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The first muster roll from the county at the outbreak of the Rebellion was
taken in the town of Essex. Captain William D. Ross, eldest son of General Henry H. Ross, took about forty men from the town
early in May, 1861, and had them incorporated with the Anderson Zouaves, under Colonel Riker at New York city. The following
is a list of the volunteers as named in said roll, most of whom he commanded as lieutenant and captain. The roll is dated
May 2d, 1861: William D. Ross, Belden R. Parkill, James Phillips, Charles Hoffnagle, Edmund Atherton, Albert Green, John Maloy,
Joseph Hall, William E. Pratt, Horace A. Pratt, John Gordon, Franklin J. West, Samuel F. West, Henry H. Tucker, Andrew Todd,
Napoleon Durant, Joseph Martin, Friend A. Smith, Charles P. Saywood, Henry W. Baldwin, George Tucker, James Stone, John Reed,
Peter Lowe, Ira P. Knapp, Nathan W. Lincoln, E. Story, John Damady, Horace Smith, Franklin Flurry, Edwin Clemmons, F. A. Brown,
George Chase, Artemas Woodruff, Daniel Cross. With a few exceptions the above names represent the men who left the town in
May, 1861, to take an active part in the great struggle. The brave and gallant captain of this company, William D. Ross, did
not live to see the cause, for which he was willing to sacrifice his life, victorious. On the 25th day of October, 1861, while
in the line of his duty, the railroad track near Washington, he was struck and killed by a passing train. He was buried with
military honors at (Washington), where his remains rested until his death was made known to his friends in Essex, when he
was brought home and buried in the family vault. At the time of his death he was thirty one years of age, and had been in
the practice of law in Essex for about eight years.
Source: Former website at; http://www.adirondackcountryhomes.com/HistoryofEssex.htm
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