Cemeteries change over time, as does ownership of the cemetery. Residents of Reno, NV learned this recently when they saw a public notice posted on the small Hillside Cemetery near the University of Nevada, Reno advising them of plans to disinter and move the remains in over a thousand graves. Civil War soldiers are among those, as are Reno residents of all walks of life who died in the early 1900s. Where is your soldier buried? Is he targeted for disinterment? How would you even know? What would you - could you - do if you found out? Is it necessarily a bad thing? You can read more about this specific case online. I found one local TV station's (NBC News4) article (text plus video) dated August 29, 2016 on their site. I found out about it in the Arizona Republic, which ran an Associated Press piece in the Sunday paper on September 25. (I'm not providing a link because it does not turn up in a search of their online news site.) The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) has a committee charged with finding soldiers' graves and creating and maintaining a database. The National Graves Registration Database is always looking for new information about burial locations and ordinary folk may sign on as contributors. You need not be an SUVCW member. Perhaps you live near an old cemetery and can look for soldiers' graves there and enter their information. Maybe you have a Civil War ancestor and would like his final resting place to be known. I've entered my 3rd MA Heavy Artillery ancestors into the database; it wasn't difficult. You can do this for your soldier, too!
In the "Soldiers of the Regiment" section above, you will see under Co. F the name John G. Gammons, and the notation that he was a 27-year-old clergyman from Westport (near New Bedford.) He left the artillery business behind in January 1865 as a sergeant, when he was promoted to lieutenant. The source for this section, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, Vol. 5 (Norwood: Adjutant General, 1932), gives two other units where he served but no dates. Rev. Gammons went on to earn a Ph.D., teach at a military school, and serve as a pastor, president of corporations, and also authored some local histories. He also wrote a book about one of his units, the 3rd MA Volunteer Militia, and included a photo of himself and some more personal information. He was not in the pictures on this web site, though, which is unfortunate because it would have been a nice challenge to look for him and to see what sort of uniform he wore, assuming he served in some kind of clergy role. His book was digitized by the New York Public Libraries and can be downloaded from the Internet Archive and has lots of details about the men in this regiment and 17 photos. A dozen or so men from the 3rd MA Heavy Artillery also served in the 3rd MA Vols, like Rev. Gammons, but unfortunately their images are not among the photographs. However, you might find some personal information about your ancestor, including occupation, which is always useful for genealogy. The book is The Third Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Militia in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1863 (Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1906.)
Some of the soldiers in Co. F did not live long after the war, generally due to disease. If I found a death record on the NEHGS web site I have changed the color of his name in the "Soldiers of the Regiment" section to black, and indicated whether there is a findagrave listing for him. If he is listed as "single" I assume he left no heirs.
One of the images downloadable from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs section online is an early picture of a ring of gravestones, labeled "Soldiers Cemetery, near Fort Stevens, Brightwood, D.C., August 1865." Brightwood is the neighborhood within Washington, D. C. and the cemetery is today called "Battleground National Cemetery." There are about 35 gravestones visible in the photo but reportedly 40 or 41 soldiers who died at the Battle of Ft. Stevens were buried there, as were some members of the caretaker's family, later. It is one of the nation's smallest national cemeteries and was personally dedicated by President Lincoln, who was at the battle. If you want to read the inscriptions or see any of the details in these photos up close, be sure to download the highest-density TIFF version. The names visible in this picture are: A. Ashbough, Co. H, 61st PA; J. Dolan, Co. D., 2d MA; Lt. W. B. McLaughlin, Co. B, 61st PA; A. Manning, Co. H., 77th NY; --- Owen, ---- NY; A. Mosier, Co. C, 22nd NY; and A. Matott--, Co. G, 77th NY. The call number for this photo is LC-B817-7682. Incidentally, if you would like to honor these soldiers (or others) at the National Remembrance Ceremony each December, you can purchase a wreath for a grave through the Wreaths Across America website.
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AuthorThe author is a historian with a Ph.D. in US history and a love for genealogy and old photos. Archives
August 2018
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