LOST SOLDIER by Gretta Saunders, [email protected]

No one in my husband's family, at the beginning of our ancestral research in 1997, knew the name of his great-great-grandfather. It was told over the years that this ancestor had gone off to the Civil War and had never come home. No one knew what happened to him. The great-grandfather related that he had followed his father a little way down the road when he left for war, and his father brought him back home on his shoulder before going on to war.

In our search, we found his name on a marriage certificate along with the names of his wife and her parents. In the census of 1850, Montgomery County, North Carolina, we found him with the wrong initial. In searching the Civil War cemeteries, we contacted the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, as his military record stated he had died in a Richmond hospital (Fort Winder). We were told by an official here that there was no James Zimriah SAUNDERS there and that most of the graves were unmarked.

In October 1998, we stopped by the Hollywood Cemetery on our way back from a tour of New England. True, the majority of the graves were not marked, but in the administration building there was a ledger of many Civil War soldiers and the exact location of their graves. The ledger clearly marks the locations. This may be helpful to anyone else looking for "unmarked graves." Also, he was listed as a Louisiana soldier. With a name like James Zimriah SAUNDERS, we felt it would be easy to prove he was actually from North Carolina. Andrew Booth's listing of Civil War soldiers revealed that there was no soldier by this name in any Louisiana regiment.

We had found our soldier, who lay in an unmarked grave for 135 years. We have arranged to have a marker placed on his grave through the Veteran's Administration. The fee for this is $100. I hope this experience will help others.