Col. Nathan H. Vincent
Col. Nathan H. Vincent, resident at Big Rapids, was born in Allegany Co., N.Y., Dec. 5, 1839. His parents, David and Freegift (Saunders) Vincent, resided 50 years on a A farm in Almond Tp., Allegany Co., N.Y., and died therein the fall of 1866, the demise of the father occurring three months before that of the mother.
A few months after Col. Vincent had attained his majority, the country was convulsed by civil war. It roused to activity every sentiment of loyal patriotism existing in the North; it taught men how strong were their own unrecognized love and fealty for home and country; it brought to the altarof the Union the best blood in the land, and developed to the awe-struck and wondering nations of the earth the imperishable character of American institutions.
Col. Vincent enlisted Aug. 29, 1861, in Hornellsville, N.Y., in Co. D., 86th N.Y. Vol. Inf., Capt. D. S. Ellsworth, and his regiment was mustered into service at Elmira. After six months’ service as a private, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal, and successively to those of Sergeant and Sergeant Major, and Feb. 15, 1863, was commissioned Second Lieutenant. May 3, following, he was promoted to be Captain of his Company. His commissions as Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel followed in swift succession, and after a command of eight months he brought the regiment to Elmira, where it was mustered out, Aug. 5, 1865.
On leaving Elmira the 86th N.Y. Regt. proceeded to Washington, and was engaged during the winter building fortifications for the defense of the Capital. Early in the spring it was assigned to detached service in Washington and Georgetown, and did provost guard duty until the return of the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula Campaign under McClellan, when it joined the army at Manassas Junction, and was assigned to the command of Fitz-John Porter.
It was first in action at Bull’s Run (2d), where an engagement lasting only 15 minutes (Aug. 29) cost the regiment upwards of 200 men. Col. Vincent was wounded below the knee, and was sent to the hospital, where he remained until the following morning. As the coming daylight streaked the east, he discovered that the Union forces had moved to the heights at Centreville, and the rebels were advancing to occupy the ground held the previous day by the Federal soldiers. He pressed two fence pickets into service for crutches, and made his way to a ruined bridge, crept across on a stringer, and joined the army.
He recovered in time to participate in the destruction of Fredericksburg. May 2, 1863, he was again under fire at Chancellorsville, at the close of what is on record as exceeding in disaster any previous campaign in which the Federal army had been engaged.
The loss in officers of the 86th at Chancellorsville was terrific. General Whipple, on the first day, led a reconnoitering force toward the left from the point held by the right wing (Howard’s corps), and attacked the rear guard of Stonewall Jackson. Meanwhile the latter made his daring fiank movement with his advance, and utterly routed the right wirg. After some hours’ severe fighting, Gen. Whipple fell back to an open field in the vicinity of the position whence the “right” had been driven. It was after nightfall, and the rebel pickets surrounded the field on three sides, a portion following in the rear of the withdrawing force and closing in, while the other sides were guarded by pickets from Jackson’s force holding the former position of Gen. Howard. The night was thus spent, and at break of day it was discovered that the enemy’s pickets had not joined on the side nearest the Union forces, and the beleaguered troops under Gen. Whipple availed themselves of the promise thereby afforded, and made a precipitate bolt, followed by the rebels. The soldiers crossed a ravine and met Gen. Hooker with his forces, who joined battle with the troops under Jackson, Whipple’s men moved to a position to support Hooker’s batteries, but were obliged to cross the ravine on the right to intercept the enemy marching on the Union lines. Under the severe fire to which the 86th was subjected, the Lieutenant Colonel commanding was killed, the Major severely wounded, the senior Captain killed, and Captain Ellsworth of Co. D fell at the side of Col. Vincent. Whipple’s men came up into the road, but an enfilading fire compelled them forward toward the batteries which they had previously supported, to find them fallen back to the Chancellor House, whither they followed, and while yet heated and panting were ordered back to the relief of a regiment that had been cut off. The destruction of officers had been so great that it was next to impossible to determine who was the legitimate leader, and Col. Vincent, the junior Second Lieutenant, assumed command, led back the regiment, rescued the organization and flag, but lost more men of his own force than he saved of the regiment he delivered. He was covered with blood from a scalp wound, and while standing among the battle-stained men, Gen. Whipple came up and advised him to go to the rear. Col. Vincent expressed his determination to abide with the regiment. His General marked him for promotion and moved on. A few minutes later they were once more in action, below the Chancellor House, where Col. Vincent received another scalp wound, a slight injury in the right arm, and another in the right hip. Gen. Whipple was shot, and his duty devolved on others.
The regiment was next engaged in a fight at Beverley’s Ford, whither they went on a forced march, and did effective service, capturing the rebel headquarters, with papers outlining Lee’s plans for carrying the war into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The rebel chief found himself unexpectedly on the eve of battle, and his hopes scattered like autumn leaves when it became certain that two years of indecisive war had lulled his sagacity blinded his judgment, and inveigled him into premature battle.
The 86th N.Y. Regt. was prominent through the Gettysburg campaign, where it did heroic service in repulsing the impetuous attack of the corps of Gen. Longstreet, July 2, 1864. Being in Sickles’ corps, he participated in several actions along the route of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, and in the valley of the Shenandoah. It was transferred to the command of Gen. Hancock, and went into action at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, having 770 equipped men. The struggle ended seven days later, but at roll-call at the close of May 10, only 50 men of the 86th responded to their names. Col. (then Capt.) Vincent was disabled by gunshot wounds in the left arm and thigh, and was off duty three months. His left arm was badly shattered, and has never recovered. He was an inmate of Seminary Hospital at Georgetown, until sufficiently well for furlough. At the end of 60 days he went to the Convalescent Hospital at Annapolis, Md., and was sent thence on detached duty to Camp Gilmore Concord, N.H., where he was occupied in the duties attendant upon the assignment of recruits. In November he made application to be relieved, and joined his command before Petersburg. On his way he stopped at Albany, and received his intermediate and final commissions from Gov. Seymour, and assumed command of his regiment as its Lieutenant Colonel. Soon afterward he became Colonel in verity, and took part in the closing conflicts of the spring of 1865, among them Hatcher’s Run, Petersburg (final battle), and the other engagements in pursuit of Lee, until the surrender of the latter to the Federal authority at Appomattox Court-House. The regiment went thence to Beeksville Junction, and on to Washington for the Grand Review.
Col. Vincent bears on his body seven scars – the ineffaceable credentials of his bravery on the field. The regimental flag of 1864 is preserved at Albany, N.Y., with the record of the year and the following statements: “This flag was received at Brandy Station, Va., in March, 1864” and “Four Color-bearers have fallen beneath its folds.” This was but one of several flags carried by the “86th” during the war.
Col. Vincent returned to Hornellsville, where he went into business as a real-estate broker, and operated three years, officiating also as policeman and ticket agent of the Erie railroad. In May, 1868, he came to Big Rapids, where he purchased a lot and built a residence, which he sold soon after, and bought the well-known Stimson farm, containing 280 acres of land, situated on the north border of the city of Big Rapids, and lying on sees. 3 and 4, Big Rapids Tp. On this he moved, and followed farming about 11 years. He has made considerable improvements, and still owns the place. In 1881, he bought 25 acres adjoining his farm. In the spring of 1883 he sold 21 acres off the southern extremity. He also owns two lots in the rear of the Northern Hotel, each 240 x 60 feet ; two lots adjoining, fronting on State street, 50 x 150 feet, on one of which he proposes to erect his residence. He is engaged in breeding trotting stock, in which he takes great pride and satisfaction.
Col. Vincent was married at Hornellsvllle, N.Y., Feb. 16, 1864, to Angelina Ellsworth, sister of Capt. Ellsworth, and a daughter of Horace and Susan Ellsworth, born in New York, Dec. 22, 1841. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent have two children: Clara A., born at Hornellsville, May 7, 1865, and Daniel H., born at Big Rapids, Sept. 7, 1869.
In the fall of 1876, Col. Vincent was elected Sheriff of Mecosta County, on the Republican ticket, and was re-elected to the following term. He served two years afterward as Under-Sheriff, and is a member of the Order of Masonry, and several insurance societies. He is the present Deputy United States Marshal. He was an actor in the organization of the city of Big Rapids, and was a member of the committee which framed its charter.
A recent writer says a man’s temperament is his fate. The statement probably amounts to a truism in the case of Col. Vincent. It is always impossible to estimate the exact degree to which a man’s traits of character are inherent, or to determine whether they are the result of education and circumstances. The question is too broad for present discussion, but its interest in this individual case is no less intense, awakened as it is by a career and position which must lead every careful observer to reflection, and due weight must be accorded to innate tendencies, training, and the influence of events. The father of Col. Vincent was such a man as made the period in which he lived a most significant era, from its bearing upon that which lay in the immediate future. The Whig party, of which he was an adherent, reached its ultimatum during his active life, and the element of which he was the type, in its quiet but inflexible and unswerving methods, made the political history of this people during the last 40 years a grand possibility, and an illustrious certainty.
The character of Col. Vincent was molded by that of his father. The reflective habits of the latter trained him in such directions that in the simultaneous advent of civil war and his legal freedom, he found the opportunity of his life. The disaster of the first Bull Run engagement brought the nation face to face with a most portentous fact. The culmination of a colossal national wrong was precipitated upon an apathetic people. The sentiment of the Englishman who scornfully informed the parties at Big Rapids with whom he was negotiating, where news was received of the disaster at Bull Run, that their business was off because they had no country, was identical with that which filled the North with unutterable shame, and awakened her hidden heroes to a sense that men were needed at the front. The young Vincent, in the first flush of his untrammeled existence, only saw one fact, – that the time to act had come, and the emergency demanded promptness and self-abnegation. The story has already been told in brief, but in the cause wherein was the element of success is contained a lesson that the young men of this generation might consider with profit. In a cursory review of the facts of his career he was asked concerning the governing impulse of which he was conscious. “I only realized an earnest desire to understand my duty,” was the response which merits permanent record, both as an exponent of its author’s character and in what it may mean to others.
On reaching his post of duty, his incompetency in military detail led Col. Vincent to strive in every way to remedy the defect, and he devoted all the time and opportunity he could control to that purpose. His apparent proficiency in acquiring the details of military tactics obtained his rapid advancement through the non-commissioned gratles of promotion: his bravery in action did the rest. Like poets, leaders are born.
The grandest development of the civil war was the exhibit to the world of what stuff Americans are made; how quiet men, moving in humble walks in life, rise to heights reached by few others under the impelling power of an unheralded emergency. Forethought and self-knowledge are the foundation of Col. Vincent’s achievements, in whatever avenue he acts. He needs no eulogy: his record is his crown of fame, but its luster pales in the glory of his perfect and lire-eminent manhood.