The Grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier (His mother & father never knew why their son never came home). The grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier near Marthaville,was recently given nationwide publicity in a feature articlewritten by Thomas K. Harvey of United Press International. It is not known how many newspaper, radio stations, and television stations in the United States used the story. The article follows in its entirety. On a warm spring afternoon in 1864, shortly after the Battle of Mansfield, a young man in ragged military garb, stopped at afarmhouse just north of Marthaville in Northwest Louisiana. Theguns of war thundered in the distance. The women of the house, a mother and two daughters shelling peason the front porch, watched the soldier stoop to drink from aspring about 50 yards from the house, then continue on his wayinto the Redlands, the southern end of the Red River Valley. Moments later, three mounted Union soldiers from a force retreating in defeat from the Battle of Mansfield, galloped theirhorses up to the house, and asked the women if they had seen aman pass by. The women attempted to evade the question then, to misdirect theFederals, but the Union soldiers spotted the young mans tracksand spurred up the trace after him. Within seconds, three shots shattered the country quiet, and thesoldiers rode casually back the way they had come. The ragged soldier lay where he fell, his blood staining the redearth a deeper hue. William Hodge Barnhill and his sons learned what had happenedwhen they returned from the fields later in the day. They built acoffin, and buried the stranger near the spring. For nearly 100 years, the Barnhill family kept the soldiersgrave free of brush and weeds, and once a year they held amemorial service. The commission passed from father to son, and ended with thedeath of Robert Franklin Barnhill in 1962. The first two Barnhill custodians remembered the young man. Thethird of the line did not, but he carried on the family traditionwith the same dedication. His custodial care began in 1905, andcontinued 57 years. Who the young soldier was, whether he was an escaped Confederateprisoner of war, or a Union deserter, never will be known. Barnhill family accounts refer to him as a Rebel, a young man -boy - and so he is known. Some feel he may have been a deserter. Why else would threesoldiers shoot down an unarmed man without mercy? The Barnhills never thought to question why. They cared for him,their unknown soldier, and accorded him more reverence than thenations Unknown Warrior in Arlington Cemetery. The story was told and retold on lazy summer evenings, andaround the fire on long winter nights. Coming generations first saw the grave from the backs of wagons,pointed out to them as they drove by, on the way to church. Two years before Robert Franklin Barnhill died, the trust he nolonger could administer, because of advancing age, passed to thecommunity. Through public subscription, the old trace was cleared, and astone, inscribed with the names of the people who cared for thegrave, was erected. A fence was put up, and parking space wasprovided for the annual memorial services that now have become acommunity function. The grave is still there, just off a modern highway, about twomiles north of Marthaville. This spring, the fourth annualmemorial service will be held for the Young Man who died a lonelydeath, and enriched the lives of thousands who followed, and willfollow him.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 22:43:27 +0000
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