Corporal William Moegling Awarded A Presidential Memorial Certificate

 

 

General Ulysses S. Grant was then President of the United States when American Civil War Veteran Corporal William Moegling, late of the 97^th Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers died, 23 November 1869. An unsolicited Presidential Memorial Certificate was received last Saturday regarding the military service of our Great Great Grandfather William Moegling. Receipt of this Presidential Memorial Certificate is strongly appreciated. Certificate production must be an automatic process initiated by the U.S. Veterans Administration when a federal memorial headstone is processed, approved and presented. The Memorial Certificate is signed by President Barack Obama by facsimile, unstated but probably on behalf of the late American President and Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Our family extends very sincere thanks for this very fine gesture and gratefully accept the Presidential Memorial Certificate on behalf of our late Great-Great Grandfather William Moegling.

 

Remembered Among His Comrades At Last

 

 

 

 

Section 42 is the original Civil War Veteran burial ground – Forest Hill Cemetery, Oneida Street, Utica, NY. German emigrant Corporal Wilhelm "William" Moegling had no gravestone. If a gravestone did sometime exist following his untimely 1869 death, it was probably a wooden grave marker as many there were, destroyed or weathered by the ravages of time or perhaps vandalized at his first burial site in Utica's single municipal internment ground at Potter Street Cemetery, then located at Water and Potter Streets in downtown Utica. Potter Street Cemetery was totally exhumed and removed in late 1916 by City of Utica administrators, as permitted under a May 1916 Act of New York State Legislature. We know from local period newspaper reports that many unclaimed grave-markers were removed and likely destroyed by city-contracted cemetery sexton Mr. Henry Hartman in June 1917.  This unclaimed monument removal followed the mass cemetery exhumations at Potter Street Cemetery completed in late December 1916. A large percentage of the skeletons removed Potter Street Cemetery were re-interred in a presently unmarked mass grave at Forest Hill Cemetery, where over eighty percent of these skeletons then classified as unidentified.  The remains of Corporal Moegling are certainly one of these "unknown" persons.  As a U.S. Army Veteran of two U.S. wars, Corporal William Moegling rates a memorial headstone. And in early 2015 this memorial headstone was furnished by the fine people at the Memorial Programs Office of the U.S. Veterans Administration to honor Corporal Moegling's memory.  Perhaps the bones of as many as 10,000 early Utica residents were reinterred in this aforementioned unmarked mass grave at Forest Hill Cemetery.  This mass grave, otherwise known as Section 58B, is located about 250 yards southeast of the site where Corporal Moegling's Memorial Headstone is now installed -- honored here at last among his Civil War comrades at the Forest Hill Cemetery Section 42.    

 

 

 

The bright white headstone just to the right side of Section 42 Flag Pole is the Memorial Headstone of Corporal William Moegling, late of Company H, 97th Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers (a/k/a “The Conkling Rifles” or “The Third Oneida”), an American Civil War Union Fighting Unit directly engaged at many Civil War battles including, but not limited to: The Second Battle of Bull Run, The Battle of Antietam and The Battle of First Fredericksburg.

Corporal William Moegling was here with his regiment:  Click The Battle of Antietam 



A Request For Genealogical Help

Please refer to my "Corporal Wilhelm 'William' Moegling" blog post made yesterday.

Click Here to review this posting.



"BOXES OF BONES"

So here is my thought and request for help this day. Will somebody – anyone at all – please come forward with significant key facts showing that one of these exhumed “Boxes Of Bones” on display for a Utica Sunday Tribune photographer is NOT 2nd Great Granddad Corporal Wilhelm “William” Moegling. These two skeletons are but two of the thousands of persons dug up from their "final-resting-place" at Potter Street Cemetery -- essentially because those great thinkers in Utica, New York let their earliest municipal burial ground fall victim to neglect and probable vandalism.  These great thinkers in Utica now wanted these hallowed cemetery lands for a playground.  Look at these lands today and you find a highway, a parking lot, a plumbing dealer, a drug rehab & counseling house, and a sports bar. Urban renewal... really nice going Utica, New York!

No monument is present today to the memory of this once active municipal cemetery or to honor the dust of those many thousands souls who yet remain spread in the grounds at this former cemetery site.

Corporal Wilhelm "William" Moegling, late of the 97th Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers is missing. Please show our family that this wounded and disabled Civil War Soldier who lived, who attended church, who worked, and who died in 1869 in Downtown Utica, Oneida County, New York is not one of these skeletons on unceremonious and disgraceful display in this September 1916 photo.

Thanks very much.

DJ --- out

Reference: A news article as published 1 Oct 1916 in The Utica Sunday Tribune.