Week of July 5, 2020

The FOURTH OF JULY is a big event on Keuka Lake, with boat parades and both official and unofficial fireworks to celebrate Independence Day.  I have my own personal reflection of the day by visiting the Herrick-Heck Cemetary, the abandoned graveyard in the middle of TAProots Farm, with 28 or so graves some dating back to the early 1800s, the last in 1899.  Over in the back corner, all by himself, is a US Army issue to mark the grave of Alfred W. Wirt, 44th NY Infantry.  Twenty years ago I came across this grave and placed a US flag on it, and complained to the Yates County Historical Association that it deserved a flag to commemorate a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic, which eventually showed up.  Last summer, after years of putting it off, I did some research on AW and his unit, the “Fighting 44th,” which turned out to be quite a famous unit in the Union Army from 1861 to 1864.  It was intended to be made up of one man per county and town in the State of NY, and money was raised privately for arms and uniforms.  It fought in many battles, with 1585 officers and men, of whom 730 were killed, wounded or missing.  AW was one of the 300 44th NY which held the Union left flank on Little Round Top at Gettysburg against two brigades of Texas infantry under General Hood.  AW was one of 181 Union  survivors.  He was wounded at least three times but survived the war to muster out in 1865 at the end of the war.  I and the Historical Society do not know what happened to him after that, but his lonely grave with no family suggests he may have never escaped the war.  I ponder AW’s grave.  A large portion of Yates County marched off to the Civil War to free the slaves, singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic:  “Jesus died to make men holy, now we die to make men free.”  I wonder if AW would be upset about the current “Black Lives Matter“ protests, showing his service and sacrifice had not resulted in the freedom he hoped to provide.