Henry M. Galpin

Lt. Col. Henry M. Galpin was born in Fly Creek, New York on Independence Day 1836.  Twenty-five when the Civil War began, he would suffers numerous wounds over the course of the conflict.  He was wounded in the back of his at Malvern Hill, Virgina in 1862 and then in the eye at Spotsylvania in May of 1864.  He was shot through both thighs at Cedar Creek late that same year.

Despite those wounds, he survived the war.  He died on March 9, 1871 of consumption.  He was thirty-five years old.

Buried in his family's South Ridge lot, his monument is full of symbolism.  The cut tree without branches represents a young life ended without descendants.   A flag is draped on the tree while a cannon and a shield (carved with his name and the dates of his birth and death) rest against the stump.  The stone pedestal is very difficult to read as the soft marble has weathered, but it lists some of the battles in which he fought.

At Gettysburg

Easily visible along the stretch of South Ridge Road that curves up hill from the main office, this marble tree stump is one of the many graves of fallen Civil War soldiers at the Albany Rural Cemetery. 

The tree, truncated and without branches, indicates a life ended in its prime.  A soldiers' cap lies on the roots, a flag wraps around the trunk, the stone bases is carved with the names of the fourteen battles in which this young man fought (including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Fairfax Courthouse).

This beautiful monument marks the grave of Lieutenant William Pohlman.  He was born in 1842 Borneo to missionary parents, but raised in Albany by an aunt following the death of his mother.  He was a student at Rutgers University when the war began and soon enlisted in the 1st New Jersey Infantry Regiment.  By the following year, Pohlman was a Lieutenant and Adjutant in the 59th New York Infantry.

On July 3, Lt. Pohlman was struck in the arm by shrapnel from a cannon at Gettysburg.  Wounded, he continued to fight until shot in the arm during Pickett's Charge.  He was first brought to a field hospital, about a week later transferred to the hospital set up in the nearby Swopes Mansion.  A surgeon was brought from Baltimore to examine him and, at first, it seems the young man would recover.  He was able to receive visitors and wrote to his sister to ask her to come see him.  He would ask every day if she had arrived.  But on July 20, his condition worsened.  Following a hemorrhage, he entered into a brief coma.  He regained consciousness on the 21st, but was confused and called out, "Cease firing!"  They were his final words, now carved on his monument's canon. His body was embalmed and returned to Albany for burial.

Grave of Rev. Henry Newman Pohlman

 

He was buried in the plot belonging to his uncle, the Reverend Henry Newman Pohlman, the former pastor of Albany's 1st Lutheran Church.  It was Rev. Pohlman who oversaw the Cemetery's consecration ceremonies in 1844.

The shield on the front of the younger Pohlman's headstone reads:

Died July 21, 1863 At Gettysburg From Wounds Received In Battle In The 22nd Year of His Age

Click here for a more extensive bio of Lt. William Pohlman, including photos

The Emerson Tree

Another of the Albany Rural Cemetery's tree-shaped monuments, this one is located on the North Ridge (just a short distance from both the Soldiers Lot and the Alrutz family).  The scroll on the front is, unfortunately, very worn and only the name Emerson can be clearly read.  The other names and dates are too blurred to decipher.  Made of white marble, it features a floral wreath and a draped cloth or veil on its cut branches.  A little dove is perched atop, its head tilted as if the bird is peering curiously at visitors. 

Now and Then

This tiny tree-style monument marks the Brumaghim lot on the South Ridge overlooking the ornamental pond called Cypress Water. A little dove is perched atop the marble stump and, if one examines the monument closely, you can see a bit of carved ivy and lettering on the scroll near the base. The coping is partially detached, but intact.

Several days after taking this photo, I recognized the exact same monument in Edward Fitzgerald's 1871 Handbook For The Albany Rural Cemetery.


(The monument to the left still exists, though I didn't take a photo at the time. I was probably distracted by a nearby Civil War gravestone.)

The area in the background is almost unrecognizable now as scores of monuments have filled it in. The sections facing the pond in this engraving now contain some of the Cemetery's most beautiful monuments.

The Terbush Tree

There are a number of tree-shaped monuments throughout the Rural Cemetery. A trunk without branches was a popular symbol of either a young life cut short or the end of a family line; several of these stone trees mark the graves of young men who died in the Civil War and left no children.

This large tree monument along the South Ridge Road is an especially detailed example with its textured bark, scrolls bearing the names of the departed, and a large anchor.

Among those buried here is Captain Henry Terbush who, according to Joel Munsell's Annals of Albany, was killed by the machinery of the steamboat A.L. Lawrence on October 2, 1849.