Benjamin Franklin Tracy
Decorated for his actions in the Army during the Civil War, Benjamin F. Tracy earned the Congressional Medal of Honor but it could be argued Tracy performed his greatest service to the nation as a civilian.
Benjamin Franklin Tracy was born on April 26, 1830 in Apalachin, Tioga County. As a teenager he could only go to school part-time because his family needed him for farm chores. He still received enough schooling to become a teacher himself, and then a lawyer in 1851.
Tracy rose rapidly in the legal profession and local politics. In 1853 he became the youngest man elected district attorney in New York State. Originally a member of the Whig party, Tracy was reelected on the new Republican party line in 1856.
As the Civil War raged in 1861, Tracy was elected to the state assembly. He quickly landed important committee chairmanships, but chose to serve only one year. He became a recruiting officer for Tioga, Broome and Tompkins counties. After raising the 109th New York Infantry, he received a colonel’s commission and went with the regiment to Maryland to guard a strategic railroad.
In May 1864 the 109th went to Virginia to fight in the Battle of the Wilderness as part of Ulysses S. Grant’s offensive against Robert E. Lee’s Confederates. At a crucial moment, as the Union line wavered under fire, Col. Tracy raised the regimental flag to rally his troops. Despite collapsing from heat exhaustion he refused to go to a field hospital. He led his men for two more days until failing health made it impossible to continue. Told he could not return to action for several months, Tracy resigned his commission, but rejoined to take command of the Elmira military prison.
After the war Tracy rebuilt his law practice and returned to public service as U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. His crackdown on tax-evading whiskey distillers helped maintain a steady stream of revenue for a government that could not rely on income tax. Tracy moved back and forth frequently from public service to the private sector. After serving on the defense team in one of the 19th century’s most scandalous trials, he joined the state Court of Appeals in 1881. He served one year before resigning for health reasons, then ran unsuccessfully for another judgeship.
In 1889 President-elect Benjamin Harrison nominated Tracy as Secretary of the Navy. Although he had expected to become Attorney General, Tracy took on his new job with enthusiasm, despite nearly dying in a fire that killed his wife and daughter. He pushed successfully for a Navy capable of defending the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from the world’s great naval powers. Historians consider Tracy “the father of the modern American fighting Navy” and someone who helped make the U.S. a twentieth-century superpower. After leaving office in 1893, Tracy received the Medal of Honor for his Civil War service.
Back in New York, Tracy helped draft a new charter for New York City after its absorption of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. He ran for mayor of “Greater New York” in 1897 but his third-place finish ended his political career. Benjamin F. Tracy remained one of the state’s leading lawyers until his death on August 6, 1915.
To learn more about Benjamin F. Tracy go to the Historical Society of New York Court’s website at http://tinyurl.com/ BFTracy.