Clermont Livingston Best

Clermont Livingston Best was born on April 25, 1824, in Tivoli, New York.^[1] He was a descendant of the Livingston family.^[2][3] He was the brother-in-law of Gabriel Mead Tooker, having married Mary Tooker, and uncle of Mrs. Tooker Whitney Warren, wife of the architect of Grand Central Terminal of the Vanderbilts.^[4][5] They were members of Mrs. Astor's The Four Hundred during the Gilded Age.^[6]

Best attended the military academy of West Point, and graduated in 1847.^[7] He was first appointed as Second Lieutenant to the First Artillery.^[8] He was on frontier duty in Kansas, and served during the American-Mexican War.^[9][8] From 1849 and from 1856 to 1857, Best served against the Seminole Tribe of Florida.^[7][8] When the American Civil War started, he was made captain in the Union Army, being in the 4th Artillery under Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, past Governor of Massachusetts.^[1][7][8]

He then became chief or artillery of the Fifth Army Corps in 1862 during the Northern Virginia campaign.^[9][7][8] He served in the Maryland campaign and the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station.^[9] He then served at the Battle of Cumberland, Battle of Antietam, and at the Battle of Fredericksburg.^[9][1]

Best fought at the Battle of Cedar Mountain under Gen. Banks.^[8] After his service during the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.^[8] When the American Civil War ended, he served as Major of the First Artillery at Fort Delaware, Key West, Fort Independence and at Fort Warren.^[1][8]

He received three brevets for bravery during his military career. and became Colonel of the 4th Artillery in 1883.^[7] He then commanded Fort Adams in Rhode Island.^[7] He retired from the military on April 25, 1888.^[7] Clermont Livingston Best died on April 7, 1897, in New York, at 72 years old, and was buried in Hudson City Cemetery.^[1][8][10]

His funeral was attended by General Daniel Butterfield, Mrs. Gabriel Mead Tooker, NYC Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo, Mrs. G. Van Cortlandt Hamilton, wife Schuyler Hamilton Jr., great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Goelet, brother of Ogden Goelet of Ochre Court, and others.^[10]

His son, Clermont Livingston Best Jr., became captain and later major in the US army under Gen. William Montrose Graham during the Spanish–American War.^[11][12] His daughter with Mary Tooker was Annie Livingston Best, who married to socialite Elizur Yale Smith, son of millionaire Wellington Smith, and member of the Yale family.^[13][2]