And Now -- The Rest Of The True Story

That most recognizable phrase associated with the Statue of Liberty – “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – is actually a two-decade later addition. These words are not inscribed on the Statue of Liberty and they were never foreseen as part of the statue's symbolic message by French sculptor and statue creator Frederic Bartholdi. The phrase is part of a poem affixed inside Miss Liberty's pedestal, inscribed on a plaque later added there in 1903. The Statue of Liberty was officially dedicated and unveiled on October 28, 1886. Those now cherished words are taken from a sonnet "New Colossus," written in 1883 by the wealthy New York City Jewish activist, emigrant advocate, socialite, and elite American Poet Miss Emma Lazarus (1849-1887). Her poem was published as part of a fund-raising auction that helped finance engineering and construction costs of the Statue of Liberty pedestal. Selected lines from Miss Lazarus' poem were later mounted on a plaque some nineteen years after statue construction was finished. The single original statue inscription is found on the tablet Miss Liberty holds in her left hand – “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” [aka: July 4, 1776].

Liberty construction commenced in Paris in 1875, a time intended in part to recognize the centennial year of “The Shot Heard Round The World” at the Lexington-Concord events that opened the Revolutionary War, and that valuable later alliance of French and new United States of America Forces during the American Revolution. Those now famous words “Give me your tired, your poor...” became fixed to the Statue of Liberty only after the largely forgotten Lazarus poem was rediscovered in 1901, some seventeen years after poet Lazarus's death. A friend and fellow New York City socialite Georgina Schuyler discovered the poem in an old bookshop and actively commenced a civic effort to resurrect those lost words as tribute to her departed friend Miss Emma Lazarus. Schuyler's successful efforts yielded the addition of a plaque containing the last five lines of Miss Lazarus's poem as placed inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal.  Later in 1945, a plaque presenting the entire fourteen-line sonnet was installed just inside the statue pedestal main entrance.

Full text of the sonnet “New Colossus”

– by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"



Big Bill's Wanna-Bees Do It Again

Made the mistake of loading Microsoft “Widows 10 Free Upgrade” (Win10) on our main Windows 7 Desktop Box. Just one opinion from the dinosaur technologist... this "Upgrade" was a HUGH blunder. The look and feel is unnecessarily and significantly different.  Seems more like change for the sake of change rather than a great vehicle that increases functionality or productivity, a grab for more $$ than for obvious system improvements. Win10 is once again far further removed from the hardware... little new can be seen in imbedded common applications or in operations of frequently used third-party programs. Some are likely aware of my strong personal interest in family genealogy... and thus often use Ancestry.com for family research. A Win10 browser banner boldly recommends you download & use other browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome... since there are technical issues between imbedded Win10 browsers and the complex Ancestry application. Been previously using the fine Chrome Browser for some time now anyway... but my gosh... just how bush league can Microsoft get? Very hard to get Win10 back to a Classic Widows look & feel... struggled with some of this... but suspect there is no way to make Win10 look & feel (or operate essentially like) say Windows 7 or 8. Win10 version may be fine for mindless smart phone users, but really sucks for folks capable of and desiring to be closer to the hardware to do work. There are just as many bugs in Win10 (relative to earlier Windows versions)... this suggested and proved in the humble opinion of this contributor by the near constant “critical upgrade” offerings coming in from MS Windows Update. Whatever mystery awaits a Windows 10 user are perhaps buried in re-written code on the fringes of the operating system core, new routines to be soon exploited by the great unwashed hacker community.  The wiz-kids at Microsoft have done it again. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.  

  

"The Gates Of Hell"
 

Strong Recommendation: Wait awhile - maybe forever - maybe just for several months - before downgrading your Windows 7/8 box to Windows 10 Operating System.  Win10 may become more stable with the many update patches presently pushed out from Microsoft.

P.S.  Edited the next day 17 Oct 2015:

A simple upgrade phrase: Boy, do I feel stupid!  Why was this Microsoft Trojan Horse brought into this home?

There may be undisclosed operational differences (likely untested) between a new box with clean Win10 image and the Win 10 download to an "upgraded" older box. Pretty sure some remnants of the OS linger (perhaps with conflicting files). Oh yes, MS puts your old Windows version in a C:\\windows.old folder (for possible rollback). Prior experience indicated several differences between OS "upgrades" and clean OS installation on virgin or re-formatted hard drive (been there -- done that countless times before). I'm not aware of the usefulness of a possible OS rollback provision (alleged to be useful within one month of Win10 Upgrade). Suspect the rollback provision is itself not extensively tested and may in fact unsatisfactorily compound the Win7/8-to-Win10-to-Win7/8 conversion process. There was no full-disclosure -- just a simple warning banner posted prior to the Win10 upgrade -- with easy to follow instructions for quick Win7/8 rollback. Such simple warning in connection with the MS aggressive push to do Win10 upgrades would be the ethical corporate thing to do.

Not sure why I did the desktop Win10 upgrade -- too much time on a fool's hands I guess -- my box was fine under Win7.  Will not be "upgrading" our Win7 laptop to this unacceptable Free Win10 Upgrade version. Bottom line – the best way to restore a previous OS may be to purchase a refurbished box from a certified PC re-seller.

P.P.S. Something else omitted in yesterday's post: it took the better part of a day to do the Win10 upgrade, over my 1.5 mbps DSL Internet Service. Then a few hours messing with look and feel configuration setup in a partially successful attempt to restore the way the box once operated. And we still struggle today to get the previous look and feel back.  Recommend bypassing Win10 upgrade if your ISP sports decades old download bandwidth.  


P.P.P.S.  Oct 28, 2015.  One of the latest Windows 10 updates (a/k/a: a software patch) regards the sloppy code and poorly tested Microsoft Edge browser.  Microsoft boldly states:  The vulnerabilities corrected ["patched"] allow information disclosure when a user views certain web-pages using Microsoft Edge.  An attacker who exploits these vulnerabilities gains the same user rights as the current user.

Bottom line, a victim's information security and privacy expectations are compromised without this patch.  


 

Yogi Rememberance

 

"I really didn't say everything I said." -- Yogi

There may have been a single TV at Ilion High School, installed there this mid-October day and placed in the auditorium center stage during the 1960 World Series.  Students with study hall were excused from class to go to the auditorium and watch a baseball game.  It was the seventh game of the Fall Classic... an afternoon game (before the money-changers ran the game)... and I remember Yogi coming to bat in a later inning.  The Yankees were behind the Pirates... as Yogi walked to home plate.  Some of the kids seated around me gasped... someone else should take this at bat (AB)... send up a good pinch hitter, etc.  But no, Yogi was left to stand in.  Don't recall how many baseballs were pitched his way - but that long ball Yogi hit into the stands is fondly remembered.  Everyone present cheered for Yogi's great homerun... even those who had lamented his plate appearance a few moments before.  The Yankees lost that game to Pittsburg 9-to-10 and the 1960 World Series was now lost too.  Disappointing to most, but fondly remembered are Yogi's accomplishments that October afternoon. Yogi's stats during the 1960 World Series: 22 AB; 7 hits; .318 BA; 8 RBI, not bad for an aged over 35 "old man."  Thanks for the memories Yogi.

Seaman Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra

USS Bayfield (APA-33) and
LCS(S) Rocket Boat Gunner

United States Navy

World War II Overseas Veteran

Veteran of D-Day
A "Gator Navy" Survivor

12 May 1925 -- 22 Sep 2015

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." --Yogi
 

Rest In Peace
 

A “Captain of Destiny” is our ancestor George Denison.

Born in the 1620 English countryside, the youth George Denison sailed with his parents and brothers in 1631 aboard the good ship Lion to Massachusetts Bay Colony. George grew to manhood in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, there meeting his first-love Ms. Bridget Thompson. The couple is wed in 1640, had two girls Sarah and Hannah, and within a few mid-1643 weeks his beloved aged 21 wife Bridget was dead – likely stricken by childbirth complications from the birth of her second child Hannah. An obviously distraught George leaves his two young daughters in Massachusetts with Bridget's mother and sails off to England where he joins the Oliver Cromwell Parliamentarian Army.  There he trains as a cavalry trooper, is later promoted to Captain of Cavalry, and serves with distinction in several engagements against King Charles' royal troops.  George is badly wounded at the head of his company during the Battle of Naseby. He is nursed back to health by Ann Borodell, an Irish beauty he quickly loves and marries. Now with the First English Civil War near the end, Captain George Denison takes his military discharge from Cromwell's Cavalry and soon sails home to Massachusetts with his new bride "Lady Ann."

A gallant individualist, a frequent rebel, a loving family man, a significant southeast Connecticut land-owner, a successful farmer, a principled local public official, a strong colonial Connecticut legislator, and an intrepid military officer with the early Connecticut Militia – Captain George Denison is ranked among the first few true Americans. George earned the heartfelt praises of his colonial contemporaries – his valiant services proclaimed "...well deserve never to be forgotten."

For further information on the exploits of our 10th Great Grandfather Captain George Denison (twelve generations senior), see the interesting book on his life and times by direct descendant and our cousin Mr. Ray W. Denison – the book “Captain of Destiny.”  Ray has researched period history from many sources both in the UK and the New England colonies -- these sources are cited in an extensive and helpful bibliography.  Where direct evidence on the good Captain is lacking, Ray has extrapolated source facts as they may have impacted the life of Captain George.  In this regard, the book is at times a work of historical fiction.  This good read can be purchased from The Denison Society, Inc., P.O Box 42, Pequotsepos Road, Mystic, CT 06355, Phone: (860) 536-9248.  Book cost is less than $20. 

Note:  Image depicted here is a public domain representation of typical 1645 cavalry troopers in Oliver Cromwell's New Army, displayed here for free-use, non-profit educational purposes only.  These images can be viewed by a simple Google search.

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 



When Did The Civil War End?

 

In April 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was Commanding General, Army of Northern Virginia and General-In-Chief of the Armies. General Lee was not supreme military officer of The Confederate States of America, a position equivalent today being Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Jefferson Davis was Commander-In-Chief of ALL Confederate military forces, a supreme military command position Davis never relinquished. More simply put, on April 9, 1865, when Rebel General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, that tragic and costly American Civil War was not ended.  The fighting continued.

 

The Confederacy had other armies with other general officer commanders. And periodic battles and skirmishes continued between Yankees and Rebels. For example, take a quick look at the engagement in Texas at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, May 12-13, 1865, where more than 125 United States citizens became causalities. See reference:  Battle of Palmito Ranch

 

This date might better express the end of the American Civil War. On June 2, 1865 Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, Commander of Confederate Forces west of the Mississippi, signs the surrender agreement offered by Federal negotiators. General Smith’s surrender marks disestablishment of the last recognized Confederate army, thus bringing a formal end to the historical most bloody and destructive four+ years in United States history.  Now the enlisted cannon fodder can finally go home.  But even then, some minor skirmishes continue where men and animals became casualties of this divided conflict of unspeakable horror. If the American Civil War was ended April 9, 1865 with General Lee's surrender, then why was it necessary in early June 1865 for another surrender agreement by Confederate General Smith?