The Moesch Monument is dedicated to Swiss immigrant Joseph Anton Moesch, who was a member of the 83rd New York Volunteers, nicknamed "The Swiss Volunteers." Moesch was killed during the May 5th fighting in the Wilderness. The details about his death are vague. The only record states that he "was shot, while gallantly leading the regiment into action." Moesch's body was taken to the division hospital and later buried in a secluded corner of the Lacy family cemetery. The chaplain purposely left the grave site unmarked for fear that Southerners would desecrate the site. Years after the Civil War ended, fellow soldiers of Moesch retrieved his remains from that unmarked grave. "In a letter to Captain Hussey, Major Birdsall describes
finding of the body, 'The boots are in pieces as the stitching was all gone, as there was nothing to hold them together. The bits of clothing is all I could secure, the rest fell to pieces as soon exposed. The bullet was found in the bottom of the coffin between the shoulders and head.' The bullet was the missile that killed the Colonel, and had dropped to the bottom of the coffin as the remains decomposed." They reinterred his body in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. This is significant because of the 15,000 soldiers resting at Fredericksburg, only about 2,400 of them are in marked graves. Moesch's monument gives wide-sweeping views of the cemetery grounds since it is located at the top of a high hill.

Joseph A Moesch