Captain William Dermody Triangle in Bayside, Queens honors an officer of the Army of the Potomac killed at Spotsylvania in 1864. Dermody was from Bayside and the small memorial was begun by his sister. There was a school here named for the captain, but now it is a traffic triangle with trees and benches and a boulder with the words “For A Better Union 1861-1865” engraved in it.
William Chrysostom Dermody was born in Nova Scotia in 1830. While this may lead you to think of him as a Canadian immigrant, he appears more likely to have been part of a multinational immigration. His father Patrick Dermody was born in Ireland and moved to Nova Scotia before William was born. Many Irish intending to immigrate to the United States took advantage of lower-cost passage to Canada with the intention of eventually moving to the U.S. In any event, William’s mother Lavinia appears to have been a native of Nova Scotia who met Patrick in Canada and had her son William with him when she was 22 years old and Patrick was 31. Both Patrick and Lavinia died in their seventies and are buried in Mt. St. Mary Flushing Cemetery in the heart of Queens. Their tombstone lists William as having died in 1864, with Patrick and Lavinia having outlived their son. William died on May 13, 1864, having been killed at Spotsylvania. The local historical society says that he is buried with his parents, however, the National Park Service lists William among those buried at Fredericksburg.
Captain Dermody served in the 67th New York Infantry in Company K, the First regiment of Long Island Volunteers, the regiment became known as The 1st Long Island. The backbone of the regiment was formed by members of Henry Ward Beecher’s Abolitionist Plymouth Church Congregation in Brooklyn Heights.
According to the Bayside Historical Association, William Dermody was an Abolitionist. He operated a stage coach line in Queens. He enlisted in May, 1861. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign, at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and many other battles.
After the war, his sister, Olivia O’Donnell, set aside this triangle of land in her brother’s memory.
Captain Dermody Triangle is located at the corner of 216th Street & 48th Avenue, Bayside, NY 11364.
While the park is neatly kept and the monument has been maintained, there is no interpretive signage to explain the meaning of the boulder. Local veterans and the Bayside historical society assemble at the site every year around Memorial Day for a ceremony honoring Dermody and placing a wreath on the stone.
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