MOSES MONETTE -- 34th INFANTRY and 16th CAVALRYPLINY MONETTE -- 34th INFANTRYTWO BROTHERS BURIED FAR FROM CLINTON COUNTY - In October 1862, twobrothers enlisted in the 34th Infantry in Champlain. The elder of thetwo, Moses Monette, was twenty-eight years old and married with severalchildren. The other brother, Pliny, ten years younger, was living athome with his parents, Paul Monette and Rose Trahan, in Perry's Millsafter they emigrated with their family from Quebec.Both wereassigned to Captain Davis Rich's Company D when they arrived inPoolesville, MD, on the Potomac west of Washington, to serve theircountry for two years. The original 79 men in the company were recruitedin Champlain and the two brothers enlisted in October to take the placeof men who had been discharged for disability or disease. The 34th hadonly 3 casualties in the field by the time they went into winterquarters -- three men killed in action while they were travelling westalong the Potomac.Before the fighting began in April 1862, Pliny, had died of disease incamp and was buried in Washington, DC. Between April and December, theregiment had about 350 more casualties. In the spring of 1863, theironly battles were at Marye's Heights and Salem Church nearFredericksburg and then the regiment was disbanded at the end of June1863.Moses enlisted in the 16th Cavalry on September 15, 1864 and went tonorthern Virginia which was known as the Mosby Confederacy. The 16thspent their time chasing Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his partisanrangers until the end of the war, and he was mustered out on May 29,1865, in Washington, DC.Moses returned to Clinton County, picked up his family and started Westagain. Before the war he had tried farming in Iowa, and now took thenorthern route through South Dakota, where his wife died, and finally toMontana where he died in 1917 in Kalispel, a town almost on the Canadianborder. He was buried in the Conrad Memorial Cemetery there. A couple ofhis ten children kept moving westward and ended up in the state ofWashington, the last one dying in 1952.
