Hello John:

Contact me by e-mail at HeyHugh@rhsresearch.org.

Based upon what I currently know, I would speculate that 2nd Lieutenant Henry D. Simmons' remains were recovered from the field where he fell after the war and reinterred in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. You should contact Hollywood Cemetery and see if they have his name listed among the Gettysburg dead. Gregory A. Coco provided considerable details about this post-war recovery effort in his book entitled "Wasted Valor: the Confederate Dead at Gettysburg" (Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1990). Don't be put off by the title, the research information contained in the book is worth the read.

My SIMMONS family settled in what is now Pike County, Mississippi when Mississippi was still a territory and you needed a passport to get in. They moved to Caldwell Parish, Louisiana circa 1860 just before the war began and four brothers served in Company B, 31st Louisiana Infantry. Two, including my namesake, died of disease in the swamps of northeastern Louisiana within six months of enrolling. My great grandfather and his remaining brother were captured and paroled at Vicksburg in July 1863 and survived the war.

Hugh Simmons
Fort Delaware Society
12th Louisiana Infantry