Civil War Veteran Private Edwin H. Sheldon

Edwin H. Sheldon is a distant second or third cousin. His parents are most likely our first cousin Ephraim Sheldon (1783-1868) and his second wife Lydia Mills Sheldon (d. 1871). Alternatively, Edwin's parents are our second cousin Joseph D. Sheldon and his wife Harriet Jane Draper Sheldon (Joseph D. Sheldon is son of the aforementioned Ephraim Sheldon). In any case, Edwin H. Sheldon, who died at age 26 years in August 1867, is either the son or grandson of our first cousin Ephraim Sheldon (1783-1868). Regardless of the truth in this matter, it is a fact that nearly forty-percent of Edwin's young adult life was spent in wartime military uniformed service to his county. Our two year investigation thus far yields insufficient primary documents found to certify Edwin H. Sheldon's lineage.

Edwin H. Sheldon is the same Edwin H. Sheldon cited in National Park Service records as the Civil War Veteran of Company I, 2nd Regiment, U.S. Cavalry (Regular Army), who served three years as an enlisted cavalry trooper and private soldier in the many American Civil War union campaigns in and around Virginia and under the aggressive and gallant cavalry leader General Philip H. Sheridan. One-hundred percent confirmation is now unlikely since the U.S. Army did not create Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) for Civil War Regular Army soldiers, as created for Civil War State Volunteers.  This fact discovered in a letter dated July 14, 2016 from National Archives Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C.  Attempts to secure Edwin's military records from the NARA now seems impossible, since U.S. Army service records on Regular Soldiers were apparently and rather unbelievably never created. From official records “Register of Enlistments – U.S. Army – 1798-1914” – Private Edwin H. Sheldon enlisted for a three year stint on 5 September 1861 in the regular Army Cavalry and was Honorably Discharged at termination of enlistment 5 September 1864 at Summit Point, Virginia. In less than three years from military discharge Edwin was dead, aged 26 years. Unknown is if Edwin's untimely death was related to military service wounds or sickness.  He is interred in the Sheldon Family Plot at the presently inactive Betty Brook Road Cemetery, Town of Kortright, Delaware County, New York. Edwin's federal-furnished Military Veteran gravestone is inscribed as follows:

“EDWIN H. SHELDON,

Served 3 years in the late war

under Gen. Sheridan,

DIED AUG., 22, 1867

AGED

26 YEARS.”

Last year Edwin's monument was discovered dislodged from its base as indicated in the photo below:

  

It was resolved to reset the monument, but events prevented doing this work last year.  Necessary research proved there is an easement in the deed of the local surrounding landowner that sets aside the cemetery as public lands, and that the outer section of the property driveway is declared a public right-of-way for visitor access to the small cemetery.  Earlier this year verbal permission was granted by Kortright Town Supervisor Mr. George Haynes to do monument repairs. The reset task was completed in May 2016.  

Repair materials include: 2 bags of Quikrete ready cement, two new anchor bolts, a tube of construction adhesive, 2 landscape tiles, and a half cu. ft. bag of white marble landscape chips.  A new Grand Army of the Republic (GAR Veteran) grave marker and flag holder was added. A quantity of form and shoring lumber is also necessary providing sufficient monument stability for about 10 days concrete set and cure period.  

A final photo of the monument reset project appears below:

Thank you Private Edwin H. Sheldon for those gallant and courageous U.S. Army Cavalry services rendered in support of that great wartime effort to preserve the union. 

  

   

Our Gallant American Civil War Veterans,A "Decoration Day" Salute

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Service Medal

The first Union "Decoration Day" (now called Memorial Day) was held in May 1866 by the caring residents of the tiny Finger Lakes village Waterloo, New York.  This remembrance movement aimed to decorate graves with flower arrangements, those the grave-sites of many local military veteran causalities of the late War to Preserve the Union.  Any revisionist claim otherwise by residents of Georgia are false, since Georgia was not readmitted to the Union until 1868... and then tossed out again when Georgia failed to recognize blacks as citizens... and then again readmitted to the Union in 1870 only after finally endorsing the U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment.

The two grandfathers of our paternal Grandmother Elizabeth Rosella (Moegling) Paul were deceased when Elizabeth was born 13 April 1896. These two men are our generation's Great-Great-Grandfathers Private Albert G. Odell and Corporal William Moegling. Both men are military veterans of the American Civil War, gallantly serving to preserve the union with the U.S. Army Infantry.

Private Albert G. Odell (about 1839 - 10 Mar 1892) was born in Schoharie County, New York. His occupation as a young man was farm labor and work as a barrel-maker (a cooper) at his uncle Isaac L. Odell's local cooperage in Summit, Schoharie County, NY. In 1864, Albert enlisted as a U.S. Army private soldier with Schoharie County Company B, 91^st Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers. His Civil War service with the 91^st New York include engagements against rebel forces during the Petersburg Campaign and the Appomattox Campaign. Private Albert Odell's ancestry includes many cousins who are military veterans of the Civil War and over three-dozen Revolutionary War Veteran ancestors.  Grandpa Albert is interred at Bath National Cemetery, Bath, Steuben County, NY. From the official roster of the 91^st New York Infantry Regiment:

“ODELL, ALBERT.— Age, 25 years. Enlisted at Albany, [NY] to serve one year, and mustered in as private, Co. B, September 5, 1864; mustered out with detachment; June 10, 1865, near Washington, D.C.”

Click here for 91st New York Volunteers Roster

Corporal William Moegling (about 1812 - 23 Nov 1869) was born in Stuttgart, Germany. William emigrated from Germany to the USA in June 1847, and was almost immediately recruited as an armed service private soldier with the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. His lifelong occupation was as a scourer and dyer, the period process for cleaning garments in what we today call professional dry-cleaning. In 1861, William enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Corporal with Oneida County Company H, 97^th Infantry Regiment of New York State Volunteers. His Civil War service include engagements against rebel forces at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, General Pope's Northern Virginia Campaign, Second Battle of Bull Run, Battle of South Mountain, and the Battle of Antietam. Although injured, William remained with his regiment, but likely not directly involved in the mid-December 1862 fighting at the Battle of First Fredericksburg, this due to his documented wounds suffered in previous battles. He received an honorable Disability Discharge from the U.S. Army in early 1863 and was later released from a military hospital near Belle Plain, Virginia. William is interred in a mass-grave at Forest Hill Cemetery, Utica, NY, where in 1916 the remains of nearly all exhumed skeletons were placed following the total removal of Utica's former municipal burial grounds at Potter Street Cemetery. From the official roster of the 97^th New York Infantry Regiment:

“MOEGLIN, WILLIAM—Age, 43 years. Enlisted, November 30, 1861, at Utica, [NY] to serve three years; mustered in as corporal, Co. H, December 11, 1861; returned to ranks, no date; discharged for disability, June 11, 1863, at hospital, as Moegling.”

Click here for 97th New York Volunteers Roster

P.S. New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs official Civil War record errors are often noted.  Surname spelling, age at enlistment, and discharge dates are frequently wrongly recorded.  Such is the case with Corporal William Moegling.  William's birth year is variously recorded in several non-military official documents between 1808-1815. Seems likely that William may have intentionally under stated his physical age at enlistment,  his age likely being about 49 or 50 in 1861. Furthermore, it is likely that no official birth certificates were recorded for the vast majority of Civil War enlisted men.          

A Soldier and Sailor of the Revolutionary War

Frederick Smith grave site, with Revolutionary War Veteran marker and American Flag holder.  

In Haddam, Connecticut, when our 5^th Great Grandpa Frederick Smith was born on March First 1760, his father Captain James Smith was aged 21, and his mother the former Miss Mary Hubbard was aged 19. Mary Hubbard Smith and husband Captain James Smith are one pair of our 6^th Great Grandparents. As a teenage soldier, their eldest son Frederick Smith served as an enlisted private soldier during the Revolutionary War, part of the fighting Connecticut Militia, with likely service as a soldier in the Revolutionary War Militia Company his dad commanded. Then in 1778, young Frederick served a five-month stint as an able-bodied seaman and privateer aboard the American Brig New Broom, an armed-for-war brig outfitted with 16-guns, then commanded by Captain Israel Bishop sailing from New London, Connecticut. Unfortunately, on October 22, 1778 this good ship and crew of New Broom were captured off Nantucket Shoals by the gallant sailors of two British warships HMS Ariel and HMS Savage. The captured New Broom was redirected by escort to New York City Harbor. Frederick was held as a POW for one month at New York City. Then he and other enlisted sailors were presumably paroled by British authority (naval officers were typically held by the British as POW on one of those dreadful prison ships). Frederick's Revolutionary War military service was then likely over, as a honor-bound condition of his POW parole.

Basic sail configuration of a late 18th century brig

In the summer of 1780, Frederick married the local beauty Miss Sarah Brainerd in ceremony at their mutual hometown Haddam, Connecticut. At some point prior to 1790, his parents Captain James and Mary Hubbard Smith removed their entire family from Haddam, Connecticut to Harpersfield, Delaware County, New York, where they had earlier purchased a couple large lots from the original Colonel John Harper Land Patent. One of these Harpersfield lots was sub-divided by Captain James and Mary Smith to thus give equal farming acreage to each of his four adult sons. One contemporary account states that Captain Smith removed his entire family from Haddam to Delaware County, NY because he did not want his sons to become sailors, a area vocation not then unusual for male residents of Haddam, Connecticut -- then a busy inland port less than twenty miles from Long Island Sound on the navigable Connecticut River.  

The Frederick and Sarah Brainerd Smith marriage produced four children, the eldest a daughter Hannah – she being our 4^th Great Grandmother. Following Sarah's untimely death in February 1828, Frederick re-married Ms. Isabella Norton in a local New York State ceremony. He out-lived his second wife Isabella, she passing in 1841. Frederick did not marry a third time, he died a widower on July 17, 1852, in the Hamlet of Jefferson, Schoharie County, NY, USA, passing at the impressive age of 92. Frederick was interred at North Harpersfield Cemetery, North Harpersfield, Delaware County, New York, where his beloved two wives are also interred by his side.

Frederick Smith Family Plot, North Harpersfield Cemetery, Town of Harpersfield, Delaware County, New York, USA.  Second wife Isabella lower left, first wife Sarah is lower center, and Frederick center right (with Memorial American Flag). 

The reconstructed War of 1812 U.S. Brig Niagara,

perhaps 25% larger than a typical Revolutionary War brig

See: Click Here

Mrs. Clinton, a pathological untruth teller...

Re-posted comments from Scott Taylor, President, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund.  See Wikipedia organizational information, click these links:

OPSEC EDUCATION FUND

Special Operations (OPSEC) Education Fund


----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "Scott Taylor, Former NAVY SEAL"

Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 3:07 PM

Subject: Men were left behind

 

" ...we have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak."

 

During the early stages of the premeditated Islamic terrorist attack on the CIA Annex in Benghazi, American forces were ready and willing to launch a rescue mission – and apparently only waiting for State Department or the President to get approval. No rescue was attempted.

 

The just-released email communication provides a damning revelation about Hillary Clinton's disastrous handling of the attack – and once again underlines why your support of OPSECc's quest for truth and accountability is so urgent.

 

Though Defense Secretary Leon Panetta later claimed there wasn't time to get U.S forces on scene, his own Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash, desperately attempted to contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her chief deputies telling them that the rescue forces were "spinning up". Nothing happened.

 

No response would come from Secretary Clinton, and four Americans – including Ambassador Chris Stevens – died at the hands of the terrorist killers.

 

No, Hillary Clinton was too busy concocting a preposterous story about an internet video instead of working to rescue her own people from violent death.

 

Can you see the aircraft on the tarmac, engines screaming, waiting to lift off and deliver American forces to neutralize the terrorists' assault and save the Americans? It's haunting, isn't it?


[Imagine too those European 4-star commanders, COMUSNAVEUR - COMUSNAVAF, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, or even subordinate JFC NAPLES -- senior officers who might have ordered rescue forces airborne on a southern heading toward Libya.  How could POTUS have stopped a likely Benghazi rescue if just one or more of these 4-Star commanders had the backbone to order a strike force airborne while Washington subordinates looked for and located Obama and Clinton to seek strike permission?  And perhaps an even larger question, how is it that a significant strike force was not pre-assembled, pre-assigned, and ready at U.S. Naval Air Station at NATO Base, Sigonella, Sicily, Italy?  -- djp]      

 

Here at OPSEC, we're determined to continue exposing the truth about Hillary Clinton's incompetent, politically-driven, and deadly failure at Benghazi, and we'll keep at it until we finally hold her responsible to the American people – and the four men who died on September 11, 2012.

 

In honor, Scott Taylor

President, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund and Former Navy SEAL

 

P.S. – It's almost 2016, and Hillary Clinton's influence is increasing each and every day. We must blow this case open and demand she face justice before she shuts the whole case down – please help now! 

 

Paid for by Special Operations Education Fund, Inc.

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