About the Southold American Legion -

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT Griswold-Terry-Glover Post {Southold American Legion}:
SPLIA (Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities) was founded in 1948 and has compiled volumes relating to historic sites on Long Island. The Southold SPLIA includes this information about the Griswold-Terry-Glover Post #803: “Contributing two-story ca. 1860 Italian Villa style frame residence. Distinctive elements include shallow gable roofs with deep eaves; three-story flat roofed tower; and paired round-headed windows in 3rd story of tower and 2nd story of main house. Two-story wing to the north. Modern, non-historic alterations and additions include the removal of balconies from the third story of the tower; aluminum soffits; new wood shingle siding, entrance portico and one-story addition in rear (1957). Building is set back from the road and front grounds have been adapted for parking and display of artillery.”
A Report of Election from November 8, 1864 showing that Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. There is also copy of the president’s speech he gave to “a large body of Pennsylvanians” that night. Having this available is forthright since Lincoln was straight and to the point and we have it on file!
According to the July 1948 Long Island Forum article titled Stella Prince, Lighthouse Keeper by Dr. Clarence Ashton Wood, her father George S. Prince is listed as having “participated in many of the most important battles of the Civil War” and his company was the Sixth Cavalry. The Sixth Cavalry gave “the appearance of which is said to have turned the tide of victory at Gettysburg.” Southold’s George S. Prince was a descendant of Captain John Prince. Captain John Prince was “the first of that family name to become a resident of Southold.”
George S. Prince was wounded at the battle of the Wilderness. He was hospitalized in Washington. Mary Todd Lincoln on one occasion gave him a blessing. After his recovery, he re-enlisted. At the war’s end, he was given a medal of honor. In 1870, Prince was given the appointment as keeper of the Horton’s Point Lighthouse by President Grant as a reward for his services in the Civil War. Stella and her sister Lucy were residents of the lighthouse. Stella became assistant keeper to Captain Robert Ebbitts after the death of her father. After Captain Ebbitts fell, hurting himself, breaking his ankle, Stella Prince then became the lighthousekeeper.
In the January 18, 1951 article titled Republican Watchman 80 Years Ago, it reads that editor and publisher Henry A. Reeves reported that “‘Tad’ Lincoln, the youngest child of the late President Lincoln, died at Chicago on the 15th of dropsy on the heart, aged 18. His mother was with him and was overcome with grief, he being her favorite child. He was buried by the side of his father at Springfield, Ill.” It’s a crucial piece of history that the editor and publisher was sure to print. How rewarding that even then there was the opportunity of informing citizens about nationwide events in our local newspapers.
A December 16, 1948 Traveler column by Paul Bailey in Amityville, NY titled Historic Long Island includes information about Mary Louise Booth. She was the daughter of William Booth (who descended from a Southold founder). She was highly recognized for her French translations. During the Civil War, she received encouragement and praise from President Abraham Lincoln for her English edition of Augustin Cochin’s The Results of Emancipation. When Mary Louise Booth was 36, she headed America’s first national women’s magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, when it was first established in 1867.
{JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT FOLKS ~ BELOW IS A LINK CARRYING MY MARY LOUISE BOOTH northforkpatch post}:
https://patch.com/new-york/nor...
We learn that the volunteer soldiers from the Town of Southold in the Civil War in Company H, 127th Regiment, New York State Volunteers, were at Staten Island, New York on September 6, 1862 and included 3rd Corporal Edward Foster Huntting. A week later, the Company was in good spirits at Camp Marcy, Virginia. In 1863, Edward Foster Huntting of Southold was a member of Co. H, 127th Regiment and had been promoted to a Lieutenant in the 47th New York Volunteers. It was written: “We are confident that no soldier would discharge the duties thus devolved upon him with more trustworthiness and with greater real martial dignity than our young friend and former pupil. We congratulate him on his promotion.”
Lieutenant Edward Foster Huntting, the son of Edward Huntting, was killed in action at the age of 21, giving his life for the Union during the disastrous battle of Olustee, Florida, on the afternoon of the 20th of February, 1864 while leading his Company. It was written: “He was brave, generous, impulsive, and a patriot of the purest type. He was one of the first to enroll his name among that noble band of youth that composed Co. A of the monitor regiment. Last fall he was detached from his regiment having received a commission in Co. I of the 47th New York Volunteers. In his death, his parents have lost a faithful and obedient son, the town one of its purest patriots, and the nation one of its most heroic defenders. Though his grave is upon the bloody battlefield where treason still bids a haughty defiance to our national authority, the memory of his early life and death will be held in sacred esteem in every household where he was known or beloved.”
Reverend Epher Whitaker knew Edward Foster Huntting from Edward’s early childhood and was so shocked at his parishioner and friend’s death. Edward Foster Huntting was a brilliant young man. He was well known and admired. Edward was the first person Reverend Whitaker had a conversation with when the Reverend came to Southold.
Reverend Dr. Epher Whitaker wrote Ready for Duty or Lieut. E. F. Huntting, a sermon and brief biography that shared a sketch of the Lieutenant’s life and death. He composed this memory as a tribute to the young veteran, hero and friend. The important relation of Lieutenant Huntting’s Long Island background and ancestry to his excellence as a soldier was emphasized in Reverend Whitaker’s tribute. This address was distributed to 20,000 soldiers during the Civil War.
There are letters from the 1800s written by Edward Foster Huntting to his parents just prior to his entering the Civil War. An original letter on file dated Wednesday, February 24, 1864, written to Edward Foster Huntting’s mother with the announcement of Edward’s death. There is a poem spotlighting The Battle of Olustee.
In 1876, 32 charter members organized the Edward Foster Huntting Post, G.A.R., in Greenport, and subsequently each year held a reunion in Southold with speakers and a parade culminating in a large dinner prepared by the ladies of the Presbyterian Church.
Carved inscriptions that pay tribute to the names of the Southold men who served and died in the Civil War and were being remembered is on the monument erected by the Ladies Monumental Union of 1887 that stands at the Southold hamlet proper on Tuckers Lane and Main Road opposite the First Universalist Church. One name found there is Edward Foster Huntting’s.