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| The Wyoming Monument - inscribed is the name of Ichabod Tuttle |
In a Lonely Field
For weeks marauders made their presence known
in what was once Westmoreland. As they left
the scene of carnage, so did all the circling,
hissing, satiated turkey vultures,
who, for now at least, would have to settle
for an injured warbler or a woodland vole.
In late October, settlers who’d returned
to salvage what they could of wasting crops
were ordered to recover and inter
the remains of those who’d perished in July.
Distinctive shoes helped to identify
a few of them, but not with certainty,
for most had been reduced to scattered bones
and rotting rags. The men dug two mass graves
and laid their families and friends to rest
as best they could. The Battle of Wyoming
lived on in the collective memory,
though older settlers died and new ones came
to harvest trees and later mine for coal.
A monument would mark the sacred site.
Diah Munson never did go back
to place a proper headstone on the grave
of Rachel Tyler Munson, wife and mother
of their dozen children, living, dead, and lost.
Within six months he married Eunice Bradley,
a cousin whom he kept as bedmate, cook
and nanny. And because the Pennymites
had occupied his Susquehanna claim—
and later were awarded title to it—
Diah bought a grist mill and moved on.
The chapter titled In a Lonely Field comes from “The Fall of Rome” by W. H. Auden
END OF PART THREE
NEXT: PART FOUR - PENNSYLVANIA AND BEYOND
