KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The remains of a Civil War soldier will be reburied in a southwest Missouri cemetery four years after they were illegally removed from a national battlefield site.
The soldier’s bones, which will be interred Saturday at the Springfield National Cemetery, were collected in 2011 as Coy Matthew Hamilton was canoeing through the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Site near Springfield. Prosecutors said Hamilton, who was looking for artifacts after a storm, saw a bone sticking out of an embankment and started digging. About 10 days later, he turned the bones into the National Park Service.
Hamilton agreed in 2012 to pay $5,351 in restitution to the park service and perform 60 hours of community service to avoid prosecution. Wilson’s Creek superintendent Ted Hillmer said removing any artifacts from a national park is forbidden.
Hillmer said the burial ceremony will feature an honor guard made up of Union and Confederate volunteers and re-enactors, along with three volleys of musket fire and a cannon firing
“We want to show honor and respect for the remains that were found here,” Hillmer said. “To me this is very unique because we don’t bury remains of Civil War soldiers in this era.”
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said it’s not known whether the remains belonged to a Union or Confederate soldier. But the department said the park service was “confident” that the bones are associated with the 1861 clash at Wilson’s Creek, which was the first major Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River. Hillmer said a number of bone buttons typical of what a cavalry unit would have worn were found in the area where the remains were removed.
The cemetery where the bones will be reburied contains graves of Union and Confederate casualties from the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and other battles in the area. Missouri, which entered the Union as a slave state but didn’t secede, was the scene of frequent battles and skirmishes, with residents fighting for both sides.
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