Last November, my wife and I toured the Chalmette Battlefield outside of New Orleans. To the east of the battlefield is the Chalmette National Cemetery. Established in 1864, the bodies of 15,000 troops from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War rest there. Nearly half of these remain unknown.
The site is typical of most national cemeteries and I started taking pictures of gravestones of United States Colored Troops for a buddy of mine. I found these four swallowed by a tree to be the most interesting.
This is Private James Martin of the 46th USCT Infantry. According to the cemetery records, he died on May 3, 1865, but the Roll of Honor places his death one day earlier on May 2. He rests on the south side of a giant tree that is slowly covering his headstone.
This is Private Eugene August (left) and Private Edward Ramsey (right) of the 81st USCT Infantry. According to the cemetery records, they both died on May 3, 1865, but the Roll of Honor places August’s death a day later on May 4. The tree almost consumes August entirely while Ramsey sits north of the tree.
Finally, there is the fourth soldier, who we cannot see. Private Perry Coleman died on May 3, 1865. According to the cemetery records, he served in the 49th USCT, but Roll of Honor lists him under the 81st. He remains directly under the tree between Martin and August.
I attempted to find more about these soldiers. Martin’s service records were not available in the archives. The service records for the 81st are not available online, as Footnote.com has not yet digitized the records for the USCT Infantries numbering 56-138. I contacted them and they had no estimation on when they would complete that effort.
Bibliography
Fitzpatrick, Colleen. “Chalmette National Cemetery.” USGenWeb Archives. http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/state/cemeteries/military/chalmette.txt (accessed 4 March, 2011).
Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union Interred in the National Cemeteries. 8 vols. Washington: Government Printing-Office, 1869. http://books.google.com/books?id=hUN3AAAAMAAJ (accessed 4 March, 2011).