Bruce,

To muddy the water even more, I first heard this story from a nurse at the nursing home in Wellsville. According to local legend, as told by her, these soldiers were killed somewhere else and transported by rail because the folks where they were killed wouldn't allow them to be buried there. That would seem to exclude confederates since the railroad was controlled by the feds from very early in the war, BUT, if they were federal soldiers it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have been moved to a national cemetery post war. That is why I supposed they might have been killed locally by the militia. By the same token, we know these local legends sometimes have a grain of truth to them. It was early last summer when I looked at the stone and I think it was quite old.