ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
UNION AND CONFEDERATE soldiers lie in unmarked graves by the thousand. Some, however, are finally getting gravestones.
Many of the soldiers in the Civil War died far from home, and their bodies were buried in unmarked graves. Now, 130 years later, some of them who were laid to rest anonymously are finally getting headstones.
During the past two years, about 120 marble grave markers for Confederate dead have been erected in the city's Hollywood Cemetery, according to Cheryl Snyder, the cemetery's executive secretary. About 18,000 Confederate soldiers are buried in Hollywood.
The headstones list the name, rank, unit and death date of the soldier.
The reason for the recent surge in interest to mark the graves is unclear, although the head of the United Daughters of the Confederacy said its members are encouraged to carry out such work.
``Our members are doing it all the time,'' said Margaret Palmer of Rock Hill, S.C., president-general of the UDC.
The headstones are provided free by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under a program begun in 1973. The cost to the government for each stone, including transportation, is about $150.
Hollywood charges $100 for each headstone foundation.
Overall, about 300,000 Union dead and 25,000 Confederates are buried in the 115 national cemeteries in the country. More than half of those fall in the ``unknown'' category.
``A big part of the reason [for so many unknowns] was that there was no standard headstone marker program in existence then,'' said Bill Jayne, a spokesman for the national cemetery system.
He said wooden markers that frequently were used for soldiers' graves in the 1800s rapidly deteriorated.
The veterans department has a one-page application form for people who want to mark the grave of a soldier, or to replace a headstone that has worn away.
``The national archives will provide the family with records,'' said Billie Crenshaw, who oversees the Richmond National Cemetery.
Richmond National has 5,700 ``unknown'' Union soldiers buried there. Many died in Confederate prisons during the war and were buried without ceremony, Crenshaw said. But if family members can't determine from records where their ancestor is buried, they are still eligible to erect a headstone in the cemetery's memorial section, she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Billie Crenshaw, who oversees Richmond Nationalby CNBCemetery, stands at the grave of a Union soldier. Some 5,700 federal
troops lie in unmarked graves in the cemetery.