Notes to a widow: 'No possible way' to find N.Y. soldier's body

Grave markers for unknown soldiers at Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery

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What's most striking at Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery are the rows of small, square granite blocks. Two numbers are carved into the top of each grave marker. The first set of figures is the plot number, the second the number of unknown Union soldiers buried at the grave.

8. 4. 6. 7. 12 ...

Mind-numbing, awful numbers.

After the war, the Federal government conducted a massive effort to disinter bodies of Union soldiers from temporary graves on battlefields and elsewhere and re-bury them in national cemeteries. It had plenty of work in Fredericksburg and the surrounding area, where thousands died in battles fought at Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse and elsewhere.

Of the 15,243 Union soldiers buried in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 12,770 are unknown. Smith Davis, a private in the 65th New York, may be among them. He enlisted in New York City on Sept. 24, 1861. 

        Site of church in New York City where Smith Davis was married on Feb . 20, 1864.
                The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul was built on the site in 1897.
                                                                     (Google Street View)

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After his first term of service had expired, Davis re-enlisted in Brandy Station, Va., the day after Christmas 1863. Apparently while on furlough, he married Mary Jane McLoughlin at the Third Reformed Presbyterian Church at 303 West 22nd Street in Manhattan on Feb. 20, 1864.  Nearly three months later, on May 12, 1864, Davis was killed at Spotsylvania Courthouse, shot through the head. The immigrant from Ireland was 32.

Shortly after her husband's death, Mary Jane applied for a widow's pension, using two condolence letters from men in the 65th New York (1st U.S. Chasseurs) as evidence of his demise. Writing in response to an inquiry from Mary Jane about her husband, 65th New York Chaplain Peter H. Burghardt and Sergeant James Grogan offered sympathy but no hope the soldier's remains could be recovered. (Complete transcriptions below.)

"He was I am told buried upon the field by his comrades," Burghardt wrote from Cold Harbor, Va.,  in June 1864, "and in our turning to the left of the Rebel Army his grave was left in the Rebel lines, and is now where there is no possible way of getting to it."

Davis' body, added the chaplain, was seen by another soldier,  who thought "it was robbed of all its effects and nothing [was] left upon his person."

In the heat of battle, Grogan recalled seeing Davis to his front, kneeling and firing at the enemy. "I spoke to him to come back,"  the sergeant wrote to Mrs. Davis on June 11, 1864, "as I could not fire while he stayed where he was. He either did not hear me or did not mind. He was killed inside of an hour afterwards."

Regarding the recovery of Davis' body, Grogan was blunt: "It would be an impossibility."

Mary Jane's pension claim was approved. At the time of her death on July 17, 1904, she was receiving $12 a month. Mary Jane never re-married.

CHAPLAIN PETER H. BURGHARDT'S LETTER TO O'BRIEN'S WIFE

National Archives via fold3.com

Cold Harbor, Fri., June 1864

Mrs. Mary J. Davis

Dear Madam

Yours of the 21^st inst. has just been received and I hasten to reply. Your noble and brave husband fell on 12^th inst. when heroically urging on his comrades, struck in the head by the fatal bullet and expired instantly. He was I am told buried upon the field by his comrades, and in our turning to the left of the Rebel Army his grave was left in the Rebel lines, and is now where there is no possible way of getting to it, if indeed it can be found. I have seen M. Short who was with him when he fell. He thinks that his body was in the Rebel lines until it was robbed of all its effects and nothing [was] left upon his person. But while you are made to grieve his loss, you can console yourself that his noble soul is not in that decaying body but has gone to that world where you may follow him at least in a few short years. I knew him well and esteemed him very highly and can sympathize with you in this the hour of your great grief and deep affliction ...

National Archives via fold3.com

... He has fallen a noble sacrifice for the country of his adoption. I hope a kind providence will be your unfailing support and in the midst of your tears that you may be comforted by him who has promised his aid in the hour of trial, and a father to the fatherless, and the widow’s God.

The men you name in your letter are now in line of battle, where I cannot see them, but I know very well that for the present it would be wholly impracticable to get any of the bodies that were buried at what is called the Battle Field of the Po.

Expressing my deep sympathy with you, I am,

Dear Madam, respectfully yours

P.H. Burghardt

PS. We are I suppose some 15 or 20 miles from the Field of the Po. Still fighting desperately. We are making a Flank movement to the left of Lee's Army. We are about 12 miles from Richmond on the South East.

SERGEANT JAMES GROGAN'S LETTER TO O'BRIEN'S WIFE

National Archives via fold3.com

1^st U.S. Chasseurs

Near Coal Harbor, Va., June 11/64

Mrs. M. J. Davis 

Madam

Your letter of June 6 came to hand last night. Allow me to assure you that any information which I can give to the friends of my deceased comrades will always be cheerfully given, nor will anything I can do in that respect be considered other than a duty which every comrade owes to another while Providence sees fit to spare him.

Your husband Smith Davis fell on the 12^th of May at Spotsylvania. I did not see him fall. When our Regt. came up to fire, Davis was next to me, as in fact he was all day. A road broke our line so that it became necessary for the extreme right to cross the road. It being impossible to maintain a position on it, it was every man for himself. I took up a position and commenced firing. After a shot or two your husband went ahead of me, kneeled down and commenced to fire. He was almost directly in front of me. I spoke to him to come back, as I could not fire while he stayed where he was. He either did not hear me or did not mind. He was killed inside of an hour afterwards. I do not hesitate to say from the account of those men of the Regt. who saw him struck that he lost ...

National Archives via fold3.com

... all reason, not knowing what happened [to] him. I will give you my opinion in regard to recovering his body. It would be an impossibility. M. McLaughlin sent in one of his wife's letters all the information he could send. He went as soon as he heard we had peaceable possession of the ground where he fell to see and recover something belonging to him, but the burying parties had already removed him to his last resting place. We know nothing of that package being returned as it did not come to the Company.

We all regret Smith Davis as a comrade & soldier. I hope Providence in its mercy put some thought of the terrible danger his soul was in and as there is no limit to God’s mercy, let us hope his soul is at rest. Anything I can do for you will be cheerfully done. In regard to his bounty and pay, his papers will be sent in as soon as we stop long enough to make them out. Lieut. Henry Vanderweyde is our company officer. Any communication directed to him [at] Co. I will reach him.

With sincere regret to your loss, I am respectfully.

Your Obedt Servant

James Grogan.

1^st Serg, Co. I, 1^st U.S. Chasseurs

Washington D.C.

To Mrs. Mary Jane Davis

327 West 26^th St.

N.Y.

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SOURCE

-- Smith Davis pension file, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C., via fold3.com.

Numbers on granite blocks: Union unknowns in Fredericksburg

In Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery, the remains of 17 Union soldiers, all unknown, 
are buried under these markers. The second number on each marker denotes bodies in each grave.

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In life, Harvey Tucker was a farmer and blacksmith from northeastern Michigan. He had gray eyes, dark hair, a swarthy complexion and stood 5-7. Married in 1852, Tucker and his wife Lovina had four children 7 or younger by 1860.

On Sept. 10, 1862, Tucker enlisted in the Union army as a private in the 6th Michigan Cavalry, eventually rising through the ranks to corporal and then sergeant in February 1864. Surely aware by the spring of 1864 of the danger he faced as the opposing armies slugged it out near Fredericksburg, Va., Tucker was wounded through the hip during the brutal Battle of the Wilderness on May 6. Two weeks later, on his 12th wedding anniversary, he died of his wounds in an army hospital in Fredericksburg.

He was 37.

After his death, Tucker's body was placed in a coffin and buried in a soldiers' graveyard on Winchester Street. His name and rank were carved into a crude, wooden headboard. As he was laid to rest, the regimental chaplain noted, soldiers and a detachment of grave diggers uncovered their heads and stood in silence.

A post-war view of Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
The wooden markers were eventually replaced by stone markers.
(Courtesy Central Virginia Battlefields Trust)

In a massive Federal effort shortly after the war, remains of Union soldiers in the ravaged region were gathered and buried in a national cemetery completed in 1869 on Marye's Heights, a Rebel stronghold during the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. The remains of Tucker and 327 other Union soldiers buried in the graveyard on Winchester Street were among them.  The wooden headboard that once marked the Michigan sergeant's grave there likely had deteriorated or perhaps was used by fuel by local citizens. Without an ID disc or any other means to identify him, Tucker joined a long list of unknowns.

In the terraced national cemetery, graves of identified soldiers such as 6th New Hampshire Lieutenant colonel Henry Pearson are marked by rounded granite headstones. Graves of unknown soldiers are marked by small, square granite stones. The top number identifies the plot; the bottom number denotes the number of soldiers buried in the plot.

In death, Harvey Tucker became only a number.

Before the heavens opened up Wednesday morning, I shot photographs of  markers of  the unknowns. There was no shortage of subject matter. Of the 15,243 Union soldiers buried in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 12,770 are unknown.

Thousands of Harvey Tuckers. 

Four soldiers' remains are buried in Plot No. 1690

Six are buried in Plot No. 3626.

Seven are buried in Plot No. 1687.

Eight are buried under Plot No. 3900.

In the immediate area of Pearson's grave, nearly all the soldiers are unknown.

Walk the grounds of the cemetery someday. It will open your eyes.

Remains of 43 unknown Union soldiers are buried under these 12 markers.

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SOURCES:

-- 1860 U.S. census.
-- Harvey Tucker's widow's pension file via fold3.com National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.
---Harrison, Noel G., Military Images Magazine, "Victims and Survivors: New Perspectives on Fredericksburg's May 1864 Photographs," November-December 1998.

6th New Hampshire officer Henry Pearson 'returns' to his grave

On a muggy spring morning, I returned to Henry Pearson's grave with a war-time tintype of him.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

 Henry Pearson is buried under Grave No. 4103 at Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery.

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Sometime during the Civil War, maybe shortly after he joined in the Union army, Henry Pearson posed in a studio for a tintype photograph. Grasping a long sword, the boyish-looking soldier with neatly combed hair stood proudly in his officer's uniform.

Perhaps the image was meant as a keepsake for his parents, a girlfriend or other loved ones. Somehow the photograph left the family, passing from Civil War collector to who-knows-where to auction house to another collector ... until it ended up with me. I bought it for a small price on eBay several weeks ago with the hope of finding out much more about Pearson.

Sadly, Henry did not survive the war. A lieutenant colonel in the 6th New Hampshire, the 24-year-old officer was mortally wounded at North Anna River in Virginia on May 26, 1864. Pearson's body was placed by comrades in a large, wooden box found at a nearby abandoned residence and hastily buried, the soldier's gravesite marked with his name on a piece of a bread box. Then "... we left him alone," another officer noted, "in his glory."

After the war, Pearson's remains were recovered and reburied in the national cemetery in Fredericksburg, Va. -- one of more than 15,000 Union soldiers buried in the beautiful grounds on Marye's Heights. This morning, the image of Henry returned for a visit to Pearson's final resting place, a small way to honor a young man who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Pearson, 24, was mortally wounded at North Anna River on May 26, 1864.

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