Shrouded Veterans: Colonel Henry Moore

A veteran headstone was placed at Colonel Henry Moore’s unmarked grave.

On September 14, 1861, Moore was appointed colonel of the 47th New York Infantry, nicknamed the “Washington Grays.” He owned a sash and blind business before the war and was considered a first-class militia officer.

In May 1862, Moore refused to obey Major General David Hunter’s General Order No. 11, which emancipated slaves in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. He was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski for more than two months. When President Abraham Lincoln rescinded Hunter’s order, Moore was released and resumed command of his regiment.

In early August 1862, Hunter refused his request for a 20-day furlough and Moore sent in his resignation citing “physical incapacity to perform the duties developing upon me in the field at the present time.” However, he returned to command the regiment in March 1863.

On February 20, 1864, the 47th New York fought at the Battle of Olustee, where it suffered a staggering 313 casualties.

“This brigade [Colonel William B. Barton’s] did nobly,” one correspondent recalled. “The enemy’s left pressed hard upon the One Hundred and Fifteenth, but every man stood his ground like a veteran. The Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth held the center firmly. The fight was by no means a trivial encounter; it was a battle hotly contested, fought at close range, face to face and foot to foot. The commanding officers of the various regiments are entitled to unlimited credit for the heroic manner in which they led their men.”

Moore was wounded in the right leg and left arm, a musket ball striking his hand and passing out at his elbow.

Moore returned to New York after being honorably mustered out in October 1864. He died at his son-in-law’s home on January 2, 1904, and was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.