Calvary Veterans Memorial
This is one of my favorite Queens cemetery finds: The Calvary Veterans Memorial at Calvary Cemetery, Queens; by Daniel Draddy and Maurice J. Power. The Soldiers Monument was built in 1866, making it among the very earliest monuments commemorating the Civil War. It is the burial site for 21 un-named Roman Catholic Civil War Union soldiers. According to Donald Martin Reynolds (Monuments and Masterpieces, Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City), the four corners of this park were once decorated with bronze eagles. Additionally four cannons once marked the corners of the monument itself, but nothing of those cannons remains. As some of the pictures on this page show it is further obvious that numerous elements once present on the obelisk are missing. The Civil War Memorial at Calvary bears obvious similarities to the Civil War Soldiers Monument at Green-Wood Cemetery's Battle Hill. That monument (restored in 2002) was built by the same Draddy family that built this monument.
In 2007 the NYC Parks Department began a restoration of the Calvary Veterans Memorial, placing a fresh coat of paint on one of the four life-size statues. Since then the restoration has stopped and, as illustrated in the later photos of this series, the work done on that one statue is already wearing away.
The monument is in need of repairs and Parks seeks sponsors to preserve this historic site.
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Recent comments
I had a brief Soldiers Monument-related correspondence with NYC Parks Department in 2007. Parks, not calvary, is in charge of the memorial. We were
discussing the restoration of the monument and, among other things, I asked if there were any plans to identify the names of the soldiers buried there.
Alas, Parks had no information on the identities of the soldiers buried there, nor did they have any intention of identifying them since the monument never
had any specific burial information associated with it.
I have done a fair amount of research into the Soldiers Monument and find it strange that this distinguished work would be reserved for anonymous burials.
Still, early accounts of events held at the monument seem never to include any mention of burials. My research is not exhaustive, though.
I have no information to answer your question but as I continue exploring the history of this monument I will keep the names of the Meuer brothers in mind
and let you know if I find anything else about who, exactly, is interred at the Calvary War Memorial.
Posted by mark thomas on Thu 02 Jul 2009 07:57:59 PM EDT
Can anyone help me?
I'm trying to find a listing of the soldiers commemorated at this memorial. I'm looking for two in particular; Leonhard and Bernhard Meuer. They're brothers. Leonard was born in 1845, Bernhard was born in 1849. If there is anyone who can help me find information on these two, can you e-mail me at tigerstar0021@aol.com. It's really important to me, so if anyone can help, it would be really great.
Posted by Allie (guest) on Thu 02 Jul 2009 06:12:28 PM EDT