Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. Of French Huguenot ancestry, he was the son of Hendrick Vanderbilt Duryea and Elizabeth Wright. With his father and brothers he was employed in the family's profitable starch manufactory at Glen Cove, New York. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as Captain of Company E, 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, a unit intially commanded by his distant cousin, Abram Duryee. Uniformed in the colorful garb of the French Zouave troops, "Duryee's Zouaves" established a proud reputation as one of the finest regiments in the Army of the Potomac. Promoted Major in August 1861 and Lieutenant Colonel the following month, he led the Zouaves through the battles of the Peninsula and Seven Days campaigns. He was a strict disciplinarean; one soldier described him as a "petty tyrant," but admitted that his commander was "as brave a man as ever stood in shoe leather." Severely ill with typhoid malaria, he went on sick leave in August 1862. Promoted Colonel of the 5th New York in September, he briefly returned to duty, but when his health again failed, he tendered his resignation on November 10, 1862. On March 13, 1865 he was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers for "distinguished conduct at the battle of Gaines' Mill, Va." His later years were spent as an executive with the Duryea Starch Works, and he became an extremely wealthy man. Active in veterans' affairs, he purchased the land at Manassas battlefield where the Zouaves erected a monument to commemorate their service in the Second Battle of Bull Run. He married Laura Burnell in 1868, and the couple had three children. On the night of May 5, 1914, General Duryea was shot to death on a sleeping porch of his Bay Ridge home by his deranged son, Chester Burnell Duryea.
Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General. Of French Huguenot ancestry, he was the son of Hendrick Vanderbilt Duryea and Elizabeth Wright. With his father and brothers he was employed in the family's profitable starch manufactory at Glen Cove, New York. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as Captain of Company E, 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, a unit intially commanded by his distant cousin, Abram Duryee. Uniformed in the colorful garb of the French Zouave troops, "Duryee's Zouaves" established a proud reputation as one of the finest regiments in the Army of the Potomac. Promoted Major in August 1861 and Lieutenant Colonel the following month, he led the Zouaves through the battles of the Peninsula and Seven Days campaigns. He was a strict disciplinarean; one soldier described him as a "petty tyrant," but admitted that his commander was "as brave a man as ever stood in shoe leather." Severely ill with typhoid malaria, he went on sick leave in August 1862. Promoted Colonel of the 5th New York in September, he briefly returned to duty, but when his health again failed, he tendered his resignation on November 10, 1862. On March 13, 1865 he was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers for "distinguished conduct at the battle of Gaines' Mill, Va." His later years were spent as an executive with the Duryea Starch Works, and he became an extremely wealthy man. Active in veterans' affairs, he purchased the land at Manassas battlefield where the Zouaves erected a monument to commemorate their service in the Second Battle of Bull Run. He married Laura Burnell in 1868, and the couple had three children. On the night of May 5, 1914, General Duryea was shot to death on a sleeping porch of his Bay Ridge home by his deranged son, Chester Burnell Duryea.
Bio by: Brian Pohanka
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