- Joined
- May 23, 2018
Okay thank you--I appreciate it!
Miss HusonHi and yes, please? Thank you SO much for joining ( welcome )- pretty psyched to have this information. It's terribly difficult finding information on Weaver's work, much less where the soldiers' remains were sent. Had no clue so many towns were able to regain men. Both Weavers are fascinating and the son's contributions never seemed to me, to have been acknowledged. I hope so much your efforts were?
A lot of times these threads become a North/South thing and it just is not. A great deal is made of the mass burials, post battle, of Confederate men- as if it was done through disrespect. In a ridiculously hot July, with their regiments necessarily withdrawn, there was just no one to bury them as swiftly as needed.
Years post battle is where it gets awful. Money men raked in tourist dollars while all those thousands of soldiers lay beneath tourist feet. That sure was hugely disrespectful although am convinced engendered by greed, not on what side they fought- makes it worse.
Sorry to go off on a tangent- this project doesn't seem discussed enough, you know? Love to hear your story, please and thank you again!
Miss Huson
I need your and other readers help. In 2012 I started the process of erecting up to five historical markers honoring Dr. Rufus Benjamin Weaver. Weaver is responsible for returning the remains of 3,320 men killed at Gettysburg back to the south. Two of the markers are done. Gettysburg and Hollywood cemetery in Richmond. Raliegh has a marker previously set. This leave Charleston and Savannah. Due to my health and work, the project has languished. It is my intention, to return and complete what I started. It needs to be done!
Please all who read this, inform me where the newspaper articles come from. What newspapers printed them, especially the article with the letter General Lee wrote. I plan to write a new article requesting funds from all southerners and those who wish to donate. When we start, all funds will be accepted by the SCV. More to come on that. Thank you!
Dan
That's what happens when people who are doing something, care deeply about what they are doing.
Could you elaborate on how this caused division in the South?Yes, it genuinely is sacred ground. Those still sleeping there, Union and Confederate should be allowed to rest in peace now after all these years. I'm sure many know where they rest and protect their right to not be disturbed. Pretty sure, if I ever came across a 150 year old grave, would not feel it my business to call attention to it.
The numbers were staggering post battle though. It did seem to me, as an indication our country was healing a divided past, the government would have stepped in. Fundraising was long, frustrating and caused yet more division, this time within the South.
Pat, I just checked Coco's "Gettysburg's Confederate Dead" and here's what he had to say: "But things never got any better. By the end of 1873, he was still owed more than $6,000 from the Hollywood MemorialAssociation, which by then, was essentially defunct. And, because the group had never been incorporated, that left no future chance for a legal settlement. Therefore, Dr. Weaver, for all intents and purposes, had to give up any claim for reimbursement."
Coco later goes on to say that later, a reactivated Hollywood Memorial Association, did try to make good on its predecessor's obligations but Coco doubts that Weaver ever saw more than a fraction of the bill paid.
Could you elaborate on how this caused division in the South?
Do you have anymore detailed stories from your great grandmother?I'm not sure what you mean, sorry? If anything connected to The Gettysburg Dead caused division in the South, had not heard of it? If anything, ladies organizations formed to raise money and bring men home pulled civilians together for a common objective, from what I can see? Found S.C.'s excellent ' pamphlet ', for Charleston's project ( long for a mere pamphlet, more a short book ), with so much research and so many civilian names it seems clear hundreds cooperated.
Do you have anymore detailed stories from your great grandmother?
The number cited in the above article mentions some 3400 being returned from the Gettysburg battlefield. Is that an accurate figure for the number of Confederate soldiers killed there? I have seen books where the authors have that figure being under 3,000 and if the reinterred figure is correct, their number cannot be that low.
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/dr-j-w-c-oneal-gettysburgs-virginian.149230/#post-1880257
Came across Dr. O'Neal by accident, browsing newspapers. Until finding his personal narrative I had no idea he played such an important role in Weavers' work. Something in another thread reminded me he's part of the story here and should be added. No need to go the thread, added the link so he's included. A Southerner and short time resident, O'Neal made notes of where Confederate graves were when he came across them.
Thank you again for adding to my previously unknown knowledge of this historic event. I am still trying to locate my relatives. Some may have been part of this procession.I'm still looking for photographs in any of these cities, where " Gettysburg Dead ", was a huge, long awaited and extremely emotional event across each state. You just know photographers would have helped mark these processions and ceremonies. Tracking down the photos or recognizing them if found might take some doing- a wagon festooned with flowers might be mistaken for something else with an 1871, 1872 or 1873 date.
Both O'Neal's and Weaver's original notes are at the library at the Gettysburg NPS Visitor's Center. Together they ID'd about 1,100 Confederate burials, but many of the grave markers that O'Neal originally noted in 1866 and a couple years later were obliterated or missing by the time Weaver made his notations in the early 1870's. So many soldiers ID'd by O'Neal were unidentifiable by the 1870's, and were buried as unknowns in the Gettysburg Dead section of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.