[Continued from Page 44:] but if it cannot be supplied by cisterns receiving the water from the roofs, it may be furnished by a water-boat . . . . Col. William H. Hoffman (above), whose letter (quoted above left) to War Secretary Edwin M. Stanton recommended using Rikers, was a West Point graduate who performed with valor in the Mexican War. Hoffman was serving in Texas when the Civil War began and refused to join the rebels. He was held prisoner until Aug. 27, 1862. Whether this colored his attitude toward Confederate POWs in his custody is a matter of conjecture. He was known for his frugality as the U.S. Commissary General of Prisoners in charge of all Union Army camps for Confederate POWs, including those on Rikers and Hart Island. Click the above image for more about Hoffman on Brian Scott's Elmira Prison Camp OnLine Library site. This image and caption do not appear in printed book and have been added to the web version by the NYCHS webmaster. It would seem that the best policy and best economy would recommend the construction of a suitable prison on Riker’s Island for the reception of at least 1,000 prisoners with barracks for a suitable guard . . . . Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. HOFFMAN, Colonel Third Infantry and Commissary General of Prisoners. DETACHED NOTE NO. 4 ---- UNION ARMY UNITS AND INDIVIDUALS ON RIKER'S ISLAND 9th NYSV Inf., (known as Hawkin’s Zouaves, 1st Reg.) was mustered in on 5/15/61 and was on Riker’s Island until 6/5/61. 36th NYSV Reg., (Washington Volunteer Reg), under Col. Innes, mustered in on 6/23/61 and left Riker’s Island on 7/12/61. 62nd NYSV Inf. Reg. (Anderson Zouaves) was mustered in on 6/30/1861 under Col. John Lafayette Riker and left “Camp Astor,” Riker’s Island, for Washington on 8/21/861. Col. Riker was killed in battle on 5/30/1862 at Fair Oaks, Virginia, while attacking the enemy at the head of his regiment. The Zouave uniform style (above) derives from Kabyli tribemen who served with the French Foreign Legion in N. Africa. Gen. George B. McClellan's admiration of the Zouaves as "the beau-ideal" soldier seems to have inspired various Union units to adopt that distinctive attire. The Astor Library, whose "Ladies" provided Col. John Lafayette Riker's 62nd NYVs with the uniforms, had been founded with funds left by furrier John Jacob Astor. It opened in 1854 at Lafayette & Astor Places. Its 1895 merger with the Lenox library helped form the NY Public Library. Click image for more about Zouaves on National Park Service/Stephanie Gray's speical Antietam site. This image and caption do not appear in printed book and have been added to the web version by the NYCHS webmaster. [No record has been found establishing "Camp Astor" as the official name of the Riker’s Island post. [However it appears that Col. Riker or members of his regiment (as reported in a July 19, 1861 New York Herald article) gave the name in rcognition of the financial contribution to the organizing of the 62nd Regiment by John Jacob Astor II, grandson of the immigrant fur trader, real estate tycoon. financier, and philanthropist. [In addition to Astor II's benefaction, the regiment’s Zouave uniforms were provided by the "Ladies of the Astor Library.” [Riker and Astor II were about the same age, they may have been classmates in then Columbia College, both were attorneys, and both were colonels, Astor II on the staff of General McClellan. [It appears that the "Camp Astor" name was unofficial and applied only while the 62nd Regiment was on the island. [This name for the Riker’s Island installation also appeared in a notice in the 8/22/1861 issue of the New York Tribune, based upon Col. Riker’s orders of the previous day to his regiment. [Another occurrence of the name has been found.is a two-day pass titled ”Camp Astor Rikers Island August 17, 1861” issued by the lieutenant of the 62nd’s Company E to a Private James Schermerhorn. [The original pass was offered for sale in 11/2003 by “War Between the States Memorabilia,” P.O.Box 3965, Gettysburg, PA 17325.] [John Lafayette Riker had enrolled as colonel in April, 1861, at Saltersville, N.J., at age 39. On 5/22/1873 NY’s G.A.R. Post #62 was chartered in his name.] South of Rikers Island, a short distance across Bowery Bay, is Astoria, named for furrier John Jacob Astor (above) by fellow furrier Steven Halsey who founded the Queens County village in 1839. Click Library of Congress web site image of Astor (above) for more about him. This image and caption do not appear in printed book and have been added to the web version by the NYCHS webmaster. 52nd NYSV Reg., was on “Ricker’s Island” from 8/3/1861 to 11/5/1861. 6th NYSV Reg. (Governor’s Guard), was on Riker’s Island on 9/15/1861 when Col. J. C. Pinckney was put in command to replace Col. Bull who had resigned. 76th NYSV, (Cortland County Reg.), Cos. F & K mustered in on 1/21/1862 and left “Camp Riker” or “Wreckers Island” by 1/30/1862. In a 1/23/1862 letter home from George M. Guernsey, he stated that “This island belongs to the Col. Riker and is named after him.” 162 NYSV Inf. Reg. mustered in between 8/22/62 and 10/24/62, went from Riker’s Island on 10/24/62 The 174th Reg. (5th Metropolitan Guards) merged with this regiment on 2/17/64. 131st NYSV Reg. (formerly the 1st Reg., Metropolitan Guards), mustered in on Riker’s Island on 9/6/1662. [Continued on Page 46 below.]

[Continued from Page 45:] Col. Thaddeus P. Mott (above) was one of the organizers of the 14th Cavalry as part of the Metropolitan Police-sponsored Brigade that mustered in on Rikers Island. Previously Mott had been a captain of artillery at the Chain Bridge fortification in Washington, D.C. After the Civil War, Mott became -- with U.S. Army encouragement -- a major general in the army of the Khedive of Egypt (Mott is in that uniform above). He helped to organize it into a disciplined modern force by the standards of that era. Mott's military venture in Egypt, with other former Civil War officers from both sides, is among the exploits covered by Richard Harding Davis in his non-fiction book Real Soldiers of Fortune. About the same time, Mott's brother-in-law, Dr. William Holme Van Buren, was an attending and later a consulting surgeon at the Department of Public Charities and Correction's Charity Hospital on Blackwell’s Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). Click the above image to visit the William Wing Loring WWW site to learn more about this little known chapter in the history of U.S. military involvement in the Middle East. This image and caption do not appear in printed book and have been added to the web version by the NYCHS webmaster. 173rd NYSV Reg. (formerly the 4th Reg., Metropolitan Guards), was on Riker’s Island from 9/9/62 to 12/8/62. Col. C. B. Morton received authority to recruit this unit on 9/22/1862, and its alternative mustering in date was 11/10/1862. 133rd NYSV Reg. (formerly the 2nd Reg., Metropolitan Guards), mustered in on Riker’s Island on 9/24/62. 174th N.Y. State Vol. Reg. (formerly the 5th Reg., Metropolitan Guards), 9 companies mustered in on Riker’s Island between 10/15/62 and 11/13/62 for 3 years, under Cols. Theodore W. Pannelee, & Benjamin F. Gott, and left on 12/7/62. By 10/20/62 60 men had deserted. 28th CT Reg., Co. A, stopped overnight on Riker’s Island between leaving New Haven on 11/17/62 on the Steamboat “Traveler” and arriving at South Street, Williamsburg, NY. (from the diary of Stamford, CT’s, Noah W. Hoyt) 14th Cav. (the Metropolitan Cav.), was mustered in on 11/24/62 and was on the Island until 2/8/63 14th NYSM Reg., Co. E's John F. York (& possibly others) by Special Order #164 was detailed for conscription service at Riker’s Island until returned to the Regiment in 1/1864 1st MA Vol. Inf. Reg.; on duty on “Ricker’s Island”, as well as Hart’s and David’s Islands, from 7/30/63 to 10/15/63. Co. G’s John Williams deserted on 9/18/63. The regiment’s Capt. A. G. Chamberlain was Provost Marshall on the Island from late 1862 to in 10/63.when he was commissioned Lt. Col. of Colored Troops. 124 NYSV Inf. Reg.; Co. B presumably was on Rikers Island in 8/63 when a deserter from it was reported. 8th Cav., two of its officers were reported on 9/5/63 as absent from the unit, apparently on detached duty “at conscript camp on Riker’s Is.” 13th Heavy Art., Co. I was mustered in on 11/10/63, Co. F. in 2/64, Co. G on 3/14/64, & H on 2/18/1864, 123 NYSV Inf. Reg. (Washington County Reg.), a Co. K soldier wrote a letter from Riker’s Island in 1863. 16th Heavy Art.; Co. E was mustered in and left Riker’s Island the same day: 12/16/63; Co. G from 1/9/64 to 1/13/64. 18th Reg., N.Y. Cavalry, Co. K, on 12/30/1863 was on the Island. 20th Reg., U.S. Colored Troops, mustered in on 2/9/64 to serve for 3 years and shipped out on 3/5/1864. Whether the mustering in date is incorrect for this or the next entry, or whether an unidentified other unit is meant, it was reported that from 1/17/1864 to 1/23/1864 a Negro regiment of 1000 volunteers was on Riker’s Island under the command of Col. George Bliss, Jr. On 3/5/1864 the regiment left on a steamer to 26th Street on the East River from which it proceeded to the Union League Club House where before 100,000 [Continued on Page 47 below.]

[Continued from Page 46:] spectators there was a reception and ovation to these first black troops. 26th Reg., U.S. Colored Troops, was on Riker’s Island from 2/27/64 to 4/64. 98th NYSV Inf. Reg. (Wayne County Reg.), a soldier’s 2/64 letter was written from Riker’s Island. 13th Cavalry Reg. (Seymore Light Cav.), Companies K & L mustered into service in 3/1864 43rd NYSV Reg. (Sullivan County Reg.), may have mustered out on Riker’s Island although also reported to have done so on 7/20/65 at a location near Washington, D.C. DETACHED NOTE NO. 5 ---- THE DRAFT RIOTS AND RIKER'S ISLAND Images above and below are sections of an illustration depicting the NYC Draft Rioters burning and looting the Colored Orphan Asylum operated by the Almshouse Department that ran municipal charitable institutions and the city prisons and jails. During the riots, Blackwell's and Rikers Islands became safe havens for black children and adults rescued from the mobs by volunteer firemen and the Metropolitan Police. Click on the above image for more on the Union League Club and its history. This image and caption do not appear in printed book and have been added to the web version by the NYCHS webmaster. The draft riots of mid-July, 1863, have been blamed first on [the then] recent immigrants who are claimed to have had no interest in the Civil War and in being drafted to defend the integrity of the United States, and, by them, on the Negro population which was seen as being the cause of the war and as taking their jobs if they were to be drafted. Accordingly, mob action was directed largely against Negro people. One of the targets was “The Orphan Asylum for Colored Children,” on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets, which housed between six and eight hundred children. On July 13 a mob ransacked the three and four storied building and then repeatedly set fire to it only to be defeated by firemen until after several hours the latter could no longer defend it. In the meantime, or presumably by when the ransacking began, the orphans had been led from harm’s way, and by soon after noon they were seen proceeding slowly on 34th Street toward Seventh Avenue, escorted by a strong police detachment. When they reached the arsenal they were joined by a large number of black men and women carrying a few babies and a pitiful assortment of belongings; these people had earlier taken refuge in adjacent station houses. The procession then reformed and marched down 35th street to the North River, again led by the police,. In addition a strong detachment of Hawkin’s Zouaves, the 9th NY Volunteer Infantry Regiment, protected the flanks and a company of the 10th NY Volunteers plus a squad of police formed the rear guard. A large crowd of rioters followed but when the procession reached the pier they were held in check by the soldiers’ fixed bayonets while the Negro orphans and adults were safely loaded on boats and carried off to the temporary haven of Riker’s Island. <<=== Previous