Friday, September 2, 2011

Plaque Of Graves At Chalmette Battefield

This photo was taken pre-Hurricane Katrina.  The last time we were New Orleans (site of the Chalmette Battlefield) the National Cemetery was still closed for repairs.


Four Veterans of the War of 1812 were re-interred here.  Only the Unknown veteran fought at the Battle of New Orleans.  He died on his way home to Tennessee after the war.

Unknown Veteran*   Section 23, Grave No. 12,540
J. A. Franks  Section 107, Grave No. 8,795
Major Nathaniel Wells   Section 46A, Grave No. 13,150
Captain Stephen R. Proctor  Section 135, Grave No. 11,094
 
*From History of Pike County, Mississippi:


While doing research for his book he (Luke W. Conerly) discovered that an Unknown Soldier from the War of 1812 had been buried in Pike County.  In 1908 he corresponded with the War Department about the Unknown Soldier from Tennessee with General Carroll's Division that was buried about 11 miles east of Magnolia near the banks of Love's Creek [Mississippi] on the Brumfield family property.  The family there had maintained the grave about 93 years marking it with a slab of yellow pine. The US government funded the remains to be exhumed and relocated to the Chalmette Cemetery.  Luke and Superintendent O'Shea of the Chalmette Cemetery were led to the grave by Henry S. Brumfield a grandson of the original owner of the Brumfield plantation.  The pine slab marking the soldiers grave had rotted and the inscription of the name could not be identified.  Two brass buttons were found with the remains and fragments of a blue uniform.  The remains were taken by train to the Chalmette Cemetery and buried with military honors.  Upon his tomb is engraved "Unknown Soldier U.S.A. War of 1812."


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