After 140 years, Black Civil War vet is honored in Mount Kisco

The new headstone for Civil War veteran George S. Lakey at his grave alongside the original white marble. Lakey is the only known Black man to have served in the Army during the war who is buried in Mount Kisco’s Oakwood Cemetery. MARTIN WILBUR PHOTO

By MARTIN WILBUR

Few people in Mount Kisco have known about George S. Lakey since his death in 1886. But the efforts of the village’s Historical Society and others in the community have shed light on a local man buried in the pauper’s section of Oakwood Cemetery.

Lakey was a Civil War veteran, one of about 50 soldiers from that war buried at Oakwood but the only known Black man who served in the conflict who is interred at the Lexington Avenue cemetery. He was a private in Company F of the 26th United States Colored Infantry Regiment enlisting on Jan. 5, 1864, in Tarrytown a year after Black soldiers were allowed to serve in the Army. He completed his training in February and March of that year on Rikers Island in New York City.

On Oct. 18, the Mount Kisco Historical Society unveiled a new granite headstone for Lakey’s gravesite to replace the nearly entirely worn-away white marble stone that has marked his final resting place for the past 140 years. The original and its replacement were paid for by the federal government.

“Because of this tombstone right here, we know a little bit more about George,” said W. Ross Porter, a historical society member who did most of the research into Lakey. “If not for his tombstone in this cemetery, placed here 140 years ago, his legacy would have ended on Nov. 14, 1886, on the day that he died.”

The hourlong ceremony was attended by close to 75 people including dignitaries, veterans from the local American Legion, historical society members and the clergy and parishioners from local Black church congregations.

Mount Kisco Historical Society member W. Ross Porter leads the ceremony to unveil the new headstone at George S. Lakey’s grave. Lakey served in Company F of the 26th United States Colored Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. MARTIN WILBUR PHOTO

Black soldiers faced racism

William Stump, department commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, an organization created to keep alive the memory of Northern soldiers, said despite Black men being given the right to enlist by the Lincoln administration following the Emancipation Proclamation, they would encounter racism. Records of the Black regiments were poorly kept with gaps in information. Many New York elected officials vehemently opposed allowing Black troops to serve.

Stump said Black Union soldiers were free men, and despite the indignities, put their lives on the line while also risking capture by the Confederacy.

Records have indicated that the 26th United States Colored Infantry Regiment  likely fought in the Battle of Johns Bridge in July 1864, a bloody fight in a South Carolina swamp, Stump said.

“George Lakey was born free here in New York,” Stump said. “He chose to go down into the South to fight for his nation. Everyone was putting something on the line; he was putting more on the line than most.”

Porter said that his research, culled mainly from U.S. Census records from 1850 and 1880, military recruitment and pension records and Lakey’s Oakwood Cemetery burial card, uncovered that shortly after the battle Lakey was hospitalized with dysentery, a common malady for Civil War soldiers. 

He was discharged from the hospital and then the Army on Nov. 26, 1864, in Beaufort, S.C.

A Bedford man

Lakey was born and raised in Bedford, the second of five children in his family, although there is no documentation of his precise birth date. Porter said he was born around 1837, and was listed as a farmer/laborer in documents. He stood at 5 feet, 6 ½ inches.

The only information about his mother, Eliza, was that she could not read.

‘Congestive chill’

After the war, Lakey returned to the area and evidence revealed that he lived on Sarles Street in New Castle with his youngest brother, Aaron, until his death, Porter said. The cause of death, according to the coroner’s report, was “congestive chill.”

Porter said it was disappointing that research was unable to uncover whether Lakey has any living descendants.

“I was excited when they found the 1850 Census,” he said. “Look at all the relatives. I’m going to find something. I was hoping to get a little more information, but the information we did get through the government, and those two censuses helped us get a little better idea of who he was.”

During the ceremony there was a gun salute and the playing of taps. Then Porter, who served in the Marine Corps, removed the flag that was covering Lakey’s new headstone and folded it, presenting it to the attending clergy in absence of any of Lakey’s descendants.

Assemblymember Chris Burdick said men like Lakey showed up ready to serve and do their part.

“They had been fighting for democracy throughout our history, fighting to defend democracy even when they themselves didn’t have the fruits of democracy, even when they themselves had been denied liberty, the right to vote, the right to participate as full members of this country,” Burdick said.

County Legislator Erika Pierce spoke of how Lakey persevered despite the obstacles.

“It’s so important for us to be here to recognize George Lakey, about whom we know way too little,” she said. “To think of those who had not been welcomed to this country, and in fact, have been mistreated here, who then had to fight to be included in the effort, to be denied initially, to not be welcomed and yet still stood up and gave their lives. I’m very grateful to everyone who worked so hard to bring us together to have this stone replaced.”

Porter said there was little known about who, if anyone, attended Lakey’s burial. But 140 years later his home community made sure that he will be remembered.

“I know that George is smiling,” Porter said. “Hopefully, he was smiling while he was alive, living here in Mount Kisco. We don’t know that but now he is.”