http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/civilwarso_356.mp3
The remains of 7 soldiers who died in the 1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek were laid to rest in April 2004. Mike Smith has the story:
At 5 o'clock on the morning of August 10 th 1861, the first shots fired in the battle of Wilson's Creek echoed across the prairie grasses in the oak savanna that is now a National Battlefield administered by the National Park Service. Following the 6 hour Battle of Wilson's Creek, 537 Union and Confederate soldiers killed there were interred on the field, and on a hilltop named "Bloody Hill" by the soldiers who fought there, a sinkhole was used as a mass grave for 30 Union Soldiers.
Saturday, April 10 th , the remains of 7 of those soldiers were buried at the Springfield National Cemetery as part of a special re-internment ceremony.
Jeff Patrick, the Librarian at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, says the ceremony began with brief remarks by Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Superintendent Ted Hillmer, and Southwest Missouri State University History Professor William Piston. Patrick says the remains of the 7 soldiers were identified as Union soldiers by a forensic anthropologist, and were among those excavated from the Bloody Hill sinkhole in the mid 1960's by University of Missouri Archeologist Robert Bray.
Even though the bone fragments were recovered nearly 40 years ago, Patrick says archeologists are still finding the remains of those who died on the battlefields of the Civil War.
A 3 year Archeological study of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield has just been completed and the findings will be released by the beginning of 2005. Jeff Patrick says over 1,500 battle related artifacts have been recovered from Wilson's Creek, including a lot of fired and dropped bullets.
Wilson's Creek national Battlefield, the site of the first major battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi River, is located 10 miles southwest of Springfield Missouri at the intersection of state highway ZZ and farm road 182.
For information: 417-732-2662. For KSMU News, I'm Mike Smith.