ABRAM DURYEE.
Gen. Abram Duryee, one of the best known of
the gallant officers New-York has produced, died
yesterday at his residence, 81 West One Hun-
dred and Twenty-sixth Street. He had for some
three years been suffering from the effects of a
paralytic shock. A week previous to his death
he was again attacked, and, although it was
thought that he was about to recover, his
seventy-five years of active life were against
him and he failed to rally.
Gen. Duryee had been identified with some of
the most stirring events in the history of the
city and was a fine specimen of the American
citizen soldier. He was born in New-York City
April 29, 1815, and was descended from French
Huguenot ancestors who had emigrated to this
country at the time of the religios persecutions
of the seventeenth century. He received a good
education in the schools of the city, partially at
the Crosby Street High School and partially at
the Grammar School of Columbia College.
When a young man he engaged in commercial
pursuits, devoting his attention for some time to
the importation of mahogany. Methodical busi-
ness habits and stern integrity here reaped
their just reward, and Gen. Duryee amassed a
considerable fortune. The military career
which made the General so famous was begun
when as a young man he entered the ranks of
the One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment of
the then "New-York Militia." In this organiza-
tion he passed through all the non-commissioned
grades and became Sergeant-Major. In 1838 he
entered the National Guard as private in the
Twenty-seventh Regiment of Artillery. After
several promotions he received his commission
as Second Lieutenant in this command in 1840.
In 1847, after further service and promotion,
he was appointed Colonel of the Seventh Regi-
ment. It was as commander of this regiment
that he won his first laurels. When the actor
Macready was mobbed at the Astor Place Opera
House, May 10, 1849, the Seventh Regiment,
with a troop of horse, was ordered to suppress
the riot. Col. Duryee marched to the Opera
House with such of his command as could be got
together, and though having in all but about
two hundred men, and though many of these
were pretty roughly handled, he succeeded in
restoring order. Under him the regiment ac-
quired much of the prestige it has since re-
tained, and took the leading part in the suppres-
sion of such disturbances as the "police" and
"Dead Rabbbit" riots in 1857. In 1859 Gen.
Duryee resigned his position as Colonel. He
was presented by the merchants of the city at
this time with a handsome silver set valued
at $5,000.
At the breaking out of the war Gen. Duryee
at once devoted himself to raising a regiment
for immediate service. His efforts resulted in
the Fifth Regiment, called the "Duryee
Zouaves," which became speedily one of the
best-disciplined organizations in the Union
Army. After a month of drilling at Fort
Schuyler this regiment was ordered to Fortress
Monroe. Here Col. Duryee had command, as
acting Brigadier General, of the brigade en-
camped at Camp Hamilton. It embraced the
First, Second, Third, Fifth, and Twentieth
New-York Regiments and Col. Baker's
California regiment. Gen. Pierce afterward
took command, and the force was
ordered to advance on Little and
Great Bethel, where the Duryee Zou-
aves were first engaged. They saw much
active service, were present at the disaster of
Bull Run, and were then ordered to Baltimore.
Aug. 31, 1861, Gen. Duryee received his com-
mission as Brigadier General, and went to the
front in command of a brigade in McDowell's
corps. With it he afterward served with dis-
tinction on such hard-fought fields as Cedar
Mountain, Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare
Gap, Groveton, Chantilly, South Mountain, and
Antietam. Aug. 29, 1862, on the old Bull Run
battlefield, Gen. Duryee was twice wounded---
once by a piece of shell and once by a rifle shot
in the hand---but retained his position on the
field through the hottest of the action.
In March, 1865, he received his brevet as
Major General for gallantry in the actions al-
ready mentioned. Since the war Gen. Duryee
has led a quiet life. He was a Democrat in poli-
tics, and held public positions of trust--once as
Police Commissioner under Mayor Havemeyer,
and again as Dock Master from 1884 to 1886.
During the latter years of his life he was en-
gaged in the preparation of a history of the re-
bellion. This he left unfinished. Two years ago
the members of the Seventh Regiment united in
a testimonial to Gen. Duryee, the contribution
amounting to $1,574.92, and within the last
twelvemonth Congress unanimously voted him
a pension of $100 per month by special enact-
ment.
Gen. Duryee was a member of the American
Geographical Society, the New-York Historical
Society, and the St. Nicholas Society. He was
also a Mason, being a member of Perfection
Lodge. He was a member of Farragut Post, G.
A.R. He leaves a wife and four children, one
of them a son, J. Eugene Duryee.
Representatives from the organizations
named, together with the Seventh Regiment, the
Old Guard, the Veterans of the Seventh Regi-
ment, and the Fifth Duryee Zouaves, are invit-
ed to participate in the funeral services. These
will be conducted by the Rev. Dr. George R.
Van De Water of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church,
Fifth Avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-
seventh Street, of which Gen. Duryee became a
communicant in April last, Tuesday morning at
11 o'clock. At the desire of the family there
will be no military display. The interment will
be in the family plot in Greenwood Cemetery.
Among the numerous telegrams and messages
of condolence received yesterday was one from
Gen. Felix Agnus, editor of the Baltimore
American and a staff officer of General Duryee's dur-
ing the war of the rebellion. "Our country has
lost another of her brave sons and famous com-
manders." says Gen. Agnus, "but his fame will
live in hhistory and in the hearts of his surviving
boys of the old Duryee Zouaves. He was a lead-
er of men, who commanded not by fear, but by
kindness, and there was not in his command a
man who did not love the father of the famous
regiment. Those who preceded him to the other
shore are now on the parapets giving him the
old salute of present arms, and the officer at the
gate says: "Yours has been a grand life. Enter!"
Maintained by Sue Greenhagen.
E-mail:
greenhsh@morrisville.edu