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Re: 21st Louisiana Infantry
In Response To: Re: 21st Louisiana Infantry ()

Dave wrote: >>>He was killed in action while serving with the 21st Mississippi at Cold Harbor, VA in 1864. Although Cold Harbor is considered a victory by Lee, Grant occupied the field after the battle. Union dead were buried in what would become a national cemetery, but the Confederate dead were not interred there. He was either buried someplace else by local civilians there in VA,(still working on that angle) or the family had the body returned home.<<<

It is my understanding that the Confederate dead at Cold Harbor (1864) were interred near where they fell and that these remains were removed after the war to Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. The Cold Harbor National Cemetery was established in 1866. Hollywood Cemetery is another possibility, but Oakwood was much nearer to Cold Harbor. There are thousands of unknown Confederate dead interrred in Oakwood, many of them recovered from surrounding battlefields and reburied there after the war.

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond has the by-laws and minutes of the Oakwood [Cemetery] Memorial Association from April 23, 1866 thourgh June 1899. These minutes should confirm whether the Confederate remains buried near Cold Harbor were reinterred in nearby Oakwood. http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer

Also see: http://members.aol.com/OakwoodCemetery/history.html

Unless a battlefield grave was carefully marked, it would not have been possible for members to find and recover the remains of loved ones after the war. And by 1864, bodies were certainly not being shipped home via Confederate railroads!

Keep us posted on what you learn!

Hugh Simmons

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