Robert P. York Collection of P. G. T. Beauregard Papers, 1860-1865

Robert P. York (1835-1887) was an officer in the Union Army who led the 75th New York Volunteer Infantry during the last months of the American Civil War. York joined the 75th New York upon his promotion to lieutenant colonel in December of 1864. He entered service as a first lieutenant, and was promoted to captain in the 114th New York Volunteers in 1862. He then served as a mustering officer in the 19th Army Corps, Army of the Shenandoah. He was wounded at Winchester, Virginia on September 19, 1864.

In January 1865, the 75th New York Volunteers were ordered to Savannah, Georgia, with York in command. Their orders were to hold the city conquered by General Sherman while his army continued its progress through the South. After the Confederacy was defeated, the regiment remained in Savannah for most of the summer, carrying out law enforcement and judicial activities. Lt. Colonel York was assigned the duties of district provost marshal and was responsible for hearing all civil suits in the district of Savannah. His headquarters was located at the Planters Bank.

On May 14, 1865, Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stevens, Joseph Wheeler, and C. C. Clay were captured by General James H. Wilson. Lt. Colonel York escorted the prisoners and a large stash of gold and silver bullion, Confederate government documents, and correspondence with which they had been apprehended from Augusta, Georgia to Savannah. The cash and other valuables were transferred to the United States government, but it is likely that York was permitted to keep some of the correspondence.

York was born in the village of DeRuyter, New York on September 6, 1835, to Denison and Lorania Thompson York. He married Cynthia E. Frink in 1857; they had one child, Lilla, in 1867. York served as village clerk from 1859 through 1861. After the Civil War, he returned to DeRuyter, where he opened a dry goods and clothing business in 1876 and served as village treasurer in 1880. He remained in DeRuyter until his death on February 20, 1887.

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1818-1893) was a military officer who became the first brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was born on a sugar plantation outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, to a French Creole family, and educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He served as an engineer in the Mexican-American War, where he proved to be a skilled military leader.

During the Civil War, Beauregard was responsible for a series of early Confederate victories in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, as well as the first Battle of Bull Run (1861) and at Petersburg (1864), both in Virginia. His armies were defeated by Union forces at Shiloh, Tennessee (1862); Corinth, Mississippi (1862); and Bentonville, North Carolina (1865). He and General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman outside of Durham, North Carolina on April 26, 1865.

After the war, Beauregard led a pair of railroad companies and promoted the Louisiana State Lottery. He was active in the Reform Party, a group of conservative New Orleans businessmen who opposed federal taxation and sought to unseat the Radical Republicans in the Louisiana legislature. He also continued a long-standing personal feud with Jefferson Davis in various national publications. He died in New Orleans in 1893.