West Virginia shortly after the war issued some medals for their soldiers who served faithfully during the war.

For various reasons some soldiers were never able to receive their medals and today thousands of unclaimed medals remain unclaimed by rightful descendants.

I located one such soldier and have now been able to locate the proper descendants through a knowledgeable genealogist in West Virginia.

The family never knew really what happened to him other than he went to war and was not heard from again. Because of Camp Chase hospital records found in Washington, D.C. last week I was able to identify him with little question.

Two main issues were the reason that his descendants were unable to locate him after his death. After his death he was buried in a city cemetery that both Union and Confederates were buried in. His surname was very badly misspelled but thanks to his date of death and unit his surname is corrected.

The second issue was this United States soldier now has a Confederate tombstone at the Camp Chase Cemetery. Whether he is really buried there is another issue but his name does bear a Confederate stone.

Now the road is paved so a descendant can finally claim his almost 150 year old medal. And he does appear to have several descendants although he never married.