Misinformation/misidentification on Civil War gravestones

bdtex

Major General
★★ Sr. Moderator
Silver Patron
Annual Winner
Regtl. Quartermaster Chickamauga 2018 Vicksburg 2019
Joined
Jul 21, 2015
Location
Texas
2020-06-06 10.03.36.jpg


I know this topic has been discussed in CivilWarTalk but I don't recall seeing a thread devoted to the topic. Here's mine with an experience/example that got me to thinking about it. This past Saturday,I made a daytrip to Waco to visit my son and grandson. It's a little shy of 3.5 hours from where I live. I am a very early riser and my son is not. I decided on Friday that I was gonna leave very early on Saturday morning and find a cemetery closeby to visit before I got to my son's place. I poked around on FindAGrave Friday night and found Concord Cemetery in eastern McLennan County. It's in a rural area outside the eastern city limits of Waco. I started scrolling through the burials there and came across the soldier whose picture is above, William H. Barker. I stopped scrolling through the names right then. That was good enough for me. I left at 6am on Saturday morning. The cemetery was not easy to find. It's not that big and it only took about 30 minutes to walk it pretty thoroughly. I found the gravesite above,put a flag on it and took a couple pictures and paid my respects. I didn't find any other Civil War veterans there. There were already some US flags at other veterans' gravesites. I found one WW1 veteran from Texas who didn't have a flag and I put a US flag on his grave.
 

As you can see, there's no information on his Confederate service on his FindAGrave page. I thought he was in Hood's Texas Brigade. When I got home Saturday night I did a quick search using my recent fold3 renewal. I found a William H. Barker,Co. I,4th Texas Infantry Regiment on fold3 but he died of pneumonia in Chimborazo hospital on May 22,1862. The William H. Barker at Concord Cemetery died in 1922. I was very disappointed when I found all that out and puzzled too. I was pretty tired from being on the road all day so I let it be for the night.
 
After church on Sunday the next day,I went to my office and got on my desktop and started digging through the NPS database and fold3. It's easier on a desktop at both sites than a mobile device and NPS turned out to be very helpful. On both I found a William H. Barker in Baylor's Regiment, Texas Cavalry (2nd Regiment, Arizona Brigade). I wasn't completely satisfied that I'd found the right soldier because I couldn't verify date of birth or death or any personal information on NPS or fold3.

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...xzLsOsT9BuI1c4hRsrPOGT8aZp7UcSM_bUaZg6vRaDVrs
 
According to Ancestry.Com, William H. Barker was a Private in the 4th Texas Regiment during the Spanish-American War. He was in the Civil War in Co. F 17th GA and surrendered at the end of the war. He was born in Alabama and died of a gunshot wound. Attached are his Pension Approval and his Death Certificate.
AF0B02DE-4D9C-4595-BE5A-37086E843E5A.jpeg
D260D717-8D01-4B87-ADFA-E9E33620EFB0.jpeg
C632C44F-55F3-4982-AF75-263AC127A59E.jpeg
 
I next went on Ancestry and that's where I hit paydirt. I found a Pension Application from William H. Barker in McLennan County,TX submitted in 1913. In it, he says he enlisted in the 17th Georgia Infantry and was later transferred to the 9th Georgia Artillery. I found 9 pages of records for him in the 17th GA Inf and 3 pages in the 9th GA Artillery from 1863-1864 in fold3. I can't figure out how to post a thumbnail of the page of the pension application or shrink it down to a postable size. I'd like to see the headstone application that was submitted for his gravestone. I'm quite certain that's where the unit misidentification originated. It's sad that his unit has been misidentified on his gravestone for so long,but that's not uncommon with Civil War soldiers' gravesites. If anyone else has a story/experience with this,please post it.
 
According to Ancestry.Com, William H. Barker was a Private in the 4th Texas Regiment during the Spanish-American War. He was in the Civil War in Co. F 17th GA and surrendered at the end of the war. He was born in Alabama and died of a gunshot wound. Attached are his Pension Approval and his Death Certificate.
Thanks. I was typing up my next post and trying to figure out how to shrink the attachments while you posted your reply.
 
Last edited:
Bobby considering how fragmented Confederate records are, you are to be congratulated for doggingly following this man's stroy. It is so wonderful when we can learn about one of the "faceless" thousands who followed their conscience and beliefs. That he met a terrible end juyst adds spice to this story.
Well done!
Regards
David
 
Bobby considering how fragmented Confederate records are, you are to be congratulated for doggingly following this man's stroy. It is so wonderful when we can learn about one of the "faceless" thousands who followed their conscience and beliefs. That he met a terrible end juyst adds spice to this story.
Well done!
Regards
David
Thank you sir. I am loving my newly renewed fold3 subscription. I let it lapse for a couple of years and had forgotten how much fun and aggravating it can be trying to find records. There is all kinds of information in the records that you do find. Ancestry and NPS really helped with this soldier. It just bothered me when the first search showed his information was wrong on his gravestone. I wonder if anyone else has ever looked into it?
 
Thank you sir. I am loving my newly renewed fold3 subscription. I let it lapse for a couple of years and had forgotten how much fun and aggravating it can be trying to find records. There is all kinds of information in the records that you do find. Ancestry and NPS really helped with this soldier. It just bothered me when the first search showed his information was wrong on his gravestone. I wonder if anyone else has ever looked into it?
When I looked him up on Ancestry, his military record said he was in the 4th Texas regiment (which is stated on his headstone). However, his record said that was in the Spanish-American War. That was in 1898. He would have been 56 years old. Is it possible to have served at that age? If that’s accurate, then that would explain the 4th Texas Regiment and CSA service with the GA regiment.
 
When I looked him up on Ancestry, his military record said he was in the 4th Texas regiment (which is stated on his headstone). However, his record said that was in the Spanish-American War.
His gravestone says he was in Co. I, 4th Regiment,Texas Brigade,CSA. There is a William Barker,Co. I, 4th Texas Infantry in Confederate records. The Willam H. Barker in the Spanish-American War was in Co. L, 4th Texas Infantry. I don't know that there was a Texas Brigade in the Spanish-American War.
 
Rookie question - who gave the information for the engraving of the stones? I've seen many applications online for WW1 and WW2 and they often have corrections where the information filled out by the family was fixed. Likewise, I've seen a lot of pension applications where the family had facts wrong, especially those done by widows. Could a similar issue be at work here?
 
Rookie question - who gave the information for the engraving of the stones? I've seen many applications online for WW1 and WW2 and they often have corrections where the information filled out by the family was fixed. Likewise, I've seen a lot of pension applications where the family had facts wrong, especially those done by widows. Could a similar issue be at work here?
I have looked without success for the headstone application for the gravestone in my picture in the OP. I am fairly certain that's where the misidentification originated. He and his wife had 2 children when they were murdered. They had a son who was 19 and a daughter who was 4. The orphaned daughter drowned at age 15. The son lived to be 85 and is buried in Fort Worth. I have to believe it was the son or a grandchild who submitted the headstone application. Looking at the gravestone, I can't tell how old it might be.
 
I have looked without success for the headstone application for the gravestone in my picture in the OP. I am fairly certain that's where the misidentification originated. He and his wife had 2 children when they were murdered. They had a son who was 19 and a daughter who was 4. The orphaned daughter drowned at age 15. The son lived to be 85 and is buried in Fort Worth. I have to believe it was the son or a grandchild who submitted the headstone application. Looking at the gravestone, I can't tell how old it might be.
So it's likely that the application was filled out by a family member (probably the son) and the mistake wasn't caught. Maybe you can put correct information on FindaGrave and help future researchers!
 
So it's likely that the application was filled out by a family member (probably the son) and the mistake wasn't caught. Maybe you can put correct information on FindaGrave and help future researchers!
I thought about that. I think you have to contact the FindAGrave member who created the memorial page to correct or change it. It has been a few years since I have done that but I seem to recall that's the procedure.
 
So it's likely that the application was filled out by a family member (probably the son) and the mistake wasn't caught. Maybe you can put correct information on FindaGrave and help future researchers!
To follow up, he was 60 years old when his son was born and his son was 10 years old when dad signed that pension application. Who knows how much he talked about the war by then? Reading the pension records you see that it was denied because of insufficient witness corroboration. He had been in Texas for 40+ years and had had no contact with his Georgia comrades for decades. I have no idea how a pension board in Texas would have access in 1914 to CSA Muster Records for a Georgia soldier. When he was killed, I doubt there was a copy of that pension application in his personal effects. May not have been any documentation of his service in the Georgia regiments among his personal effects. Who knows how much information or documentation the son or grandchild had when the application was made?

I am not sure how the process worked in the 1900's, but I guess it's possible that the person(s) who reviewed the application may have reviewed Texas CSA muster records. That person(s) may be where the misidentification originated.
 
Back
Top