he first gun was fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Yonkers was quick to respond. A town meeting in Radford Hall produced more than sixty volunteers. John T. Waring, President of the Village, administered the oath of allegiance to the volunteers, who were assured that their families would be looked after in their absence. On April 27, this first company of volunteers marched down Main Street to the railroad station.
When in Summer 1862 President Lincoln called for 300,000 volunteers, the Sixth New York Volunteer Artillery was formed. This was a regiment of ten full companies of more than 100 men each, enlisted to serve three years. The men were drawn from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, with the Yonkers men in Company F. This regiment participated in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, from Gettysburg in July 1863 to the siege of Petersburg in 1865. The regiment was commanded by Colonel J. Howard Kitching of Dobbs Ferry until he was fatally wounded at Cedar Creek.
In addition, some sixty men enlisted for thirty days in July 1863 and served at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Another eighty or so enlisted in June 1864. Meanwhile, a group called the Home Guards was formed in Yonkers to preserve peace and to protect persons and property in the village.
During the week of February 15, 1864, the citizens of Yonkers united in a fair to raise money for the services that were being provided to the Union troops by the United States Sanitary Commission. The proceeds netted over $16,000. (The village population was then about 12,000.)
The fall of Richmond was celebrated in Yonkers by an illumination of all dwellings, as recommended by the Village Board. But the rejoicing ended with the assassination of President Lincoln. A memorial arch was placed at the southern end of the Yonkers station and, past this, the President's funeral train passed northward. Saddened citizens lined the tracks. The war—to which Yonkers had contributed 254 enlisted men and 212 draftees, and in which seventeen of these men had died—was over.
The monument which honors the veterans of that war, and which stands today on the grounds of the Manor Hall, was proposed by William Allen Butler on May 30, 1888 and was dedicated on September 17, 1891. The citizens of Yonkers contributed $15,000 towards the expense of the monument..