Civil War veteran is finally getting a headstone

star ledger ^ | 10.18.08 | MaryAnn Spoto

[Coleus]

Time nearly forgot Lorenzo Reynolds. Buried in a grave with no marker, Reynolds spent nearly a century in anonymity in Historic Mount Prospect Cemetery in Neptune. That changes today as veterans groups and descendants gather at the Civil War veteran's grave to unveil a 3-foot-tall white marble headstone. "It honors him. He was a young single man, and he went and fought in a terrible, terrible war," said Mary Ellen McNamara of Allenhurst, Reynolds' great-great niece. McNamara, 66, said she doesn't know why Reynolds didn't have a grave marker. Perhaps his family couldn't afford one. Maybe that task fell through the cracks.Whatever the reason, the local American Legion arranged for Reynolds to get his headstone through the U.S. Department of Veterans.

James Rich, spokesman for the National Cemetery Administration, said the Department of Veterans Affairs provides about 5,000 headstones and markers for the graves of pre-World War I veterans annually. The majority of those are to replace illegible or broken markers, but some are for burial sites never marked. Reynolds' marker has the symbol of a shield dug out of the marble, a style that would have been used 150 years ago, Rich said.

"We try to replace it as authentically as possible, mimicking the style of that time," he said. Researching her family's history since 1987, McNamara learned of Reynolds' Civil War connection almost a decade ago and traced his grave to Mount Prospect, which opened in 1881. At 26, Reynolds volunteered for the Union Army in 1864 after President Lincoln put out a call for more troops. He was a private in Company A, 11th New Jersey Infantry Regiment, known as the Jerseymen, which fought in nearly a dozen battles in and around Virginia, including Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox,

[Coleus]

Civil War veteran Lorenzo Reynolds will be honored today with a 3-foot-tall marble headstone at the Historic Mount Prospect Cemetery in Neptune. Standing in front of the headstone are, from left, historian Gary Crawford, Reynolds' great-great grandniece MaryEllen McNamara, his great-grandnephew John McNamara and Peter Berghold, 2nd vice commander of America Legion Post 346 in Neptune.

[2banana]

Now his descendants will pay reparations for going to war and freeing the slaves...rather ironic...

[PAR35]

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