Scenes from Civil War New York: Reunion of the 165th NYV

ECW is pleased to welcome back Jonathan W. White and Timothy Justin Orr, authors of New York City in the Civil War (Arcadia, 2025) with another scene from Civil War New York. Part of a series.

Civil War veterans did not often shy away from their past. Many of them regularly attended reunions with their comrades into their autumn years, and New York’s veterans were no exception to this rule. Here, veterans from the 165th New York Infantry (commonly known as the 2nd Battalion, Duryée’s Zouaves) attend a reunion in the city. In addition to fighting in a dozen battles and skirmishes, the 165th New York participated in one of the largest baseball games held during the Civil War, held on Christmas Day, 1862, in Hilton Head, South Carolina, with 40,000 people in attendance. After the war, one of this regiment’s members, Second Lieutenant Abraham G. Mills, became the second president of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs.

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Today’s scene relates to “A City’s Memories of War,” Chapter Twelve in Jonathan and Tim’s book New York City in the Civil War, part of the Images of America Series from Arcadia Press.