From John Hennessy: We repost this (originally from 2010) in advance of our walk through the National Cemetery tonight, for History at Sunset. It is a vivid example of the conundrums we often face.
The annual illumination of the National Cemetery–one candle for each of the 15,000 men buried there.
On September 30, 1865, a private of the 11th Connecticut Infantry died in Fredericksburg. The man and his regiment were in town as part of the post-war occupation force. He died not from violence, but apparently from illness. His body was, it seems, buried in the yard of the Mary Washington House on Charles Street. Some sort of marker must have been put over the grave, for when Union soldiers arrived a year or more later to collect the remains of Union dead from the town and battlefield, they recorded finding the body of Charles Fox, Company H, 11th Connecticut.
The Mary Washington House on Charles Street, where Charles Fuchs was apparently initially buried.
The body, like more than 15,000 others, was removed to the new National Cemetery on Willis Hill. At first a temporary wooden maker was put over the grave. We do not know how that marker was inscribed, but at least by the time a permanent marker was put in place (if not when the wooden marker was put in), someone realized that the man buried there was not named Fox. Perhaps it was an error in transcription somewhere along the line; perhaps it was an error by a careless engraver. In any event, the permanent stone over the grave records not the name Charles Fox, but rather this: Continue reading
Mysteries & Conundrums 