On April 9, 1865, New York’s 185th (the last regiment organized in Onondaga County) was one of two regiments making up the Union’s Fifth Corps. As they approached Appomattox Court House in Virginia, where Generals Ulysses S. Grant (Union) and Robert E. Lee (Confederate) met to discuss, and make official, the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, the battle began to die out. However, before fully laying down their arms, a Confederate battery fired their last shot of defiance, hitting Cortland’s Hiram Clark of the 185th, killing him instantly. Clark would turn out to be the regiment’s only causality in the battle and is said to be the last man killed at Appomattox. He was 26 years old.
