William H. Cogswell: Schaghticoke Indian, American Patriot, and Civil War Hero

Liane Lavin of the Institute for American Indian Studies.

William H. Cogswell was a Schaghticoke tribal member whose family lived in Cornwall, Connecticut. His father Nathan was a noted stonemason. On June 22, 1861 just two months after the attack on Fort Sumter that marked the beginning of the Civil War, William enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the 5th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry.¹ He was only 22 years old. According to military historian David Naumec, Cogswell may have been the first Connecticut Indian to have done so.²

As a member of Company I in the Connecticut 5th, William participated in several skirmishes with the Confederates throughout 1861 and 1862. On May 3, 1862, he and his unit were part of a Union attack behind enemy lines at Harrisonburg, Virginia and was captured. He was soon released, and his official military record stated that William was discharged from the regiment on May 21, 1862. However, according to Cornwall historian Edward C. Starr, who was also a veteran of the Connecticut 20th Volunteer Infantry, Sergeant William Cogswell fought with Company I in the battles of Winchester, Virginia on May 25 and Cedar Mountain on August 9, 1862 in the Shenandoah area of western Virginia.³

¹Theodore S. Gold 1904, Historical Records of the Town of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, second edition, The Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, Hartford, page 224. ²David J. Naumec (2008:596) gives William’s enlistment date as July 21st, and claims he was enrolled as a sergeant, citing the Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion (Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1889), page 250.
 David J. Naumec 2008:604, From Mashantucket to Appomattox: The Native American Veterans of Connecticut’s Volunteer Regiments & the Union Navy. The New England Quarterly, vol. LXXXI, no. 4:596-635. 

He mustered out of the 5th Connecticut in July or August of that year, to immediately re‐enlist in Company B of the 19th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, known as the Litchfield County Regiment.4 At that time, he was promoted for gallantry to the rank of First Sergeant, which gave him authority over four other sergeants, eight corporals, and almost 70 enlisted men comprising Company B, a mainly white regiment.5 In November, 1863 the 19th Connecticut was renamed the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillery. By March 1864 William had been promoted to second Lieutenant.6 On 17 May 1864 the regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac in eastern Virginia, where it participated in the long and bloody Wilderness campaign. There, William fought at the battle of Cold Harbor and manned the trenches at Petersburg. At the Battle of Winchester, he was wounded in the leg and died from complications following its amputation October 7, 1864.7

The Town of Cornwall showed its gratefulness to its Native son by erecting and inscribing a large stone obelisk to William in the North Cornwall cemetery.8 Cornwall historian Theodore Gold, a Civil War veteran and William Cogswell’s contemporary, gave high praise to William Cogswell for his bravery, patriotism and self‐sacrificing character:

“As a valiant, faithful soldier he had no superiors, while in his power to endure fatigue, agility, strength and never‐failing spirits, he had few equals. The writer remarked to his colonel (Wessells) that ‘William was one of a thousand as a soldier.’ He replied ‘You might well say one of ten thousand.’ It is related of him that when on the march many were falling out of the ranks from fatigue, he grasped the muskets of three of four, carrying them for miles, showing his men what strong and willing arms could do (Theodore Gold 1904:223).”

William Cogswell was only one of a long line of Native American enlistees who volunteered their services to Anglo‐American governments in time of war, beginning with the 17th and 18th
century French‐English confrontations and the American Revolution, into today’s Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts. Schaghticoke leader Joseph Mauwee, a son of the tribe’s grand sachem Mauwehue (baptized Gideon Mauwee) served as a scout for the English in the French and Indian

Wars, and for the American in the Revolution.9 Schaghticoke tribal members Peter Mauwehew, Daniel Succanox and Thomas Warrups were members of the Stockbridge Indian Companey [sic] fighting for the Americans during the Revolutionary War.10 William’s cousins Newton Cogswell and George Cogswell were both Civil War veterans.11 Numerous tribal members served in America’s army and navy during its 20th and 21st century wars and conflicts. The federal census of 2010 showed that of the 5.2 million Native Americans and Native Alaskans in the United States 153,000 were military veterans – 2.9 per cent of the entire indigenous population!¹²

³ As cited in Naumec 2008:605.
⁴According to Naumec (2008:604), William Cogswell’s official military record showed the date of re- enlistment as July 21, 1863, and so if he did indeed fight with the 5th Connecticut at the Battle of Cedar Creek, as his comrade Starr claimed, then he likely did not physically join the Connecticut 19th until August.
⁵ Ibid, pp. 604-605. See also Gold 1904:223.
⁶ Record of Service of Connecticut Men, pp. 182, 181; Hines, Volunteer Sons of Connecticut, p. 65, cited in Naumec 2008:606.
⁷Naumec 2008:606-607. Gold (1904:223) stated that the battle in which William was wounded was Opequan.
⁸ Gold 1904:223); Lavin 2013:238. 

The warrior role is a traditional role in indigenous cultures. In colonial and post‐colonial America, military service was a major survival strategy for Native American communities enduring huge land losses, poverty, and discrimination. It provided much needed income to sustain families. Fighting for the same cause was also one way to demonstrate friendship and increase trust among indigenous communities and their white neighbors. Importantly, Military networks provided a legitimate communications grapevine through which indigenous peoples could communicate with one another without being accused of plotting attacks against the dominant white society.

SOURCES

  •   John Tabor Kempe papers, New‐York Historical Society

  •   Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the American Revolution

  •   Documentary History of New York State

  •   Vital records for Great Barrington, Mount Washington, Sheffield, Pittsfield

  •   Berkshire County Probate

  •   Springfield Republican Newspaper

  •   Berkshire Eagle

  •   Other various newspapers

  •   Registries of deeds, Pittsfield and Great Barrington

  •   Sir William Johnson papers

  •   Abraham Yates papers

  •   The Munsee Indians, Robert S. Grumet

  •   United State Census Records

  •   Local directories