The Remains Of 28 Civil War Veterans Were Found At A Seattle Funeral Home
The cremated remains of 28 Civil War veterans were recently discovered in storage facilities at a funeral home and cemetery in Seattle, Washington.
The copper and cardboard urns have been sitting on dusty shelves for decades, awaiting burial. Most of the veterans were finally given a military burial at Washington State’s Tahoma National Cemetery in August.
The urns were all labeled with the soldiers’ names, but there was nothing to connect them to the Civil War.
Volunteers with the Missing in America Project (MIAP), a non-profit organization that tracks down the unclaimed remains of veterans, led the effort to uncover the stories of the deceased.
“It’s amazing that they were still there, and we found them,” said Tom Keating, the organization’s Washington state coordinator. “It’s something long overdue. These people have been waiting for a long time for a burial.”
The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history. During the conflict, 600,000 soldiers lost their lives.
It is unclear how these remains ended up in the funeral home and why they were not claimed. However, many veterans moved across the country when the war was over and settled in Seattle.
Genealogical research was carried out on the remains of these 28 individuals, which revealed a Civil War background for each of them. The volunteers concluded that all the soldiers had fought for the Union army.
One soldier was a survivor of a notorious Confederate prison in Georgia known as Andersonville. Others had fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.
imagoDens – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only – pictured above is a civil war cannon
One even deserted the Confederate Army to join the Union forces. Another survived being shot due to his pocket watch, which he kept until he died.
MIAP volunteers were not able to locate any living relatives, so most of the men were interred at Tahoma National Cemetery with full military honors.
The ceremony included the U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment dressed in Union uniforms who fired musket volleys, and the crowd sang the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Each veteran’s name and unit were called out before their remains were brought forth, and stories were shared about each individual.
While most of the veterans were buried at Tahoma National Cemetery, others will be interred at Washington State Veterans Cemetery. In addition, a Navy veteran will be buried at sea.
Several more veterans were sent to New England, where family ties were found. One of these soldiers was named Byron Johnson.
He was born in 1844 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and was just 17 years old when the Civil War broke out.
He served as a hospital steward for the Union Army. After the war, he moved out West and died in Seattle in 1913.
Johnson’s remains were sent to Pawtucket City Hall. He was laid to rest with military honors at a family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.
“It’s the best thing we can do for a veteran,” said Bruce Frail, a state coordinator for the MIAP. “The feeling you get when you honor somebody in that way, it’s indescribable.”
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