Posted on 09/15/2009 2:28:22 PM PDT by Bodleian_Girl
Edited on 09/15/2009 6:08:35 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
SHARPSBURG, Md. -- An unknown Civil War soldier began his journey home to New York state Tuesday, nearly a year after a visitor to the Antietam National Battlefield spotted his remains in a cornfield that saw the fiercest fighting of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.al.com ...
I was surprised they didn’t bury him at the national cemetery in Sharpsburg.
Dixie Ping
Or at least a nice thank you note.
ping
How terrifying to find a body on the field! The ghosts are bad enough, if you’re not prepared for it.
Based on the location of the remains, and known regiments and their activity that day, they may be able to zone in even further on this boy’s unit, though a proper identification may never be made.
“the Union soldiers at the Antietam National Cemetery and the Confederates in nearby towns.”
...lots of Confederates buried at Mt Olivet cemetary in Frederick, Md....they were forbidden to be buried at the Union cemetary in Sharpsburg.
I guess I’m out of the loop about where they bury them when something like this happens.
When I read (in the article that this fallen young man was 18-19 years old at his death”t made me think of the song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and the line that says
“Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother up above me
who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen
proud and brave
but a Yankee laid him in his grave
and I swear by the mud below my feet
You can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat”
And I suddenly had the thought, for the first time ever, “They lost their very young men also.”
It made me sad for all of those who died.
I asked one of the park rangers there and was told that if it’s determined which state the soldier was from then the burial decision is up to them.
Amen.
He was found in the corn field. I was told that identifying which unit he belonged to based on his burial site was impossible because of the several different New York regiments who fought near there.
23,000 killed/wounded/missing
1 day
17-19 years old.
Emancipation Proclamation 5 days later
Another large group of Confederates killed during the Antietam campaign are buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, MD.
I was just there last June with Little Bill. Solemn place. Saw the place where my cousin crossed Snavely’s Ford in the battle foghting for the Connecticut 17th. They were green, made a decent advance till they got pushed back. My cousin died in Plymouth North Carolina a year before the war ended when the 17th got routed by Johnny Reb that day. He died of wounds a day or two later and is laid to rest in Plymouth.
“Another large group of Confederates killed during the Antietam campaign are buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown, MD”
......I’ll have to look that one up next time I’m in the area...anyone in the Frederick vicinity might also be interested in the Civil War Museum of Medicine located there.
I always wondered why Lincoln only "freed" the slaves in the 10 Confederate states, but not the Union states.
ping
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