During May 2026, over 160 years from the end of the Civil War, the Historical Fire Company installed Mamaroneck Town’s first memorial honoring the soldiers who fought in that war.  A bronze plaque in front of the American Legion Post 90 at 189 Prospect Avenue in the Village of Mamaroneck lists each participating soldier along with two who died in service.

The soldier and firefighter image on the plaque is from the 73rd New York Infantry Memorial at Gettysburg, reflecting that many New York soldiers were recruited from volunteer firefighting companies called “Fire Zouaves.” The historical link between the firefighters and the soldiers motivated the Historical Fire Company to create a Mamaroneck memorial based on many years of researching the connection and the names. Company members are former volunteer firefighters who march in parades wearing uniforms modeled on those of the Civil War Fire Zouaves.

A common belief in the past was that military records were too unreliable to accurately identify the people who should be honored. In 1886, Captain Frederick Whittaker wrote in the History of Westchester County New York,  “There is no reliable official record accessible of the names of men, bona fide residents of the different towns in the count, who enlisted therefrom and died in the service. In some towns, the patriotism of the people in charge secured such a record; but even then the papers are, in too many cases, cast aside in a mass of rubbish, impossible of extrication.”

However, today the records are no longer missing. New technologies have made it possible to access military, draft, census, cemetery and genealogical records that identify people with connections to the Town of Mamaroneck who fought in the Civil War, including several who died while in service. This website describes the research and process used by the  Historical Fire Company to develop the memorial.

Our Research Process

Our research process is described in our Mamaroneck Civil War Soldiers Memorial Report. As of 1997, the available list, (See Report Appendix 1.) consisted of 33 names, of which 11 had actual military records, and only 7 were reliably linked to Mamaroneck.

A second more accurate list was compiled in 2003 by Mamaroneck Historical Society Historian Gloria Pritts. (See Report Appendix 2.) This list relied on the 1890 Veterans Schedule, which was a special enumeration of Union veterans and their widows taken at the same time as the 1890 US Federal Census. It was created to help Union veterans locate comrades for pension claims and to assess the number of survivors and widows for pension legislation. Pritts included soldiers residing in the Rye Neck section of the Village of Mamaroneck, which is part of the Town of Rye.

In 2018, members of the Historical Fire Company began further research. Their initial purpose was to identify Mamaroneck Town volunteer firefighters from before the formation of Larchmont and Mamaroneck Villages in the 1890s. However, because of the link between firefighters and the Civil War “Fire Zouaves,” this search discovered new firefighting Civil War veterans with connections to Mamaroneck.

• A major new resource for locating soldiers was the “Rosters of the New York Infantry Regiments During The Civil War” that had been digitized by the New York State Library.
• Another resource was the “Enrollment of Persons Liable to Military Duty” that was completed by the Town of Mamaroneck in 1862 and is maintained in their current records. The list was prepared to implement a draft, but it included Mamaroneck residents who had already enlisted.
• Westchester County also maintains and has digitized cemetery records which identify service members by the branch of their service and notes where they were born and where they lived later in their lives.
• Community members also came forward with relevant family records.

Consulting with local veterans’ organizations, the Fire Company researchers defined a set of criteria for including soldiers on a new list of Mamaroneck Civil War soldiers.

• There had to be an official record of service in any branch of service in the Civil War.
• There had to be a connection to Mamaroneck. This could be birth in Mamaroneck, living in Mamaroneck at some point, enlisting in Mamaroneck, or interment in a Mamaroneck Cemetery.

Our criteria were deliberately expansive and inclusive, and therefore veterans on our list might also appear on memorials in other localities if they had connections in more than one community.

Each name appearing on the memorial meets these criteria and has been vetted by local veterans’ organizations and the Mamaroneck Historical Society. The final list appears as part of our Mamaroneck Civil War Veterans Memorial Report or at Mamaroneck Civil War Veterans List.

Selecting a Site

The historical firefighters considered five potential sites for a permanent memorial as detailed in our report. After extensive consultation with veterans’ organizations and local governments, we selected to install a bronze memorial plaque at the street-level entrance to American Legion Post 90 at 189 Prospect Avenue in the Village of Mamaroneck. Post 90 has been serving veterans and the local community since its establishment in 1946.

This site was selected because of the following advantages:

• Highly visible location across from the Veterans Memorial;
• Secure because it is adjacent to the Police Department;
• Supported and valued by the members of the American Legion; and
• Efficient to mount and maintain on the brick wall adjacent to the entrance.

State-Wide Recommendation 

We recommend that other New York State communities engage in a similar process update their existing Civil War Memorials or establish new ones. This website include links to resources that might assist such projects.