Where in the ADK? Saranac Civil War Monument
Find this Monument to Great Deeds in the Wilds of the Northeastern Adirondacks.
Civil War Monument in Saranac Independence Cemetery
This week's "Where in the ADK" is located in the small town of Saranac, sometimes referred to as Saranac Hollow. The town is approximately 20 miles west of Plattsburgh and should not be mistaken for Saranac Lake.
Despite its compact size, Saranac made significant sacrifices during the Civil War, which led to the construction of a 40-foot monument in honor of the town's veterans.
A remarkable monument for an Adirondack town’s noteworthy sacrifice.
Saranac’s Civil War monument is impressive, not only because it honors the soldiers who served in the Civil War but also because it recognizes the entire community's contribution to the war effort.
Saranac sent almost four times the town’s draft quota to the Union Army during the Civil War, with 419 men serving in the 16th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (the regiment for soldiers from the Adirondacks and upstate New York). It was a significant portion of the able-bodied male population to be absent from a rural farming community.
Each of the monument’s four sides portrays significant Civil War battles in which the soldiers participated. The monument also features the names of the soldiers who lost their lives, along with their cause of death. Forty soldiers succumbed to disease, 19 died in battle, and 12 perished in captivity.
Honoring Saranac’s role in capturing John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln’s assassin.
The monument also honors five Saranac men who applied to be part of a crackerjack team known as LIncoln’s Avengers. In the grim hours following the murder of one of the greatest American Presidents in 1865, a call was sent out for 25 soldiers to form an elite detachment to hunt down Booth. Five of the squad chosen were from Saranac.
Pvt. Godfrey Hoyt, Pvt. David Baker, Pvt. Martin Kelly, Pvt. Lewis Savage and his cousin, Pvt. Abram Snay helped to corner Booth and his accomplice, David Herold, at Richard Henry Garrett’s tobacco barn near Port Royal, Virginia.
Another member of the 16th, Pvt. Boston Corbet, fatally shot Booth through a barn slat. Ironically, the bullet hit Booth in the back of the head, just an inch below where he shot Lincoln. Lincoln’s Avengers then watched as flames engulfed the tobacco barn. David Herold surrendered to Union forces.
According to reports, all five of the Saranac Avengers came back and settled around their hometown. Three attended the monument’s dedication ceremony on Memorial Day in 1888.
The monument stands 40’ tall with its unique white zinc (white bronze) castings, with the “Saranac Soldier” standing on top, high above the other headstones in Saranac’s Independence Cemetery. Each of the four sides is dedicated to major Civil War battles: Drury’s Bluff, Gettysburg, Antietam and Fredericksburg.
Visit the monument at the Independence Cemetery on McCutcheon Lane, located off Route 3 in Saranac.
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While You’re in Saranac check out these other places.
This week’s “Where in the ADK?” comes from the campus of the only four-year institution of higher education in the ADK.