Two high-ranking Buffalo Civil War heroes were general Daniel Davidson Bidwell and Colonel Edward P. Chapin. Young Chapin, a Buffalo layer, was slain tin the fighting in Louisiana. Chapin Parkway is a double-barreled salute to the young lawyer-colonel, Edward Chapin, and the old doctor-colonel, Cyrenius Chapin.

Bidwell, astride his horse, took a bullet at Cedar Creek in the late days of the war. Bidwell was brought home for a civic funeral, first at City Hall and then beneath the dirgeful pealing bells of St. Paul's Church. Bidwell's name is remembered in one of Buffalo's residential avenues, Bidwell Parkway.

Source: "Buffalo: Lake City in Niagara Land,"by Richard C. Brown and Bob Watson. USA: Windsor Publications, 1981

---

Daniel Davidson Bidwell was born during 1819 in Black Rock NY, heir to the lucrative commercial interests of Benjamin Bidwell, who founded Buffalo's Banta & Bidwell Shipbuilding Company.

Active in Buffalo's prewar militia and instrumental in organizing the city's first police force, he helped to raise the 49th NYV and was named its colonel October 21, 1861.

General Meade personally recommended his promotion to brigadier general, which took effect August 11, 1864.

Bidwell was mortally wounded in action October 19, 1864, at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia.

Source: Soldiers Circle, Bidwell Parkway and Chapin Parkway, by Benedict R. Maryniak

---

Pre-War Profession: Police justice.

War Service:

• 1861 Pvt. in 65th New York, October
• 1861 Col. of 49th New York, Peninsula campaign, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, commanded 3rd Bde/2nd Divn/VI Corps at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg,
• August 1864 appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, Shenandoah Valley campaign, Cedar Creek (mw)

  http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/ung_b.html

Source: US Civil War Generals

---

49th New York Volunteers

The regiment participated in fifty-four skirmishes and engagements. Its greatest losses during the war occurred at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, where it lost 45.9 percent of the number engaged; and at the Battle of the Wilderness, where it had lost 20.5 percent of the number engaged."

Total killed and wounded were 141 men out of 1,312 men enrolled. 179 men died of disease, accidents, and prisons in addition.

The 49th New York Volunteers suffered a severe and unusual loss in the number of field officers killed in action:

• General Bidwell at Cedar Creek
• Major Ellis at Spotsylvania Court House
• Lieutenant Colonel Johnson at Fort Stevens
• Colonel Holt in the final and victorious assault at the fall of Petersburg.   

See also:

• 49th New York Volunteers - Regimental History
• Civil War - Links