BEMUS POINT, N.Y. — Descendants of 154th New York Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War regiment raised in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, will hold their 34th annual reunion from 2 to 5 p.m. July 20 at the Bemus Point United Methodist Church at 4954 Bemus-Ellery Road.
The 154th New York — known as the Hardtack Regiment — was raised in the summer of 1862 and participated in many of the great campaigns and battles of the war, including Chancellorville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, the Atlantic Campaign and Gen. William T. Sherman’s marches through Georgia and the Carolinas.
Mark H. Dunkelman of Providence, R.I., will preside at the reunion, as he has every year since their inception in 1986. He is the great-grandson of John Langhans of Ellicottville, who served as a corporal in Company H of the 154th.
The reunion program will focus on “The Captains,” the 25 men who were commissioned and mustered in at that rank. In addition to Dunkelman, six relatives of the regimental captains will take part in the program: Clark Casler of Jamestown, N.Y.; James Harbeck of Toronto, Ontario; Holly Ray of Brookfield, Ohio; J. Brian Gallagher of The Woodlands, Texas; Olin Hotchkiss of Strongsville, Ohio; and Tom Cheney of Fayetteville, N.Y.
Anyone descended from a member of the 154th New York is invited to attend the reunion, which is free and open to the public. Descendants are asked to bring photographs and relics of their soldier ancestors to be copied and added to the regimental archives.
For more information about the reunion, contact Dunkelman by phone at 401-369-0637 or by email at nyvi154th@aol.com. More information about his work, including summaries of previous reunions, can be found at his website, www.hardtackregiment.com.
