This Monument to Percival Drayton is located iside and at the back of New York City's famous Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan.
The monument is made from a large engraved tablet (probably marble) surrounded by a border that has a relief of laurel leaves and the words at the top "LOYALTY - TRUTH - CHARITY". The tablet is embedded in a nook above a horizontal slab...which frankly gives the impression that Drayton is buried here in the church. However, we learn from the website below, that he is in fact buried in Philadelphia. The tablet reads:
"IN MEMORY
PERCIVAL DRAYTON
Captain United States Navy
Born at Charleston August 26, 1812
Died at Washington August 4, 1865
Chief of Bureau of Navigation
A Naval Officer for 38 years
Without a superior above all sectional feeling
He distinguished himself in the service of the
Union, In command of a Frigate, at Port Royal,
at Sumter in command of a Monitor,
at Mobile Bay as Fleet Captain
and Commander of the Flag Ship HARTFORD.
A JUST MAN, A TRUE PATRIOT AND GOOD CHRISTIAN"
This website (
visit link) adds:
"Birth: Aug. 25, 1812
Death: Aug. 4, 1865
Civil War Union Naval Officer. The son of South Carolina Congressman William Drayton, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1827, and served continuously up to the Civil War, being posted to stations that included the Mediterranean, the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Brazil, Paraguay and at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. His older brother, Thomas Fenwick Drayton, was a West Point Graduate and a United States Army officer who remained loyal to the South and became a Confederate Brigadier General. When the Civil War began Percival Drayton was stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, but was soon given command of the warship "USS Pocahontas". He commanded the vessel in the successful Union Naval assault on Port Royal, South Carolina in November 1861. In that action, Percival Drayton fired upon troops and positions commanded by his brother Thomas. Promoted Captain, US Navy in July 1862, he was assigned to Admiral David Farragut's West Gulf Squadron, and commanded Farragut's flagship "USS Hartford" in the celebrated Naval assault and capture of Mobile Bay, Alabama on August 5, 1864. When the war ended he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, but he died shortly after his appointment. A monument was erected to him inside Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York City, New York...
Burial:
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Philadelphia
Philadelphia County
Pennsylvania, USA
Plot: Section G, Lot 249"