Veteran's Monument at Calvary Park

21 Roman Catholic Union soldiers are interred amongst the 365 acres of first Calvary Cemetery in Queens, nearby the cuprous waters of the much maligned Newtown Creek. This is a patch of city land, by the way, and under the jurisdiction of the NYC Parks Department.

From nycgovparks.com:

On April 28, 1863, the City of New York purchased the land for this park from the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and granted Parks jurisdiction over it. The land transaction charter stated that Parks would use the land as a burial ground for soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War (1861-65) and died in New York hospitals. Parks is responsible for the maintenance of the Civil War monument, the statuary, and the surrounding vegetation. Twenty-one Roman Catholic Civil War Union soldiers are buried here. The last burial took place in 1909…

The monument features bronze sculptures by Daniel Draddy, fabricated by Maurice J. Power, and was dedicated in 1866. Mayor John T. Hoffman (1866-68) and the Board of Aldermen donated it to the City of New York. The 50-foot granite obelisk, which stands on a 40 x 40 foot plot, originally had a cannon at each corner, and a bronze eagle once perched on a granite pedestal at each corner of the plot. The column is surmounted by a bronze figure representing peace. Four life-size figures of Civil War soldiers stand on the pedestals. In 1929, for $13,950, the monument was given a new fence, and its bronze and granite details replaced or restored. The granite column is decorated with bronze garlands and ornamental flags.

The wars of the 20th century, terrible in scope and vulgar in effect, cause us to overlook those who vouchsafed the American Republic in the 19th century. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a federal holiday called Armistice Day in 1919, celebrating the anniversary of the legal end of the first World War in 1918. Congress agreed, seven years later, and then took six years to pass an act which made Armistice day an official United States federal holiday celebrated on November 11th annually.

Ed Rees, a populist Representative from the state of Kansas during the post World War 2 era, spearheaded a successful campaign in 1953 to have “Armistice Day” reclassified as “All Veterans Day” so as to include the veterans of WW2, and the ongoing conflicts fought by our “permanent government” on the world stage.

Forgotten and long neglected, the obelisk and its attendant bronzes are in a tremulous condition, etched at by a century of pervasive industrial pollution arising from Newtown Creek, and the greater city beyond.

The sculptor who created this monument was Daniel Draddy. Daniel maintained his marble studios on 23rd Street in Manhattan, near the East River. Known as a cultured and gracious host, he was beloved by the Tammany men.

Contemporaries described him as a first class carver, mechanic, historian, and he had the ability to write in the Irish language “druidically.”

The statues here at Calvary’s Soldiers Monument are the original castings of a much reproduced statuary design. Placed here in 1866, they predate the identical statues found at Green-Wood Cemetery, and exact issuances of the mold has been confirmed all over New England, North Carolina, and are found throughout New York State.

As early as 1875, fumes from a nearby Ammonia Factory at Newtown Creek were graving pitted marks into them.

Check out this amazing nytimes.com report of the ceremonies held at this very spot on Memorial Day, June 1st, 1875.

“In accordance with a resolution to celebrate the ceremony of decorating the graves of their dead comrades with more impressiveness than had attended that event in the past, John A. Rawlius Post, No. 80, with the members of the veteran corps of the old Sixty-ninth Regiment, Meagher’s Irish Brigade, Corcoran’s Irish Legion”

Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.