NISKY HILL CEMETERY
MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022 – 11AM
By Ed Root
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded on April 6, 1866 in Springfield, Illinois, and grew to include hundreds of "posts" (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota. At its peak in 1890 membership was 410,000.
Post 182, of Bethlehem was named for Jonathan K. Taylor, Captain of Co. C, 129th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Taylor, 20 years old, was the only Bethlehem officer killed or mortally wounded in battle during the war. Struck down at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, he lingered for 105 days until dying on March 28th, 1863 in Georgetown with his parents at his side. Taylor is buried nearby in the Moravian Cemetery, known as God’s Arce. The Post was organized on May 25th 1869 and was not disbanded until its last meeting on June 7, 1929. Charles Ehret died on April 6, 1928. A monument to the Post was erected in 1887 on Market Street next to the Moravian Cemetery, but was later moved to the Rose Garden on Union Street across from Nitschmann Middle School where it stands today.
Over the past six years the Civil War Round Table of Eastern PA has worked with the superintendent here at Nisky Hill Cemetery to help care for this GAR Soldiers Plot. We’ve painted this siege cannon twice and raked leaves and tried to keep the gravestones clear. There is even a stone here where remains of Revolutionary War soldiers, discovered in unmarked grave as Bethlehem City grew, have been laid to rest. As a result of that first effort, my grandson Nick and I started researching the lives of the men buried here. Covid like everything in our lives slowed our research and so it continues.
Hundreds of men served were members of Post 182, 60 of them chose to be buried here among their comrades in arms. The men buried here served in at least 45 different units. Many of these men were friends, neighbors, and or relatives prior to entering service. Most served in the army but 2 served in the Navy, 4 were Black men. Most served in Pennsylvania units, but New Jersey, Ohio, Maine, Illinois, Connecticut and the US Regulars were also represented. The 46th, 54th and 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry each had 10 men who now rest here. The service of these 60 men spans from the beginning of the war to the end. Over a third served in more than one regiment or ship. Some saw a great deal of combat, some little or none. Most suffered in one way or the other, some were struck in battle, many more became victims of disease or injuries. The effects of those injuries, whether, physical or emotional never fully went away.
One man’s courage stands out even though he never faced combat. David Malson was a free Black man born in 1826. He served for one year as a servant to Captain Daniel Kaufman of Co. A, 48th Pennsylvania. Many Union officers hired Black men to be body servants and cook and care for their personal needs. The 48th PA played an important part of the tragic story of the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia. Many of these men were miners of the PA coal region and they dug a mine under Confederate lines and packed it with explosives. When it exploded on July 30, 1864 a huge gap was created and Union infantry attacked. It all went horribly wrong and many of these troops were trapped within the created crater. The spearhead of the attacks were men of the Untied States Colored Troops. Rebels, enraged at facing armed Black men were not inclined to take prisoners that bloody day. While research is not complete, I believe David Malson was present that day as a servant to Captain Kaufman. I believe he knew exactly the fate of Black men who came under the bayonet of Confederate soldiers. Nevertheless, David Malson enlisted in the 24th USCT on January 27th, 1865.
However long they served, whatever they endured, what bonded them was their comradeship of service to their country. We like to believe that after surviving the trials of up to 4 years in the dangerous world of war these men came home and lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, that was not always the case. Life in 19th century America was not always kind or fair.
William Stolzenbach, 1st & 46th PA, served throughout the war, losing most of his right hand at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek in 1864 only to drown in the ocean at Atlantic City in June 1872 at the age of thirty-five.
Francis Kindt, 153rd PA, went missing in 1877. The crime was not solved until 1915 and his murdered remains consequently found. He was reinterred here in 1917.
Jacob Groman, 1st & 46th PA, employed by the Bethlehem Iron Works died at the age of 45 in 1881, caught between two railway cars, his lunch pail forced into his body and was dragged some distance, conscious to the end, dying on the way to St Luke’s Hospital.
Thirty-eight-year-old Charles Jennings, 3rd Reserves & 54th PA, a freight train brakeman fell between two slowly moving cars and was crushed to death in 1882.
Wilson Weitknecht, 153rd PA, aged 69, died 110 years ago while along the railroad tracks from Allentown to Bethlehem for a Memorial Day parade
Fifty-two-year-old Cyrus Moser, 54th PA, was a “whitewasher” working at a new silk mill in Fountain Hill when on June 6, 1896 he fell from a third story scaffold when it snapped dropping him 37 feet to his death. The coroner impaneled a jury that very day and after viewing the gory scene of the accident where Moser died and another man.
Alexander Kidd, seriously injured adjourned to Barnet Felker’s saloon. Kidd had been awarded the contract for the work A verdict placing any responsibility, if there was any, on Kidd, was offered by the jury, which was afterward changed to attributing the death of Cyrus Moser, and the injury to Alexander Kidd, to accident, and exonerating all persons from blame. Moser had been wounded by the accidental discharge of a weapon on February 17, 1863. It fractured his left elbow joint and long after the war his arm still stiffened and was weak. His pension of $8.00 a month apparently wasn’t enough so he worked. There was no O.S.H.A. in 1896.
Many of these men did live full and enjoyable lives. Over the years the comradeship grew and reunions were held, many here in Bethlehem where the old men spoke of experiences, mostly remembering the funny rather than sorry times. William Warnick, bugler of the famed Rickett’s Battery F served throughout the war. In 1909 at their 48th reunion a newspaper reported that “a very pleasing and entertaining program arranged for the occasion was rendered, after which ten of the eleven survivors of Battery F and G repaired to the home of Bugler Warnick where they were handsomely entertained at a fine chicken and waffle dinner by Mrs. Warnick. The dining and reminiscent talks kept up until the hour of midnight when the guests departed to their headquarters at the Sun Inn.” And when the men passed, ceremonies were held here at the Soldier’s Plot with Comrades and later sons of Comrades as pallbearers.
Memorial Day had a different feel then. It wasn’t all picnics and sales. It was personal then. Almost every person knew someone who served in the Civil War, whether it be a relative or friend. The time and events had embraced everyone and the experience was something that happened to US, not some distant memory called THEM. In my parent’s time the attack on Pearl Harbor happened to US meaning those who first heard about it and remembered that moment for the rest of their lives. 4Today, Pearl Harbor is a remote memory. It happened to THEM.
My generation remembers the day that JFK died. It happened to US. Each one of US remembers exactly where we were when we first heard the horrible news. Today it’s history, something that happened to THEM. The tragic event we have in our time of that type of feeling and emotion is that of September 11, 2001. In the days and years after the Civil War Memorial Day was observed with parades, visits to numerous cemeteries by veterans and friends, the placement of flowers on soldier graves, speeches; schools and businesses closed. Baseball games were NOT played. Participants of parades of veterans and Sons of Veterans numbered in the thousands. As time went on the number of graves to be decorated rose from dozens to hundreds as the men “Crossed over the River.” On May 31st, 1883 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that about 1500 people had attended ceremonies at Nisky Hill Cemetery on the previous day.
Since the Civil War our cemeteries have become the final resting place for Veterans of many Wars, Spanish American, The Great War, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Terror’s War on US is now 21 years and the danger in memory looms that it no longer happened to US who remember it all too well, but to THEM, people of a distant past who we do not know.
So, it is our task to pause and try to commemorate as best we can, the importance of Memorial Day, not only for today, but for the all the days that follow. Remember the cost and remember all the lost souls who never had the opportunity to watch children and grandchildren grow and prosper. It happened to US as a people and a nation and we should NEVER FORGET that service and that sacrifice.
Thank you.
Ed Root CWRT of E PA
