Question: This war hero, now deceased, was one awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery during World War II. According to a Herald-Journal article in 1976, he was the only county resident to hold that honor. Do you know his name and why we received the honor?
Last week’s answer: The photo in last week’s history mystery was of the Baldwinsville-raised Civil War unit known as Battery B. Their official name was 1st New York Light Artillery (Pettit’s Battery). This unit was raised in Baldwinsville and composed chiefly of Onondaga County men. Almost 75 percent of the unit was from the town of Lysander. It was mustered into the state service at Baldwinsville on Aug. 24, 1861.
On its arrival in Washington, it was the first battery to be fully mounted, remaining in camp in and around Washington, D.C. until the spring of 1862. The record of its numerous engagements include Antietam, Charlestown, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Petersburg and Spotsylvania.
The photo was taken on Memorial Day 1896. That also was the year that the Gazette and Farmers’ Journal published their commemorative 50th Anniversary publication. Steve Dreher, expert of the Battery B unit, tracked down the reason for the photo. The Gazette published a notice on May 21, 1896, for all of Battery B to report to the Seneca House so that a photo could be taken before the parade began. Then all participants would march to the depot to meet the 2:25 train and Greenway Guards, who would also march in the parade. It also announced that the parade would start as soon as the train got in. Due to a conflict, the photo was taken after the parade on May 28, 1896, by photographer S.M. Dunbar. The soldiers pictured, left to right, are: J.M. Scoville, Martin Winchell, A. Nuyck, George Elliott, Capt. A.S. Sheldon, Maurice Temple, P.H. Calkins, R. F. Thorn, A.J. Palmer, J.P. Failing, Jason Brotherton, D.M. Perine, A. Acker, John Barclay, E.P. Lockwood, Thomas Donahue, William Thorn, Charles Brannock, J.E. Decker, Oscar States, S.F. Weeks, Wallace Dunham, J.B. Palmer, Chester Cooper, Darius Hall, C.P. Borden and Andrew Zellers.
During the entire war 14 men from Battery B were killed in battle, 11 of them during the Battle of Gettysburg. Sixteen were wounded, almost half of the battery’s total wounded for the war.
Reader Yvonne Merriam was the first to correctly identify the Soldiers and Sailors monument, which was erected in front of the Methodist Church at the point of Charlotte and West Genesee streets in 1887. It stood on that spot until the summer of 1946, when it was moved to the Riverview Cemetery because of the increased traffic in the area.
Let’s all remember the brave men and women, past and present, who have given or are giving of themselves to make our lives better.
If you want to know more visit the Baldwinsville Public Library, the town of Lysander historian or the Shacksboro Schoolhouse Museum.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
