Civil War Experience & the Underground Railroad
Tantalyzing mysteries surround the role of Bay City in the national struggle over slavery which led to the Civil War. The city was settled by one of the nation's leading abolitionists, James G. Birney. Reports of "safe houses" for escaped slaves and ships that may have spirited runaways to Canada abound. A map in a new Michigan history book shows the Underground Railroad going straight through Bay City and out into Saginaw Bay, making it one of the northernmost outposts of the informal network of "conductors" who helped thousands of black slaves to freedom in pre Civil War days. Birney, scion of a wealth Kentucky family, became an abolitionist after being educated at Princeton and Philadelphia. In 1834 he freed the slaves from his father's hemp plantation and evolved from a supporter of colonization to a full-fledged abolitionist. After his life was constantly threatened for publishing an abolitionist newspaper in Cincinnati, Birney moved his large family north to Bay City. He settled in a house that was in the heart of present-day downtown Bay City and farmed on both sides of the river, mainly an area which is now Veterans Memorial Park. Twice candidate for President on the abolitionist Liberty Party ticket, Birney helped transform Bay City into a hotbed of Union sentiment that sent more than 500 men, a sixth of the entire population, to fight. About a third died in the monumental struggle. Four of Birney's sons and a grandson served the Union. All but one died of wounds or disease in the war or shortly thereafter. Historians puzzle over the connection of Bay City with Gerrit Smith, wealthy New York abolition financier, who narrowly escaped prosecution for funding John Brown's ill-fated raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. The wives of James G. Birney and Gerrit Smith were sisters. A Gerrit Smith Grove is mentioned in pre Civil War Bay City newspapers and a title search has determined that Smith originally financed a uniquely designed brick house at 10th and Adams near City Hall. The hulk of the schooner Gerrit Smith, that may have been used to aid escaping slaves, is still visible in the Saginaw River.Chillson House (now Eichhorn Antiques)
300 West Midland Street
Bay City, MI 48706
Bay City, MI 48706
Built before the Civil War by a justice of the peace and founder of a
local Methodist Church, the Chillson House was reported in old county
history books to have sheltered fugitive slaves.
Elm Lawn Cemetery
300 Ridge Road
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: 989-892-0661
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: 989-892-0661
The final resting place of several important Civil War veterans,
including Brig. Gen. Benjamin Partridge, a Bay County sheriff who
enlisted as a private, became a colonel and hero of Little Round Top at
Gettysburg. Gen. Partridge received 28 of 71 Confederate battle flags
surrendered at Appomattox. Another noteworthy burial is that of Major
Lyman G. Willcox, lightning rod commander of the Third Michigan Cavalry,
who stopped the war in 1862 in Lexington, Tennessee, called Confederates
to a church and harangued the crowd for two-and-a-half hours on the
madness of the rebellion.
Pine Ridge Cemetery
Tuscola and Ridge Roads
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: n/a
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: n/a
More than 200 veterans of the Civil War are buried in Pine Ridge
Cemetery. An 1863 Civil War siege cannon mutely stands guard over
Soldier's and Sailor's Rest, rows of white headstones encircling a Grand
Army of the Republic spire erected in 1885. Nearby lay the graves of
Judge James Birney, Michigan lieutenant governor in 1861 and Minister to
the Hague in Holland under President Grant; Andrew J. Walton, member of
the elite Berdan's Sharpshooters; and two members of the 102nd U.S.
Colored Troops, as well as several rare burials of U.S. Navy veterans of
the Civil War.
The Birney Sword
321 Washington Avenue
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: 989-893-5733
Bay City, MI 48708
Phone: 989-893-5733
One of the most valuable local artifacts of the Civil War is the
Birney Sword, housed in the Bay County Historical Museum. The ornate
dress sword reputedly was presented by Col. George Armstrong Custer to
Capt. James G. Birney IV, grandson of James Gillespie Birney. Young
Birney, who enlisted from Bay City at age 19, was a hero at Gettysburg
as Custer's Michigan Cavalry stopped Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart from
turning the Union line. After fighting in many major engagements, Birney
and other Michigan cavalrymen were shipped West to fight Indians. The
location of young Birney's grave has not been found, although a memorial
to him has been erected in the Birney family plot at Pine Ridge
Cemetery.
The Sunken Schooner Gerrit Smith
Veteran's Memorial Park
Bay City, MI 48706
Phone: 989-893-5733
Bay City, MI 48706
Phone: 989-893-5733
In the Saginaw River just off the west bank of Veterans Memorial
Park,
the bones of the 70-foot ship Gerrit Smith, built in New York in 1855, peek through the waves among skeletons of large wooden barges and freighters of the Davidson Shipbuilding Company. It is rumored to have carried fugitive slaves to Canada.
the bones of the 70-foot ship Gerrit Smith, built in New York in 1855, peek through the waves among skeletons of large wooden barges and freighters of the Davidson Shipbuilding Company. It is rumored to have carried fugitive slaves to Canada.
Maritime Legacy