WILLIAM HENRY MANNING -- 153rd INFANTRYSERVED 4 MONTHS AND 20 DAYS - On July 2, 1862, President Lincoln calledon the northern states to provide 300,000 men for three years' service.New York was asked to provide 28,000 more men - enough to fill 28 newvolunteer infantry regiments. The 153rd Infantry was one of theregiments formed and 19-year-old William Henry Manning was one of themen recruited in Mooers. He enlisted on August 28, 1862, to serve for 3years and was given a county bounty of \$25. He was mustered intoCompany G in Fonda, NY, on October 18th and, on the same day, went toWashington with 67 other men who enlisted in Mooers in August andSeptember.Lincoln's call for the states to enlist more troops came soon after theJune 28th letter in which New York Governor Edwin Morgan and othernorthern governors encouraged him to ask for more soldiers.\Before this, the War Department, thinking it already had enough troopsto win the war, closed recruiting stations and stopped calling on statesto provide new regiments. They soon realized their mistake, so formerNew York Governor William Seward, who was then Secretary of State,organized the letter in which northern governors asked Lincoln to add300,000 troops to the 700,000 volunteers in the Union Army. Thepresident insisted that the men must enlist for three years. Recruitingfor three years was difficult and on July 14, 1862, Morgan wrote to theadministration asking for a draft to fill units.The 153rd was first stationed in Alexandria as provost guard and wasthere in 1863 providing garrison and guard duty before it wastransferred to the Department of the Gulf. William did not go toLouisiana. He was discharged for physical disability on a surgeon'scertificate on March 5, 1863, while still in camp in Alexandria. In all,he was with the 153rd for 4 months and 20 days.As soon as William returned home to his parents, Aaron Burr Manning andZelinda Huntly, he applied for an Invalids Pension on May 7, 1863.William died in Oakham, MA, after a lifetime of farming when he was 74years old on April 29, 1917 and was buried in the Warwick Cemetery about35 miles to the north, with his wife, Olive Williams, and severalchildren.
