Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much information about this Memorial on the internet. However, this site (
visit link) has an additional photo and informs us:
"The Firemen's Monument, in Trinity Churchyard, was erected by Empire Fire Engine Co. No. 42, in memory of Col. Noah L. Farnham, Colonel of the Fire Zouaves, and the others who died in the Battle of Bull Run.
Noah L. Farnham (1829-1861) joined Engine Compnay No. 42, and later Hook and Ladder Company No. 1. In 1857, he connected himself with Company B of the Seventh Regiment, and rapidly ascended from the office of Second Sergeant to that of First Lieutenant of the Company, which he held when the regiment was summoned to Washington, where they would go onto fight at the Battle of Bull Run.
The Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was the first major land battle of the American Civil War, fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. Unseasoned Union Army troops under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell advanced across Bull Run against the equally unseasoned Confederate Army under Brig. Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, and despite the Union's early successes, they were routed and forced to retreat back to Washington, D.C.
Farnham had left a sick bed to participate in the battle. He was struck in the head by a musket ball, but had been so weakened by disease that he was beyond operation.
Trinity Church, prominently located at the terminus of Wall Street at 79 Broadway, is the oldest Episcopal church in New York City, having been consecrated on Ascension Day May 1, 1846. Designed by architect Richard Upjohn, Trinity is considered a classic example of Gothic Revival architecture. At the time of its completion, the 281-foot spire was the highest point in New York until being surpassed in 1890 by the New York World Building.
The adjoining Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, opened in 1697, is one of three separate burial grounds that make up the non-denominational Trinity Church Cemetery (the others being the Churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel and the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum at the Chapel of Intercession). Among the 1,186 interred here are Alexander Hamilton, William Bradford, Robert Fulton (memorial tribute), Captain James Lawrence, Horatio Gates, and Albert Gallatin. There are also memorials to the unknown martyrs of the Revolution buried on the grounds, 16 officers of the Continental Army and Navy buried in the church cemeteries, and to the thousands of Americans who died in prison ships in New York Harbor.
Trinity Church and Graveyard was designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.
National Register #76001252 (1982)"
and someone responding to that info adds:
"Not every firefighter on this monument died at Bull Run. The monument memorializes all the fallen members of the old Empire Engine Company No. 42, some decades before the Civil War.
According to Costello's "Our Firemen", Augustus L. Cowdrey, a young lawyer, was killed in an explosion while working the Great Fire of 1845. John B. O'Donnell, son of a coroner, was killed fighting the Jennings Clothing Store fire at 231 Broadway in 1854. George W. Burridge was an honorary member of No. 42 and killed by a falling wall in 1864.
These names are on the left side; the Zouaves are on the right."