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Civil War Genealogy Database

76th New York Infantry


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	The Adjutant General’s reports state that Otis enlisted with Company B of the 76th New York Volunteer Infantry on August 8, 1863, however town clerk records show that he was actually drafted as a result of conscription laws passed in that year. It was during this year that the infamous New York City Draft Riots broke out as a result of the same draft which required Otis, a twenty-seven year old husband and father of four, to register. At the time, Otis was engaged in the carpentry trade and also worked as a farmer from time to time (as reflected in other records from the period). Two months after he registered with for the draft, he was conscripted into the service for a period of three years. He was mustered into the regiment on September 10, 1863 according to the records of the town clerk. Those same records indicate that his wife and children were provided with $446.62 worth of financial aid from the town of Carlton. His first year of service was met with very little active engagement, until the spring of 1864. Otis’s pension application describes his participation in the first major engagement of his military career. On May 5, 1864, the regiment was to participate in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. The 76th was organized under the Fourth Division commanded by Brigadier General Wadsworth and serving under Brigadier General James Rice of 2nd Brigade. Otis and his fellow soldiers were engaging the enemy near Parker’s Store Road at the Higgerson Farm when commanders broke off Company B as skirmishers and sent them to protect the left flank. The large gap between V and VI Corps would have been daunting and the task of protecting the flank a great responsibility. While engaging the enemy in thick woods, Otis and his company became separated from the rest of 2nd Brigade and were forced to engage the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. The men regrouped and attempted to march out of the woods, but the men of Company B were killed or captured. Otis was lucky to have survived, but little did he know that a long and painful eleven months were ahead of him. The pension application of Otis McOmber does an excellent job of describing the conditions in which he lived while a prisoner of the Confederate Army. He was to be transferred with other men from the same company and regiment to the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. The journey was to be made by foot from the battlefield in Virginia to the camp with nearly no supplies or rations. While making the march to Andersonville, Otis and others were forced to sleep on the dirt or in the mud without tent or blanket. The men were exposed to the harsh elements and one extreme to the next; hot days and cold nights. In the mornings, they found themselves chilled to the bone and soaked with dew, forced to wake up and continue the long trek southward. Upon their arrival, they were given the poorest of rations. Otis describes the bread as having been made from ground corn, including everything from the kernels, to the husk and including the cob. The meat was of the poorest quality, many times spoiled and leftover from Confederate troop rations. The quality of the bread was bad enough, but the poor storage conditions meant that the men received bread rations that were full of bugs and other insects. The water quality at the camp was notoriously atrocious leading many men to develop typhoid, chronic diarrhea and other ailments. While at the camp, Otis experienced severe cases of Bloody Flux which left him nearly dead. The exposure to extreme differences in weather conditions created a great deal of pain throughout his body, contributing to the development of arthritis and rheumatism throughout his entire body. Affidavits from local Orleans County men who knew him in the camp at Andersonville stated that he could barely walk at times and that he suffered a great deal from scurvy, including receding gums and other health issues. Raymond Unger wrote of the stories told to him about Otis and his return to Carlton after he was paroled and discharged in the spring of 1865. Upon his return, he was nothing more than a mere skeleton, owing his survival to the money that he sewed into his jacket. With that money, he was able to buy vegetables and other essentials in order to sustain himself. Many other men were not as lucky. It is difficult to imagine the physical pain and suffering that he had endured during the war as well as during his time at Andersonville. One must imagine the emotional suffering he endured while his wife and four young children remained at home without a father. It is hard to know whether or not the family knew he was alive or if they thought he were dead while he was in Georgia. One can only imagine how difficult it would have been to arrive home in such a frail condition, only to learn that your father and younger brother had both died while he was in the prison camp; his father dying the day after his capture.
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