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Re: The Forgotten Cemetery

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 18, 2003

"Civil War veterans buried in forgotten cemetery

RUSS OLIVO, Staff writer


WOONSOCKET -- Members of the Col. Zenas A. Bliss Sons of Union Veterans Camp 12 say they’re on a mission to restore some dignity and glory to the old St. James Cemetery off Logee Street, a neglected cemetery where the state’s first Civil War veteran and 13 others are buried.

Henry C. Davis died in Washington, D.C. of dysentery in 1861, according to Mike Lannigan of West Warwick. A private in Company K of the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers, Davis was just 17 years old when he died.

Another of the St. James soldier burials, Richard Olney Stratford, 34, died of starvation in December 1864 as a prisoner of war in the Florence Prison in South Carolina, said Lannigan. Stratford fought with Company E of the 1st Connecticut Infantry.

The Sons of Union Veterans’ principal duty is to mark the gravesites of Civil War veterans throughout the state with American flags each Memorial Day, according to Steve Hackett of Glocester, past commander. Last year members visited 172 cemeteries in the Ocean State, flagging 1,340 graves.

"We don’t want them to be forgotten," said Hackett.
The other Civil War veterans buried in the wooded parcel are:

- J.E. Ballou of Company D, 5th RI Heavy Artillery
- Henry Waterman Bulman, Company E, 1st RI Infantry
- George H. Curtis, Company K, 18th Connecticut Infantry
- Cpl. Henry Eddy, Company D, 5th RI Heavy Artillery
- Daniel Farrar, Company B, 3rd RI Heavy Artillery
- Richard Green, Company G, 9th RI Infantry
- William Halliwell, Company B, 3rd RI Heavy Artillery
- Lt. William D. Jones, Company C, 8th New Hampshire Volunteers (He was wounded twice at Port Hudson, La., on May 27, 1863).
- Capt. Erastus Joslin, Company B, 4th RI Infantry
- Nathan G. LaSelle (no unit information available)
- William Merchant, Company K, 1st RI Infantry
- H.G. Miller, Company A, 90th New York Infantry

Though some were associated with out-of-state fighting groups, all of the soldiers are believed to have lived in the area, according to Lannigan.
"For going to another state, you got an additional bonus," said Lannigan. "If you signed up you would get more money if you went to a regiment in another state."

A history buff, Lannigan was visiting the North Burial Ground in Providence in May 2002 when he discovered a broken headstone on the grave of a Civil War veteran. His efforts to find a way to repair the marker led him to the Sons of Union Veterans, which he later joined. The group meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the Greenville Public Library, 573 Putnam Pike, Smithfield at 6:30 p.m.

©The Call 2003

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