BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) - A Civil War mystery on the South Carolina coast has been solved.
The Beaufort Gazette reports (https://bit.ly/1fRpMvO ) the identity of the only unknown Confederate soldier buried at the Beaufort National Cemetery has been confirmed.
The Historic Beaufort Foundation says the soldier has been identified as Pvt. Haywood Treadwell of Sampson County, N.C.
Treadwell now has a new headstone, replacing one that just noted an unknown Confederate was buried there. Next month there will be a public unveiling of the new gravestone during a two-day symposium on Confederate soldiers buried at the national cemetery.
There are 117 Confederate soldiers buried at the cemetery which was originally established as a burial ground for Union troops.
Treadwell was brought to a Union hospital in Beaufort and died after being wounded in July 1863 defending Battery Wagner on Charleston Harbor. That’s the battle in which the black 54th Massachusetts charged in a fight commemorated in the movie “Glory.”
Research on the William Wigg Barnwell House in Beaufort, which served as the hospital, turned up records helping identify Treadwell.
Beaufort resident Penelope Holme Parker was doing research on the nearly 200-year-old house for a tour of homes four years ago. She discovered Treadwell was likely buried anonymously because of a misspelled first name.
Burial records found in a cardboard box at the cemetery building more than two decades ago listed a Heyward Treadwell - not Haywood - buried in the unknown soldier’s gravestone.
Parker said because there was no Heyward Treadwell in the 61st North Carolina Volunteers, he likely was buried with the gravestone of an unknown.
Parker’s research shows that Treadwell worked as a farmer who produced turpentine and married before he joined the 61st Volunteers.
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Information from: The Beaufort Gazette, https://www.beaufortgazette.com
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