Forgotten Civil War Heros' Graves

Forgotten Ark. Civil War Graves Uncovered
By JAY HUGHES

HELENA, Ark. (AP) - For 138 years, a shallow, unmarked trench held the bodies of six Confederate soldiers cut down in one of the more futile battles of the Civil War. Then, a road building project cut through the ground above them.

The field where the Battle of Helena was fought July 4, 1863, is part of the city now, and as urban sprawl encroaches on battlegrounds nationwide, it becomes more and more likely that additional forgotten graves will be uncovered.

The six men buried in Helena, who remain ``Known Only to God,'' as their headstone now reads, have since been given a more dignified burial site than the one inadvertently unearthed by a bulldozer in 2002.

``They were buried kind of haphazardly. One was facedown, another one was lying on his side and some of their limbs were kind of sprawled out,'' said John House, an archaeologist from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff who oversaw excavation of the Helena gravesite.

Terry Winschel, a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, said burying the dead on the field was common during the Civil War, an expedient way for armies to deal with large numbers of bodies amid the ebb and flow of campaigning.

``It worries me every time you put a shovel in the ground,'' said Kathleen Harrison, a National Park Service historian at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Often, soldiers were buried where they fell. Over the years, graves not graced with a durable marker blended into the earth.

The tidy rows of graves at Vicksburg, Gettysburg and other park service sites are an illusion of sorts, evoking a sense of order though the wartime reality was chaos.

Around Vicksburg, every nearby Union battlefield grave that could be found was exhumed under an order from Congress. Government workers who contracted diseases by transporting the bodies were buried alongside those they came to honor.

The original superintendent of the project was badly haunted by the task, which required him to visit the numerous sites where bodies were located, often necessitating trips on the river.

``It was sickening, so much so that this guy drank quite heavily and on one of those trips he fell overboard and drowned,'' Winschel said. ``He was just as much a victim of that war as anyone else.''

During Reconstruction, southern women's societies collected money to return the Confederate dead from Gettysburg to their native soil.

``It was logistically a nightmare for these people. But they found a way to do it,'' Harrison said.

Winschel said the Union attempted to identify its dead by marking a soldier's name on a piece of wood after a battlefield burial, but many Southerners pulled up the headstones to use as firewood.

Battlefield graves, when encountered, are no longer quite as disturbing as they once were. Time and nature have done their work, reducing the contents to bones, small metal items and little else. At the Helena gravesite, about two feet deep, the bones were linked to the Civil War because of what was found with the men: an unspent musket cartridge and 25 buttons.

The men buried here in March died in one of the most pointless battles of the war. The Confederates attacked Helena in an attempt to threaten Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's supply line and help relieve the siege of Vicksburg, 230 miles to the south.

A total of 170 Confederates were killed, more than 680 wounded and more than 770 missing. Union losses were about 60 dead, 150 wounded and 40 missing.

Danny Honnoll, president of the Arkansas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which organized the funeral, said it was an honor to help finally give the soldiers a proper resting place.

``I get the feeling that the spirits of these old soldiers come out of the woodwork when we're doing things like this,'' he said.

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[thea_447]

Hi Wil,
Thanks for posting this. It is truly horrific to think that the heritage of the honorable blue and gray who fought and died on this country's soil has become "paved paradise to put up a parking lot!"

You would think that each state's historical society would be breathing down everyone's necks and stopping this from happening. But here in Alabama we have someone in charge who is so abhorrent of Confederate history that he has stopped anyone from even salvaging the wreckage in our waters. He calls them privateers even though they would turn over the "finds" to the society. He prefers that these relics, which HE SAYS we cannot afford to salvage for the state of Alabama RUST away so that nothing remains of this part of our history.

But on every street corner he's adopted Civil Rights Markers and sees to it that this portion of our history is fully exploited.


I have absolutely nothing against the markers,etc. for Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, etc., but at the same time he allowed the Confederate monument on the capital grounds to fall into utter disrepair until it was rescued by the Sons of the Confederacy, against his objections. And keep in mind that Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy, the cradle of the Confederacy, and the home of the Little White House of the Confederacy.

Is it so little to ask that these long ago heroes of both the blue and the gray receive an honorable resting place? There wasn't time for them in the haste and heat of battle. Can't WE take the time now to honor them? Better late than never.

Your servant, sir.

[jeffdavislegion]

The following photo was taken at the Kingston, MS (King - Swayze) cemetery on Confederate Memorial Day, 2000. In the heart of Dixie, the locals were reverent enough to provide markers for five unknown Union soldiers. I had the honor of placing the flags on their graves, as well as placing the battle flag on the graves of my two cousins from the Jeff Davis Legion in another part of the cemetery.

The King and Swayze mentioned in the cemetery name are some of the original settlers of Adams County, MS, and both are direct ancestors of mine.

You will have to forgive the somewhat ***** uniform. My impression has improved significantly since then.

Daniel



(Message edited by jeffdavislegion on June 14, 2004)

[felinelady]

Where is Kingston,MS?

[jeffdavislegion]

Kingston is a little south and east of Natchez. It was the site of the first settlers in Adams County. A group of my ancestors bought land there and moved from the New Jersey / Long Island area. A group of descendants of that original party has an annual reunion in Natchez every year. I had six cousins from related families join the Adams Troop, Jeff Davis Legion. I understand that they were the only Mississippi Cavalry that rode with JEB Stuart. Some famous descendants of the group are Patrick Swayze and William Holden (whose real last name was Noble). We have documented literally thousands of folks descended from the settlers in Kingston.

. . . Long answer to a short question.

http://www.djs.org/

[felinelady]

Thank you for the response ... I thought I recognized the name and when you said Natchez I knew exactly where you were talking about. I'm from the MS Delta and lived in the Vicksburg/PortGibson area for roughly 3 years. Loved the area. Rich with history of all kinds. In fact that is where I lived when I first really became interested in the Civil War. I read part of a diary in the Vicksburg Museum there.
Kat

[thea_447]

This is really more of a genealogy response but it's odd that you mention the Noble name because that is my husband's mother's maiden name. Through it, she is descended directly from John Quincy Adams. The Adams and Noble families are both part of the genealogy line I'm working on for his side of the family. His grandmother was an Adams, marrying a Noble.

And his great grandfather is buried in a cemetary bearing our family name (not the same) in another part of the state.

He was born in a little town called Ellisville, MS and lived there until he was about 14.