Who to call if a human remain is included in a Civil War collection you bought? Gettysburg's museum director, who then contacted an Alabama battle park. They found a resting place for a forearm bone, believed to be from a Union soldier

Note and display case holding the forearm bone, field that will hold grave (Historic Blakeley State Park) and Robert Knox Sneden map showing battle zones in and around Mobile (Library of Congress)

Early this year, employees at a shop in Gettysburg pored through relics it purchased from the family of a collector. Normally, such merchants in the Pennsylvania town synonymous with Civil War collectibles might receive display cases containing a belt buckle, bullets, unit badges or something rarer that turned up on a battlefield.

But this one was different, very different.

Tucked inside a box protected by bubble wrap was a handwritten scrap of paper, reading: “Found in Extreme Northern end of Union Army lines at Spanish Fort (near Basin Batteries). December, 1973.”

The note refers to the Federal siege and capture of Spanish Fort in April 1865. Back-to-back  victories at Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley led to the surrender of Mobile, Ala., a vital Confederate port.

With the note and in the box was a human bone -- part of a forearm.

The Gettysburg shop, of course, had no intension of putting the relic up for sale.

What to do?

In this case, you contact a subject matter expert for advice. If you live in southern Pennsylvania, that expert is Greg Goodell, longtime museum curator at Gettysburg National Military Park.

After being contacted, Goodell acted as a middle man to ensure the bone would find a home and be laid to rest in a respectful way.

The curator contacted sites in the Mobile area, eventually reaching Mike Bunn, director of Historic Blakely State Park, home to the Fort Blakeley battlefield. Bunn stepped forward and said he would bury the bone in a field and place a granite marker that reads “Unknown Soldier, Civil War.” (design at left)

Next to the headstone will be an engraved interpretive plaque.

The Gettysburg business sent the item to Alabama a couple months ago.

Bunn wants to place the grave near a main park road and impressive remnants of Confederate defenses. He anticipates a Veterans Day ceremony to dedicate the memorial.

“We know not every person in the (Mobile) campaign has been found and marked,” Bunn told the Picket of his aim to honor them.

There’s plenty of mystery about the bone remaining, despite a story that appears to have a good ending.

The arm bone is believed to belong to a soldier, mostly likely Federal. What happened to the rest of him? No one knows. Officials see no need for DNA testing of the remain at this point.

I asked Gettysburg communications specialist Jason Martz how often such a thing has happened at the federal park.

“In plus-20 years, it has happened fewer than five times,” Martz replied.

Federal siege paid off in two Alabama battles

Although Union Adm. David Farragut had bottled up Mobile in summer 1864, the city remained in Confederate hands. 

The arrival of additional Federal troops in early 1865 brought about the campaign to take Fort Blakeley, Spanish Fort and other guardians east of Mobile. Historic Blakely State Park interprets the entire Mobile campaign.

Union troops, a third of which were U.S. Colored Troops regiments, laid siege of Blakeley for about a week. A similar operation against outnumbered Confederates took place at Spanish Fort, just to the south.

The forces under Federal Maj. Gen. Edward Canby (right) first surrounded Spanish Fort on March 27, 1865. Most of the Confederate troops escaped to Mobile or Blakeley and the fort fell on April 8.

Two Union commands combined to storm Fort Blakeley the following day, unaware of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender in Virginia. They carried the field.

Confederates evacuated Mobile and the mayor surrendered the city on April 12.

The Union lines at Spanish Fort were mostly to the east and north of the Rebel defenses.

Most of the battlefield lies within Spanish Fort Estates, a large residential community dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s. While most of the fortifications are gone, there are several discernible lines of breastworks running through front yards.

A chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has helped to preserve Battery McDermott.

Bone was found in future subdivision land

Bunn said he believes the forearm bone was found by a relic hunter in or near a Federal trench at Spanish Fort with other artifacts. The park director (below) said he does not know the finder’s name but believes he died several years ago. “He had a pretty big collection.”

A water artillery battery near the end of the Yankee line was in swampy ground at a body of water called Bay Minette. “All of that stuff is gone,” Bunn said of this part of the siege line.

Relic hunters frequently pored over the area, which is on private land, as the subdivision was built in stages.

The paper indicates the bone discovery in December 1973. “I can’t confirm all the details, but I don’t believe the section this came from was developed at the time. Probably dug as they were clearing land for it, though,” Bunn added.

It’s possible the bone was part of a mass grave. Bunn doesn’t know whether the rest of the skeleton was left intact, scattered by animals or taken by other collectors.

Relic hunters today are more likely to report human remains or leave them in place, officials said. “At least they did not chuck it. I am sure others have,” Bunn told the Picket of this bone.

Bunn said the exact circumstances regarding the bone and its precise location are impossible at this point to pin down.

Siege operations at Spanish Fort, note map is not displayed north-south (Library of Congress)

“If it was a burial, it probably would have been a shallow grave.” Circumstantial evidence points to a Federal soldier, though the U.S. military after the war worked diligently to relocate such remains to new national cemeteries.

“There could be a chance he was a Confederate,” said Bunn.

Shop knew the park service would have an answer

Martz, with Gettysburg National Military Park, said the local business – which he and Bunn did not identify -- had a conversation with Goodell (below) after the discovery.

“The shop was basically in a position to be a good Samaritan and didn’t know what to do with” the bone, Martz told the Picket.

“When someone in the position of the local shop doesn’t know where to start, they start with an organization like the National Park Service. It is easily one of the most recognizable and trusted organizations in the country come to,” he said.

In this case, there was no need to go to law enforcement.

Martz described the man who had the bone as an avid Civil War artifacts/relics collector. “When he passes, the family doesn’t know what to do with a collection. They find a reputable shop.”

Then the shop’s inventory process begins.

“They start to go through it piece by piece. ‘Oh wait a minute.’ There is one extra thing they are not comfortable with.”

Martz said there is no indication a law was broken. The only consideration would be the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which protects indigenous remains.

Nothing in this case has any connection with NAGPRA “as far as we know,” said Martz.

The takeaway is the Gettysburg shop did the best thing by reaching out to Goodell so the bone could be sent to the best place – Alabama, said the park spokesman.

Remains not eligible for state veterans cemetery

Bunn turned to the Historic Blakely Foundation and a GoFund me campaign to raise money for the headstone and plaque. So far, $350 of the estimated $600 expense has been raised.

The new grave will be in a field that holds a cemetery that dates to 1819. It will be in a separate area and will be viewable from the road. Bunn expects a ceremony in November, with a gun salute and presence of a U.S. flag. “It is a long overdue, proper respect,” he added.

The state cemetery contains about 5,000 graves (Alabama Dept. of Veterans Affairs)

The park director consulted with Joseph Buschell, director at the nearby Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Spanish Fort. Alabama operates the location because the U.S. cemetery in Mobile is closed to new interments and the closest national cemeteries are in Biloxi, Ms., and at Barrancas near Pensacola, Fla., each more than 70 miles away.

The Spanish Fort cemetery would not have been able to accept the remains without a name and proof of military service, including an honorable discharge, Buschell said.

On behalf of Historic Blakeley, Buschell contacted a company in Pensacola to make a government-grade marker. “It is assumed to be a soldier.”

Regarding Bunn, Buschell told the Picket: “I think what he is going to do with this is pretty noble.”