↗ View this article in the original PDF newsletter
More Graves Identified In response to “Where The Bodies Lie Buried” published in the last issue of Fife & Drum, Brian Murphy of Chester, NJ, came forward to share the contents of a letter in his possession written by a U.S. Army lieutenant on duty in Sacket’s Harbor, 15th NY, to the grandfather of a captain in the U.S. Infantry killed in the Battle of York. After telling of the death, the lieutenant reports where the captain’s remains and those of two comrades in arms, also casualties, were buried. The letter-writer, Lieut. George W. Runk, was not at York himself, having been in command of a detachment left behind to guard Sacket’s Harbor. But as the victors returned from Upper Canada and counted their losses, he took it upon himself to write John Lambert, a U.S. Senator for New Jersey who came from near his home, to announce the death of Lambert’s grandson Capt. John Lambert Hoppock of the 15th U.S. Infantry. This regiment was raised in New Jersey and commanded at the war’s outset by Col. Zebulon M. Pike, a native of New Jersey. It followed Pike to York after he was made a general and put in charge of the invading army. It is ironic that Senator Lambert had voted in Congress against the declaration of war against Britain in 1812. Lieut. Runk praised Capt. Hoppock’s bravery and told of the thigh wound that caused his death before saying that, “he and Capt. [Thomas] Lyons [Lyon] of the 16. Infy same Brigade were buried in one grave under the American Standard at york . . . Capt. Hoppock and Lyons were entered [sic] with the honor of war.” Mr. Murphy asked whether this passage offered a clue to the names of those whose remains were found in 1903 when the Park-Blackwell meat-packing plant was expanded to take in a part of the fort’s east bastion. Our experts went into a huddle to consider the possibilities and concluded that the officers most likely were not buried at the foot of a pole flying the Stars and Stripes, but rather were attended by a colour party and laid in their shared grave with rather more ceremony than would have been accorded men of lower ranks. It is hard to say if their remains were among those found in 1903. Lieut. Runk’s letter also told of the death at York of Lieut. 15th Moses O. Bloomfield of the U.S. Infantry whose uncle, a former governor of New Jersey, would have been known to Senator Lambert: “Lieut. Bloomfield of the 15th Infy was Shot in the head as he was getting up the bank after landing and Died immediately . . . Lieut. Bloomfield was committed to the Lake.”
Original printed pages
