A Civil War veteran was interned in Park Cemetery in Carthage over theweekend. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield staff and volunteers took part in the ceremony for Major Raphael Guido Rombauer Saturday afternoon.
Rombauer was a native of Austria-Hungary who immigrated to St. Louis in the late 1840s. With tensions rising in the spring of 1861, he enlisted in Company A, 1st Missouri Infantry. He was discharged before his unit’s participation at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. But he enlisted in an Illinois artillery and ended the war with the rank of major.
He died in Kirksville, MO in 1912 and his remains were sent to St. Louis for cremation where they remained unclaimed for 102 years. The remains were brought to the attention of his great granddaughter, Elizabeth Young, who recently claimed them.
Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield chief park ranger, John Sutton, says several organizations have worked together over the past few months to make sure that Major Rombauer’s remains are finally interned with dignity. He says "this may be the last Civil War soldier buried in your lifetime."
