Lt. Robert J. Park, Jr., 72nd Pennsylvania, Company R

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, October 18, 1862.

"Died. Park--On Saturday evening, of wounds received at the battle of Antietam, Lieutenant Robert J. Park, Jr., in the 21st year of his age, of Company R, Baxter's Fire Zouaves, Seventy-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Central High School, Philadelphia, 1852

His friends and those of the family, the officers and members of his regiment now in the city, the National Guards, the Faculty and Alumni of the Central High School, are respectfully invited to attend his funeral, from his fathers residence, No. 201 Thirteenth Street, this (Saturday) afternoon, at 2 1/2 o'clock. Interment at Monument Cemetery."

In 1860, Robert J. Park, Jr. (18) resided in Philadelphia's 8th Ward with his father (50) and mother, Mary G. Park (44). His siblings were William D. (20), Annie C. (15), and Orlando B. (12). Also in residence was Kate S. Redgrave (25) and William D. Park (57), and Eliza Cheatam (19) an African American "domestic." The senior Park and William D. Park (who may have been an uncle) listed their occupations as printers. U.S. Census, Pennsylvania, 1860.

Philadelphia's Monument Cemetery was razed in 1956 by Temple University to make room for a parking lot. Of the 28,000 buried there, approximately 8,000 were removed to other cemeteries; the remaining 20,000 were buried in a mass grave in the city's Lawnview Cemetery. The Monument site was later developed from a parking lot to an astroturf field where Temple University’s lacrosse and field hockey teams play. For more on the Monument Cemetery story, see Ed Snyder's blog post on "How Monument Cemetery Was Destroyed." and Katrina Ohstrom' post on Hidden City Philadelphia blog. While Robert J. Park, Jr. may be lost, the regiment's commander, Col. DeWitt Clinton Baxter, can be found in Lawnview's Broad Lawn section, Range 14, Grave 84.

Image of Central High School is from The Stranger's Guide in Philadelphia and Its Environs (Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston, 1852).