Post by Cliff Krainik on May 27, 2003 14:01:58 GMT -5
Resting in Peace at Last
Unearthed Civil War Remains Receive Burial With Honors
By Linda Wheeler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2003; Page B03
PETERSBURG, Va., May 26 -- The three men were killed defending the United States, shot in the head, hastily buried and forgotten. Today, they were remembered at Poplar Grove National Cemetery near here, where they got a second burial, this one with draped flags, guns fired in salute and taps.
They died 139 years ago during the grim, 10-month bloody siege of Petersburg, when Union Gen. U.S. Grant sought to grind down the Southerners by cutting off supplies that came through Petersburg headed for the Confederate capital of Richmond.
The three were buried where they fell, their graves dug by other Union soldiers or by farmers who came upon them. Nobody knows who they were or where they came from, but about 100 people turned out today to, as one woman said, "be their family."
There would have been no ceremony if the men had continued to lie in their unknown graves. But sometime during the 1980s, relic hunters unearthed them from the Virginia clay. Twice in the late 1990s, the thieves left the bones at the door of the National Park Service headquarters in Petersburg, with maps indicating that one man was found near the Ream's Station battlefield and the other two were removed from the Peebles Farm battlefield. The notes were not signed, Park Service officials said.
Everyone assumed they were Civil War soldiers, but no one knew for sure.
When Bob Kirby took over as National Park Service superintendent two years ago, he found the bones on a shelf and immediately began the lengthy process of having them identified.
"I was not happy about finding the bones," he said today after the hour-long service. "I knew we had to give them a proper burial."
In February, Smithsonian forensic archaeologists determined that the bodies were those of Union soldiers. One had been buried alone, and the other two men, one with only a few remains, had been buried together.
Kirby then arranged the funeral.
Today, before a silent and respectful audience, Fort Myer's famed "Old Guard," the soldiers who regularly conduct burials at Arlington National Cemetery, stood at attention in dress blue uniforms while several officials spoke.
"There is strength to be gained in remembering. America will always honor those who die, in the arms of a fellow soldier or alone," said Maj. Gen. Terry E. Juskowiak, commanding general of the U.S. Army Support Command at nearby Fort Lee.
He said armed conflict means "soldiers have shared the glory, the suffering and the sacrifice. It is fitting that we have two caskets today. The two who were found together where they lay for more than 135 years are together now, inseparable in life and inseparable in death."
Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said: "We may not know their names or where they came from, but we know that they were willing to serve their country when called upon. . . . Recent events have again called upon our troops to take action, and like so many times before, America's military has answered the call."
After the speeches, the soldiers of the Old Guard reverently picked up the flag-draped coffins and, in measured and precise steps, carried them into the cemetery.
The only sound was their footsteps, muffled slightly by the rain-soaked ground.
The gray metal coffins were buried under a very old cedar tree whose roots made the ground uneven.
Maj. Jerry Owens, an Army chaplain, said that although the names of the men were unknown, "the names are known to you, oh Lord."
Then the guns fired, the bugle played and the service was over.
Poplar Grove National Cemetery opened in 1866, a year after the war ended. Search teams went out to the many battlefields around Petersburg and collected the remains of 6,178 soldiers.
The soldier who died at Ream's Station will be next to James Steward, Harrison Snead and L. Bedsur of the U.S. Colored Troops, as African Americans who served with the Union forces were called. The two from Peebles Farm are next to markers 4462 and 4463, also unknown soldiers.
The last time Civil War soldiers were buried at the cemetery was in the 1930s, after bodies were uncovered during road construction.
Pat Butler, 53, retired from the advertising business, said she and her daughter and grandson came to the funeral to be the family for the soldiers.
"Everyone needs family, even if you are dead and gone," said the Dinwiddie, Va., resident.
Her daughter, Becky Pickard, 34, who works in sales, brought her son, Michael, 8.
"This will be the last chance for any of us to attend a Civil War funeral," she said. "It's about making a connection with the past."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41975-2003May26.html
Unearthed Civil War Remains Receive Burial With Honors
By Linda Wheeler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2003; Page B03
PETERSBURG, Va., May 26 -- The three men were killed defending the United States, shot in the head, hastily buried and forgotten. Today, they were remembered at Poplar Grove National Cemetery near here, where they got a second burial, this one with draped flags, guns fired in salute and taps.
They died 139 years ago during the grim, 10-month bloody siege of Petersburg, when Union Gen. U.S. Grant sought to grind down the Southerners by cutting off supplies that came through Petersburg headed for the Confederate capital of Richmond.
The three were buried where they fell, their graves dug by other Union soldiers or by farmers who came upon them. Nobody knows who they were or where they came from, but about 100 people turned out today to, as one woman said, "be their family."
There would have been no ceremony if the men had continued to lie in their unknown graves. But sometime during the 1980s, relic hunters unearthed them from the Virginia clay. Twice in the late 1990s, the thieves left the bones at the door of the National Park Service headquarters in Petersburg, with maps indicating that one man was found near the Ream's Station battlefield and the other two were removed from the Peebles Farm battlefield. The notes were not signed, Park Service officials said.
Everyone assumed they were Civil War soldiers, but no one knew for sure.
When Bob Kirby took over as National Park Service superintendent two years ago, he found the bones on a shelf and immediately began the lengthy process of having them identified.
"I was not happy about finding the bones," he said today after the hour-long service. "I knew we had to give them a proper burial."
In February, Smithsonian forensic archaeologists determined that the bodies were those of Union soldiers. One had been buried alone, and the other two men, one with only a few remains, had been buried together.
Kirby then arranged the funeral.
Today, before a silent and respectful audience, Fort Myer's famed "Old Guard," the soldiers who regularly conduct burials at Arlington National Cemetery, stood at attention in dress blue uniforms while several officials spoke.
"There is strength to be gained in remembering. America will always honor those who die, in the arms of a fellow soldier or alone," said Maj. Gen. Terry E. Juskowiak, commanding general of the U.S. Army Support Command at nearby Fort Lee.
He said armed conflict means "soldiers have shared the glory, the suffering and the sacrifice. It is fitting that we have two caskets today. The two who were found together where they lay for more than 135 years are together now, inseparable in life and inseparable in death."
Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said: "We may not know their names or where they came from, but we know that they were willing to serve their country when called upon. . . . Recent events have again called upon our troops to take action, and like so many times before, America's military has answered the call."
After the speeches, the soldiers of the Old Guard reverently picked up the flag-draped coffins and, in measured and precise steps, carried them into the cemetery.
The only sound was their footsteps, muffled slightly by the rain-soaked ground.
The gray metal coffins were buried under a very old cedar tree whose roots made the ground uneven.
Maj. Jerry Owens, an Army chaplain, said that although the names of the men were unknown, "the names are known to you, oh Lord."
Then the guns fired, the bugle played and the service was over.
Poplar Grove National Cemetery opened in 1866, a year after the war ended. Search teams went out to the many battlefields around Petersburg and collected the remains of 6,178 soldiers.
The soldier who died at Ream's Station will be next to James Steward, Harrison Snead and L. Bedsur of the U.S. Colored Troops, as African Americans who served with the Union forces were called. The two from Peebles Farm are next to markers 4462 and 4463, also unknown soldiers.
The last time Civil War soldiers were buried at the cemetery was in the 1930s, after bodies were uncovered during road construction.
Pat Butler, 53, retired from the advertising business, said she and her daughter and grandson came to the funeral to be the family for the soldiers.
"Everyone needs family, even if you are dead and gone," said the Dinwiddie, Va., resident.
Her daughter, Becky Pickard, 34, who works in sales, brought her son, Michael, 8.
"This will be the last chance for any of us to attend a Civil War funeral," she said. "It's about making a connection with the past."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41975-2003May26.html