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Engraving made from a photographic image
of Clarence McKenzie, from The Little Drummer Boy, Clarence D McKenzie,
The Child Of The Thirteenth Regiment NYSM, And The Child Of The Mission
Sunday School by Rev Luther G. Bingham, published during 1862 as part of
the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting's Triumphs of Grace series. |
It was a Civil War moment.
A drummer boy is shot dead in Maryland and his remains return to Brooklyn packed in ice. His family and his teachers, the members of his regiment and of his church - all are bereaved. The boy's faithful dog is in the funeral procession and the eulogy is preached by an army chaplain who vilifies the South and calls for the war to be pressed. The streets to Greenwood Cemetery are lined with hundreds of people who silently watch the small casket pass. A Bible worn by frequent use, presented to the boy at church when he left with his regiment, is clutched by his stricken mother. Inconsolable grief and unanswerable questions abound. But grief must run to hardness, because the clear line to victory can be lost in this wavering ocean of tears. And unless victory is wrought from this pain, it will all seem senseless.
It was a Civil War moment. A moment of lament and dutiful resolve.
During 1862, the Dutch-Reformed Church published a hardbound tract recounting the story in a manner meant to point soldiers and civilians toward heaven. During the 1880s, as veterans recalled their war by forming Grand Army of the Republic posts, it seemed only natural that Clarence D. McKenzie Post #399 in Brooklyn be named in honor of the drummer boy.
Born February 18, 1849, in Brooklyn, Clarence was living in the tenements on John Street just west of the Navy Yard when a mission school teacher got him and his siblings interested in Sunday classes. He became "a praying lad," who never again missed Sunday School and thereby obtained salvation as well as a basic education despite his family's poverty.
Clarence and his older brother William joined the 13th New York State Militia as drummers during the summer of 1860. The Thirteenth Regiment of State Militia had been around since 1847 and, though actually designated as a heavy artillery unit, it normally trained and deployed as infantry. Belittled as "Fourth of July" soldiers even after performing tolerably well in the war, Mr. & Mrs. McKenzie must have seen the Militia as a harmless way for their boys to better themselves. In those days, the military occasionally opened a way for upward mobility. Their first parade, resplendent in the 13th's cadet gray uniforms, took place October 12, 1860, when New York City staged a grand reception for the Prince of Wales. Even when Fort Sumter put an unexpected threat on the militia's horizon, the boys were naively determined to remain members and Mr. McKenzie supported them.
A call to active duty finally came during April of '61. In the Lawrence Street Presbyterian Church on the Sunday before his regiment's scheduled departure, Clarence was called up front by the congregation's blind preacher, Rev. McClelland, who grandly presented him with a small morocco bound Bible. Thoroughly smitten, the boy never let go of the keepsake. His last words to his mother before he left were passages he cheerfully read from the holy book.
Clarence "went to the seat of war" aboard a steamer on April 23 with Captain Henry Balsdon's Company D and seven other companies of the 13th NYSM led by Kings County's old soldier Colonel Abel Smith. The regiment served uneventfully on various pickets at Annapolis and Baltimore. Of the nearly seven hundred men fielded by the 13th during this period of active duty, only five members died, these of disease, and the unit was honorably discharged back in Brooklyn on August 6. But that was day Clarence would not see. Ironically, his death would not be part of the official report on his regiment's losses.
Captain Balsdon, only a boy himself at 22, looked out for his drummer, even giving him a place in his tent on officers' row. William was never far from his brother, either, and both boys wrote home weekly. Although Clarence's regiment was never deployed in battle, life in camp surrounded by thousands of untrained citizen soldiers proved to be as dangerous as the front lines. On July 3, Adrian Root, serving as lieutenant colonel of Buffalo's 21st NY Volunteers, wrote from Camp Kalorama to tell his mother about the hazards of camp life. "Several accidents have occurred in our camp since I last wrote to you. A sentinel shot a little boy the other day, lacerating his hand badly and rendering amputation necessary. Last Sunday, another sentinel fired a random shot in order to clean his musket: the ball passed over a hill, struck a barn over 300 yards off, passed through three partitions and struck a young man in the side . . . I never saw such carelessness and want of ordinary prudence as I have seen here. There are many thousands of men here, but not one in one thousand of the constantly-occurring accidents finds its way into the public journals. The officials all, of course, feel delicate about the subject and endeavor to prevent publicity."
On June 11, Private McCormick of Company B, 13th NYSM, borrowed a musket from a comrade who was acting as a cook. Practicing the manual of arms a few minutes before drill, McCormick came to the position of "charge bayonet" and pulled the trigger of his piece, discharging it. Clarence McKenzie was sitting on the ground reading his Bible when the bullet struck him in the back and exited from his stomach. It was three o'clock. He lasted for two hours, cradled in Captain Balsdon's arms. Confusion over the shock gave way to anger and Clarence demanded that the Captain have McCormick shot, but he then began to worry about the effect of the news on his parents. The 13th formed up the next morning to escort the remains, in a crate of ice, to the railroad station. Captain Balsdon, four soldiers, and William returned to the McKenzie home at #23 Liberty Street.
At 4 PM on July 14, a funeral service was held at St John's Church within a few
blocks of where the GAR Plaza now stands. Miles away, in Virginia, Mr.
Lincoln's
army was preparing for its move toward Manassas and Major Sullivan Ballou of the
Second Rhode Island Volunteers wrote a poignant letter to his wife Sarah.
Rev.
Elijah Guion, who would later become chaplain of the 1st New Orleans US
Volunteers, preached Clarence's eulogy, charging the conspirators of the South
with all wartime evils and calling his audience to support the government,
thereby avenging Clarence McKenzie's death at the age of 12 years, 3 months,
and 20 days. Blind Rev. McClelland made touching remarks to the children who
were present.
Clarence was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, where a white bronze marker stands
today topped by a statue of him playing his drum. It was said that his dog
"Jack"
returned to the cemetery daily for weeks, waiting by the freshly-turned earth.
The 13th NY National Guard contributed hundreds of men to make up the 87th NYV during December 1861. It was activated for three months in 1862, serving in VII Corps at Suffolk VA, and for a month in Pennsylvania during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign.
Of more than forty GAR posts established in Kings County between 1867 and 1948,
a quarter were named after National Guardsmen and four of these after members of
the 13th NYNG. During 1870, Colonel Abel Smith Post and Chaplain Henry M Lee
Post were chartered. A post was named after Thomas Dakin, a captain in the 13th
during the Civil War who became a major general of the NY Natl. Guard in 1875.
And then there was the sentimental act of establishing the CD McKenzie Post.
END
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