The Louisiana in the Civil War Message Board - Archive

Re: Yankee Burials
In Response To: Yankee Burials ()

Bill,

Probably the only chance you'll have to get any kind of identity on these soldiers is from a set of books published by the Quartermaster General's Office in the late 1860s - early 1870s, entitled "Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defence of the American Union." They are an account of all the bodies that were recovered after the War and moved to National Cemeteries. There are at least 27 volumes. The good news is, they're out in reprint. Don't know if LSU has them, but there is a set up in Alexandria at the Geneaological and Historical Library there. The bad news is, Port Hudson is not in just one volume. There are several volumes with Port Hudson burials in them. (Later volumes frequently updated earlier published volumes, as more remains were recovered.) You probably won't find names to go with your site, but if you're lucky, you could get a real good description of the original gravesite, and maybe some initials or other identifiers, if that site had anything carved on a headboard or nearby tree, or whatever. Some of the descriptions are incredibly detailed, others are very vague. (Vague being something like "15 bodies from near Port Hudson", and detailed being something like "3 bodies found 270 feet SSW of Johnson's barn beneath a large maple tree with the slogan 'The Union Forever' and the initials HW and PLT carved in it.") Good luck.

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