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- Dec 3, 2011
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- Laurinburg NC
Department of Veterans Affairs blocks historic Green-Wood cemetery from giving Civil War vets tombstones. But some of these War
Between the States fighters have been dead for 150 years. Rule change allows only vets' relatives to get a stone.
More than a thousand Civil War veterans are condemned to eternity in an unmarked Brooklyn grave due to bizarre federal rules — but now New York’s top senator and cemetery advocates are fighting for change.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked Green-Wood Cemetery from placing gravestones on the empty plots, which are currently marked by yellow flags, ruling that only soldiers’ relatives could request a tombstone.
As a result, 1,200 vets of the War Between the States remain in unmarked plots.
"We have to reverse this injustice," said Green-Wood historian Jeff Richman, who has an petition on marktheirgraves.org demanding the feds return to the old rules.
Sen. Chuck Schumer has joined the campaign, reaching out to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Tuesday asking the agency to back down.
"All veterans deserve to have their final resting spot marked and honored with a headstone," Schumer said.
Richman estimated there are around 8,000 former Civil War soldiers buried among the roughly 560,000 bodies resting beneath the grass at the city’s largest boneyard.
Read more:
Between the States fighters have been dead for 150 years. Rule change allows only vets' relatives to get a stone.
More than a thousand Civil War veterans are condemned to eternity in an unmarked Brooklyn grave due to bizarre federal rules — but now New York’s top senator and cemetery advocates are fighting for change.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked Green-Wood Cemetery from placing gravestones on the empty plots, which are currently marked by yellow flags, ruling that only soldiers’ relatives could request a tombstone.
As a result, 1,200 vets of the War Between the States remain in unmarked plots.
"We have to reverse this injustice," said Green-Wood historian Jeff Richman, who has an petition on marktheirgraves.org demanding the feds return to the old rules.
Sen. Chuck Schumer has joined the campaign, reaching out to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Tuesday asking the agency to back down.
"All veterans deserve to have their final resting spot marked and honored with a headstone," Schumer said.
Richman estimated there are around 8,000 former Civil War soldiers buried among the roughly 560,000 bodies resting beneath the grass at the city’s largest boneyard.
Read more:
Department of Veterans Affairs blocks historic Green-Wood cemetery from giving Civil War vets tombstones
More than a thousand Civil War veterans are condemned to eternity in an unmarked Brooklyn grave due thanks to bizarre federal rules — but now New York’s top senator and cemetery advocates are fighting for change.
www.nydailynews.com
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