The Texas in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Tombstones
In Response To: Tombstones ()

Thanks Sam!
This is great info...I am copying and pasting A R RUSHING'S data (please delete if this is not appropriate in the Texas blog since it is from the Louisiana blog)

I will do m y best to briefly lay out what we havev done to obtain some VA headstones.

1st...... you have to find an ancestor to request the stone. It can be direct, or collateral and they have even allowed cousins 4 times removed. Many of these young men never married or had children, so it can only come through cousins many times.

2nd. If there is a grave and it is not marked YOU have to prove the burial. We have used past documents of women's civic groups and DAR who went out years ago and listed burials in cemeteries. Many times it will say unmarked or marked with fieldstone if there is no headstone. BUT you have to have proof he is indeed buried there...obit, something. If there is a marker but it is broken, you must send them photos with the packet to show it. I recently had one that was posted on find a grave as a whole stone, but when I got to it a couple years later was broken in 3 pieces and they replaced with a VA marker. If there was a marker but it has disappeared, get the cemetery official to write a letter verifying that there is indeed no stone and it is missing...even if an old FAG photo exists.

3rd....if the veteran died in battle or a hospital, you have to provide them some form of proof. I have provided pages out of the OR's where officers state they buried their dead, or the enemy states we buried the dead of the enemy. This proves burial in a mass or unmarked grave. I have used period accounts written about how wooden markers were used but soon rotted and were gone. For hospitals I have had to provide info on the hospital and any statements about how hospitals dealt with their dead and that CS hospitals did not keep any records and Union hospitals with CS soldiers didn't keep any records. I have found period records like in Iuka that list a partial list of known dead CS soldiers but there are no graves identified for them, just hte old list. We have successfully received a number of these "In Memory of" markers but only by providing specific information on battlefield dead or hospital deaths to verify that soldiers were indeed buried. At first they wanted proof they were buried but how in the world can you provide proof from a temp hospital with a few hundred men and many dying daily. It kind of depends on who gets the application and processes it as well. The best proof I found was from the NPS (a federal institution) and I pointed out that "their own agencies even state that the dead were buried and no records were often kept, especially when dealing with CS burials. That always seems to answer for proof. They can't argue with their own federal govt statements, or at least they are not as likely to.

We have often also speculated that it seems like when the budget for the govt is low they do not approve as many without us working hard to provide documentation. If the money is flowing seems like it is not as hard. Just our observations.

This spring we will be bringing 4 stones to Clinton, LA to be placed for 11th Ark Inf soldiers who were either killed in the battle there or died at Silliman hospital. Had to prove it but were successful.

I hope this helps. Every application becomes a monster in its individuality and what the Govt and VA want you to provide. They want you to get tired and give up....I never did and they know me by name now when I call them to ask about status. They lose alot of the applications and you have to resubmit, sometimes they never notify you they rec'd it or that it was approved and the markers just show up.

Good luck!

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