Judge John Walsh, in his records of the Irish Pioneers of Utica, at Utica Public Library shows that Patrick Mc Gough (who would be the Patrick F. born 1855 Utica), enlisted in the Spanish-American War 1898, to be on the Ship Kanawah and that he deserted and never got aboard the ship. I have no idea who gave Judge Walsh this information as there is no source for this fact. Patrick spent his whole life in Utica, married Annie Logan I was in Washington, DC this summer doing research and made an enquiry about this in the National Archives Military History section. There was no evidence of his desertion there. Possibly because the war was such a short one. The Archivist in that Dept. did a thorough search. Recently I hired a Professional Genealogist there to see if I could get a list of the crew members of that ship. That was successful. Per that report, a Patrick Mc Gough enlisted 19 July 1898 from New York City. My question is: Why would a man from Utica, NY enlist in NY City? I presume that he would have had to take a train that distance. Surely there were other recruiting areas in the State closer to his home. I'm just curious about this. You know how that goes-the "need to know". Deanna