I would like to add that not all Union vets were from northern states. I have a paternal uncle named Phillip Cole who served in the 1st Battalion Louisiana Cavalry Scouts, a Union unit. Dr. Art Bergeron left us a fine book about them. He and Steve Mayeux helped me figure out my Cole family's service to the Union. Several Cole cousins also served. Why they served I don't know. Just as I don't "know" the personal reasons my Confederate ancestors served. I do know my uncle Phillip Cole was captured and died as a P.O.W. at Camp Ford Texas. His body was later exhumed and is now resting at the National Cemetery in Alexandria.

Should I assume he served the union for sinister purposes? Of course not. Not anymore than I can assume my ancestors who served in Home Guard units did so for purely righteous reasons. That leaves me with a dead uncle I never knew but who died in the service of his country. I'm proud of that fact and am not ashamed of it or him for any reason.

Jim, I'm not sure what was meant by the poem in another post but I do have a cousin buried in France. Frank Cheek died on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was in the 116 Battalion of the 29th Infantry. They were the first to hit the beach and while I can't recall exact figures I believe it was somewhere in excess of 800 casualties out of the slightly more than 1100 that hit the beach. Frank Cheek's grave is well maintained and he also has a memorial marker next to his family at Hicks, Louisiana. However, the subject of "bringing him home" was occasionally discussed by the family. I don't know where the govt. stood on that issue but I do remember my Mom telling me she wished often to visit his grave. (My grandmother raised him so he and Mom were more like brother and sister). I myself feel he should remain where he is. On sacred ground with his comrades and friends who also gave that last full measure. Others might feel differently.

I seem to recall this issue came up after reconstruction but was put aside by (IIRC) McKinley when he made the promise that Confederate graves on northern soil would be honored and we would be entrusted with maintaining the graves of the Union vets down here. Now, for what I'm about to say I may get heat from my reb cousins but the truth is that while the north has failed to fully keep that promise we in the south haven't exactly wore ourselves out remembering the Union dead here.

We need to quit worrying about flags and start remembering the men (and women) of that most tragic time. Sadly it is my experience you can draw a crowd to a "Flaggin" but you can't hardly find anybody willing to take a shovel, axe and weed-eater to clean up a cemetery or go clean a headstone unless the local newspaper is there to cover it.

I'm sorry for the long post but I suspect everyone will survive reading it. I hope nobody takes offense as that is not my intent.