CARTHAGE, Mo. (AP) - A Civil War veteran has been buried with his family in southwest Missouri in a ceremony that included re-enactors and cannon blasts.
Hundreds gathered Saturday at Park Cemetery in Carthage for the funeral of Maj. Raphael Guido Rombauer, The Joplin Globe (https://bit.ly/1GYGVE9 ) reports. The ashes of the Union Civil War officer went unclaimed for more than a century after his 1912 death in Kirksville.
That all changed when the Missing in America project, which arranges proper burials for veterans, came across the remains. The group was planning to bury them with more than 20 other veterans last fall in a ceremony at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. But an amateur historian found a relative of Rombauer, and she claimed the remains.
“It’ll probably never be done again, to actually be the honor guard for a Civil War veteran,” said Joe Rainey, a member The Holmes Brigade, the Civil War re-enactment group. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
A cannon blasted during the procession to the site where Rombauer’s ashes were buried with the remains of his wife and two of his children. The Rev. Steve Wilson, of Grace Episcopal Church, then spoke in a mixture of German, English and a little Hungarian, using 1880s and 1890s Hungarian Protestant liturgical traditions.
As he finished speaking, he scooped a handful of dirt to drop on the golden box that was lowered into the Earth. After a round of gunfire, the sound of “Taps” drifted through the air, followed by another cannon blast.
The service also featured remarks from representatives of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
“It is good and right that we gather to remember our heritage,” said Marilyn Lucas, of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. “History books give us a large picture of events, lumping individuals into groups. It is through families that these personal, individual stories live on for future generations.”
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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, https://www.joplinglobe.com
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