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N.S. Babcock
(1830 - 1917)
Home State: New York
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 77th New York Infantry
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
A 30 year old glover in Gloversville, he enrolled there on 27 September 1861 for a three year term and mustered as Captain, Company K, 77th New York Infantry on 4 October.
On the Campaign
He commanded the regiment at Antietam as senior officer, with about 175 men present initially on September 17; others who had been on picket duty joined later in the day.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Major on 23 September 1862 (to date from 31 August) and to Lieutenant Colonel 5 September 1863, but was not mustered at that rank. He was mustered out with his regiment on 13 December 1864 at Saratoga Springs, NY.
After the War
He went to Pennsylvania and speculated in the oil business, but "went under." He moved west to Illinois in 1867 and on to a farm in Fillmore County, Nebraska in 1871:
When the Colonel brought Mrs. Babcock to the claim North East of town, they came in a wagon which was without springs, and their seats were wooden chairs, certainly not an ideal outfit for a fifty miles trip over the prairies. Their household goods did not arrive for a week afterwards, so a fire had to be built in the hillside, their meat was cooked on the end of a stick, the potatoes boiled in a teakettle, and for plates they used shingles, which, with the companionship of silverware provided ideal contrasts in past and present experiences ...He was a successful farmer, was Constable of Exeter Township when it was established in 1873, and was elected to a term in the Nebraska House of Representatives 1880-81. He was also Commander of Grand Army of the Republic Post #76 in Exeter.
Rattle Snakes were numerous then, no less than 36 were caught in one day. Mr. Babcock had several rattles until recently when they passed into the hands of younger members of their family.
References & notes
His service from the Adjutant General.1 The quote above from George R. Keith's Pioneer Stories of the Pioneers of Fillmore and Adjoining Counties (1915). Details from family genealogists and the Biographical Manual of the Members of the Sixteenth Legislature of Nebraska (1881). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the New York State Military Museum, online from New York Heritage.
He married twice: Elizabeth Ann Hyndman (1829-1852) in 1850 and Sarah Sowle (1842-1930) in 1867, and had one son with each wife.
Birth
09/13/1830; Broadalbin, Fulton County, NY
Death
02/26/1917; Exeter, NE; burial in Exeter Cemetery, Exeter, NE
1 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1901, Ser. No. 29, pg. 429 [AotW citation 22503]