Remembering the dead: Man documents Civil War vets
More than 100 Civil War veterans buried alongside each other in Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery dodged bullets in battles like Gettysburg and Antietam. Some died from wartime wounds. Many more fell to disease. Others lived long lives in what was then the boomtown of Wilmington.
They all have stories — tales Brandywine Hundred resident Ken Finlayson thinks people should hear.
As Delaware remembers its fallen war heroes on Memorial Day, Finlayson has spent hundreds of hours making sure the lives of long-dead Civil War veterans buried in the "Soldiers' Section" of the historic cemetery on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington are not forgotten.
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He was in the cemetery two years ago rededicating a headstone for one of the Union dead when his group noticed how many of the weathered grave markers had become illegible or destroyed through the last century.
"There were so many you couldn't read, I thought someone has to do something about that," said Finlayson, who is an officer for a local chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The Sons group has stewardship of that portion of the cemetery, and Finlayson, who is a U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran, said war history and genealogy "floats his boat." So he set out to map the Civil War veterans buried in Soldiers' Section and write biographies of each of the men.
During the war, Wilmington was a major railroad stop for soldiers being transported north for medical treatment.
"Many times, they would show up in Wilmington dead," Finlayson said.
Seeing a need for emergency and indigent burials, a newly formed Delaware State Association of Sick and Wounded Soldiers negotiated space in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in fall of 1862.
Josiah Hand and Oliver Hatch were the first men to occupy the Soldier's Section of the cemetery. The two arrived by train in Wilmington along with some 400 soldiers, who were housed at a defunct carriage factory building at Market and Water streets.
Both were New Yorkers who had fought in the Battle of Antietam and died of typhoid fever shortly after arriving. They were escorted by the 4th Delaware Regiment detachment to the cemetery for burial in November of 1862.
During the war, there were 39 soldiers buried in the section. Some died from war wounds. Most died from chronic diarrhea, typhoid fever or some other illness.
Because many died on their way elsewhere, only half buried in the section during the war were from Delaware regiments.
In all, 124 veterans were buried in the section between 1862 and 1925. Finlayson said about a third of the tombstones are either illegible or missing.
So in documenting their life, Finlayson's first task was figuring out who was buried where — a job made more difficult by the reorganization of the Solders' Section in the '60s.
In 1967, each of the veterans in the section was disinterred and moved about 100 feet further into the cemetery to make way for the widening of Delaware Avenue as part of the construction of I-95. About 30 of the plots were once where the right lane of Delaware Avenue runs today, Finlayson said.
"When you drive up this street here, there are 30-something soldiers with a great story who lived here and had a story to tell you couldn't believe," Finlayson said pointing to Delaware Avenue. "And you drive right over their old graves."
The contractor who moved the graves didn't keep notes so the reorganization made identifying those buried under illegible or broken tombstones more difficult. Cemetery officials provided a section map of the cemetery that showed who was buried where before the reorganization.
"It was a real puzzle," said Don Callender, Finlayson's friend who helped in the project.
Finlayson used the old map, an incomplete key made during the reorganization as well as death records to figure out the logistics of the move.
"Eventually, you could see the process and map it out from there," Finlayson said.
That allowed him to map out most of the roster of who was buried in the cemetery. Finlayson's research was able to identify all but four of the men buried in the cemetery.
"I could put some money on who they are, but as a researcher, you can't guess," Finlayson said.
Unsatisfied with mapping a burial plot and death date, Finlayson also spent some 600 hours writing biographies of each of the veterans in the cemetery. He used records from defunct hospitals, military documents, death records, a Wilmington business registry, census information and other resources.
"The fought at places at Antietam, suffered two to three years in the hot sun with these wool uniforms on, walked and walked and walked, 30 to 40 miles a day, and then they get shot at," Finlayson said. "There were tragedies, drunks, wounds and great stories."
Most of the biographies at the very least document a birth date, death date and military history. Many go into great detail about their wartime service, family history and life in Wilmington after the war.
Some tell stories of soldiers who returned to families and jobs in Wilmington. Others are tragedies.
Like the story of Benjamin Redheffer, a private in the 91st Pennsylvania Infantry who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg before re-enlisting.
On May 2, 1864, Redheffer, a tall man for the time, had his feet propped outside the window of a train carrying him north to Philadelphia when his legs caught a bridge support near Stanton. He was ripped from the train and died instantly.
"He presented a horrid spectacle," read a newspaper report about Redheffer's death in the Delaware State Journal and Statesman.
Finlayson said the biographies showed him how Wilmington was an industrial center where many veterans came to work after the war. Many of the biographies document where these veterans lived.
"You had the Brandywine Mills, Bancroft Mills, shipbuilding down on the Christina (River), all the railroad cars being built down on the east side of Wilmington," Finlayson said. "It was huge."
The city, especially the east side, was home to many of the veterans buried in the section. For him, driving through Wilmington is a trip back in time when he sees something like an empty parking lot where one of the veterans lived or died.
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Like the story of Robert McCullough, a private in the 1st Delaware Infantry who survived being shot in the hip and head at Antietam.
While on furlough in Feb. 1864, he and a friend were at a home on Church and Seventh streets in Wilmington "helping themselves to liquor," according to records of the military hearing Finlayson uncovered.
Eventually they "took possession of the house" and were "kicking up a row and breaking up furniture" when military authorities were called, military records state.
McCullough, who had previously been arrested for not reporting to duty before re-enlisting, was asked for his military papers, which he said were at his parents' home a short walk away.
As the military guards were escorting him back to the home, he tried to flee, was shot in the back and died. He died face down on the pavement at Eighth and Locust streets. The scene drew hundreds as McCullough bled out.
"He seemed like a bad boy, but he was shot in the head and hip in battle. That is called (post-traumatic stress disorder) nowadays, and he was stone drunk," Finlayson said. "God bless him. Nobody was here to help the boy."
Today, the place where McCullough died is a parking lot.
"We still walk where they walk. They were here, living as we are living, talking about politics, talking about making a living, having fun with their neighbors," Finlayson said. "This is their home. We should respect that, and we should know it so when we walk through there, it helps us to remember that we have a contribution also."
Delaware County, Pennsylvania-resident Bill Redheffer is a descendant of Benjamin Redheffer. He said people need to hear the veterans' history to appreciate what they have now.
"People today don't know how those who they never knew made sacrifices that impact them. You look at other countries that have been torn apart by civil wars; some have had many civil wars," Bill Redheffer said. "You get an appreciation for where we are today and how we got here if we remember what these people went through."
While Finlayson's report meticulously documents those buried in the section, some mysteries remain. There are records of 17 veterans buried in the section that are no longer accounted for.
Finlayson said he believes they were reinterred beside their fellow veterans, though no headstones mark their resting place. He said it is possible the relatives of some of the dead had them reinterred elsewhere during the move.
Finlayson's 100-plus-page report will be archived with the Delaware Historical Society.
He's currently working on a similar report for Riverview Cemetery off North Market Street in Wilmington and Lombardy Cemetery off U.S. 202 in Brandywine Hundred. He said the group is also pondering which veteran to rename the Soldiers Section after.
"The history here is very, very rich with these Civil War veterans," Finlayson said. "It is exciting to be able to honor them again by knowing who they were and what they did."
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@
IF YOU GO
WHAT: A parade will mark Wilmington’s 150th consecutive observance of Memorial Day and take place Tuesday. The parade is on Tuesday to mark the traditional, May 30,celebration of Memorial Day.
WHEN: The parade begins at 6 p.m.
WHERE: The march will begin at Woodlawn and Delaware avenues. It will go down Delaware Avenue to the Civil War monument at Broom Street.