Ridgewood water was supplied to the city through mains which were opened on December 4, 1858. In April of the following year the event was marked by a public demonstration. The Brooklyn Academy of Music was incorporated in 1859, and the collegiate department of the Long Island College Hospital was opened.
[CHAPTER XII]
THE PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR
1861–1865
Election of Mayor Kalbfleisch. The Call for Troops. The Militia. Filling the Regiments. Money for Equipment. Rebuking Disloyalty. War Meeting at Fort Greene. Work of Women. The County sends 10,000 Men in 1861. Launching of the Monitor at Greenpoint. The Draft Riots. Colonel Wood elected Mayor. Return of the "Brooklyn Phalanx." The Sanitary Fair. Its Features and Successes. The Calico Ball. Significance of the Fair. The Christian Commission. Action of the Supervisors of the County. The Oceanus Excursion. Storrs and Beecher at Sumter. News of Lincoln's Death. Service of the National Guard. The "Fighting Fourteenth." The Newspapers. Court House finished.
The sense of impending and imminent danger, which made itself felt throughout the country in the winter of 1860–61, was strongly apparent in Brooklyn, and when the crash came the city was not unprepared in any sense.
It was only a few days after the election of Martin Kalbfleisch as Mayor[29] that Brooklyn was startled by the news that Fort Sumter had surrendered.
The announcement occasioned intense excitement throughout the city. In a remarkably short space of time the strength of the city's loyalty to the Union cause made itself felt. Those who sympathized with the South, or who were wavering in their allegiance, were made to feel the necessity for modifying their views, or for avoiding any sign of disloyalty. The national flag appeared in every quarter of the city. Its absence was noted wherever that absence could be construed into a sign of unpatriotic feeling. Crowds threatened violence to Southern sympathizers. The Mayor urged moderation, and the early excesses of patriotism soon passed.
Meanwhile, volunteers flocked to the flag. The four militia regiments in the Fifth Brigade were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Twenty-eighth, and Seventieth. At the time of the alarm the regiments were not numerically strong. Less than 300 men were in the Thirteenth; less than 200 in the Fourteenth; the Twenty-eighth and Seventieth were somewhat stronger.
At the call of the President the regiments rapidly filled. Captain W. H. Hogan organized an artillery company. In the Eastern District, the Forty-seventh Regiment was organized, with Colonel J. V. Meserole in command. Amid enthusiastic demonstrations the Fourteenth left for the front in May, 1861.