Oyster Bay, Islip, Hempstead, Southampton and Brooklynsource
119th Infantry Regiment:
Company H: Hempstead and North Hempstead(all other companies from New York City)
Benjamin A. Willis of Roslyn began recruiting for Company H of the 119th New York on August 13th, 1862. source 1source 2
There were many more companies with Long Islanders in them. Here are some links:Units from SuffolkUnits from QueensUnits from Brooklyn (aka Kings)Units listed under 'Long Island'127th New York Regiment
Other sources:Town of Huntington: The Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building (PDF)Huntington History Timeline (PDF)Historic Long Island
By Rufus Rockwell Wilson
Labels: CivilWar, Military