Col. Philip Mesier Lydig (1837-1868)

He was born in New York City and graduated from Columbia Law School (1861). On the outbreak of Civil War he was among the first to enlist and was commissioned as a Captain with the U.S. Volunteers, serving as Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier-General J. G. Parke. He was promoted to Major and Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of General Burnside in August 1864 before being brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel of the U.S. Volunteers, "for gallant and meritorious services in the Battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Bethesda Church, and during the operations before Petersburg." In 1865, he was brevetted Colonel for similar services before Fort Sedgwick, Virginia. He resigned from the army in April, 1865, and was honorably discharged. That year, he married Pauline, daughter of Charles Augustus Heckscher, and they had one son. He died three years later at Flushing on Long Island.