Section 5C
While conducting genealogical research at Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee, I stumbled upon an otherwise nondescript group of veteran’s headstones. Closer inspection revealed that the stones belonged to Civil War veterans. It also revealed that some of the headstones were “faux” military headstones – they were designed to look like a veteran’s headstone, but were, in fact, privately manufactured and inscribed. Private stones were ordered, because over the years, the cemetery had lost records for many of the burials – or never had adequate records in the first place. When replaced stones were ordered in the 1950s, many of the requests were rejected because the Army could not link the requests to individual Civil War veterans.
To summarize, the identities of many of the 24 Civil War veterans were lost or misidentified – although clues to their true identity exist. I conducted an exhaustive search for information about these 24 men. In the end, I was able to identify 23 of the 24 veterans. I was also able to show that at least two (2) headstones identified veterans who were not buried in Section 5C. Interestingly, I also identified two (2) Civil War veterans who were obstensibly buried in Section 5C, but do not have a headstone.
My findings were published in “Until the Last Whisper”.