This Irish-born soldier signed his name at the Warren House, caught up in the decisive Battle of Jonesboro. What became of John W. Dunlava of the 34th Illinois?

Sgt. John Dunlava (regimental history, his signature inside and the exterior of Jonesboro's Warren House (Picket photos)

John William Dunlava was here (Ireland), here (Lynville, Ill.) here (Calcasieu Parish, La.) and, later in life, here (Arthur, N.D.).

For purposes of this blog post, Union Sgt. John Dunlava most importantly was here – the Warren House in Jonesboro, Ga. And he wanted those who came later to know it. Employing large, loopy letters, Dunlava signed his name on an interior wall.

The Warren House, built in 1840, has since then been a wedding and events venue and, currently, an office for psychological therapy. On Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1864 -- 162 years ago this week -- the residence was at the center of the Battle of Jonesboro, a stunning Confederate loss that resulted in the capitulation of Atlanta.

The Warren House was used as a field hospital and headquarters by Rebel troops until taken by the Union on Sept. 2, 1864, for the same use.

“Captured by the 52nd Illinois Infantry, signatures of convalescing Union soldiers still appear on the walls of the downstairs parlor,” the facility website says. (Picket photo, above). It's possible some of the names are not of soldiers. Some other signatures, including that of Dunlava, are in an upstairs room.

Dunlava (likely pronounced Dunlavey) served in Company E, of the 34^th Illinois, which was in the thick of things at the decisive battle at Jonesboro.

“It looks like they were in the 4 p.m. attack that overran (Daniel) Govan’s brigade and two artillery batteries. Govan was captured and later exchanged for (George) Stoneman,” said Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

The exchange in October would include most of Govan's captured men.

I could not tell from a search of online records whether Dunlava was wounded at Jonesboro. And it’s hard to tell whether he left his signature in 1864 or came back to visit the site. Some of the writing on the wall dates to the 1870s, suggesting veterans traveled back to visit battlefields.

Why point out Dunlava?

Good question, and here is my answer. It’s the one name that was legible and I could connect with a service record and biographical details.

So I went down a rabbit hole, scouring the internet for anything I could find about the man, who emigrated to the United States after the Irish potato famine and farmed in the Midwest and the Northern Plains.

A regimental history published in 1902, three years before Dunlava died at age 64, provides some details on his Civil War service. (Photo, findagrave.com)

While a member of a Grand Army of the Republic post in North Dakeota, he is not listed in a list of 34^th Illinois veterans attending an 1897 reunion.

“He says he has not met a 34^th man for thirty years, except Capt. J.M. Myers, of Company H, whom he met on a train, between Chicago and Polo, Ill.,” the regimental history says.

As for the house where he left his name? It's currently for sale with a $1.2 million asking price. 

"The Warren House is more than real estate-it's an opportunity to steward a living piece of history while unlocking its commercial potential," says an eXp Realty listing on Georgia MLS.

He sailed from Ireland to start a new life

John Dunlava was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in June 1840. He came to the United States in 1857 and, like more than 170,000 fellow Irishmen, joined the Federal army.

Signatures of several individuals are encased behind a covering on the back wall (Georgia MLS)

At the time Fort Sumpter was fired on in April 1861, he was attending school in St. Louis, Mo., and "saw the ‘Elephant’ before he appeared to the general public,” said the regimental history.

“Seeing the elephant” was a 19^th-century metaphor for obtaining hard-earned experience, such as in combat.

Known as the “Rock River Rifles,” the 34^th Illinois was organized at Camp Butler in September 1861. Dunlava was right there from the start; he reenlisted at some point.

The regiment fought throughout the Western Theater, from Stones River to Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign, including Kennesaw Mountain, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.

By late August 1864, Atlanta was not yet subdued and a few supply lines were still available to Confederate troops.

Map of battlefield that appeared in 1902 volume about the 34th Illinois

“Sherman determined that if he could destroy the Macon & Western and Atlanta & West Point Railroads to the south the Rebel army would be forced to evacuate the city,” says the American BattlefieldTrust. To counter Sherman, Hood sent Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee with two corps to halt the Union movement.

“On August 31, Hardee attacked west of Jonesborough but was easily repulsed. Fearing a direct attack on Atlanta, Hood withdrew one corps from Hardee’s force that night. The next day, a Union attack broke through Hardee’ s troops, which retreated south.

The 34th was among those to break Rebel line

The author of the regimental history details the Federal assault by the 14th Corps against worn-down Rebels at Jonesboro. The attackers achieved a rare success for those going against heavily fortified defenses..

"By several accounts, the attacking Confederates on 31 August lost any enthusiasm for the attack before getting close to the U.S. Army lines. Both C.S. and U.S. generals remarked that the usual Southern élan for the offensive was lacking, and the soldiers seemed to forego further advances well before being ordered to retreat," said Crawford.

Confederate POWs under guard after capture (Harpers Pictorial History of the Civil War)

The 34th Illinois and other regiments in the Sept. 1 attack knew they were in for a fight.

“Kenesaw (sic) was now two months old, and quite forgotten," says its history. "There was a saucy foe in front and a sure chance for a fight, with a fairly good chance of giving him a threshing (sic).”

The attack netted about 600 prisoners and eight artillery pieces. Total Confederate casualties for Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 numbered between 1,400 and 2,200. Those captured were close to 900.

The 34th Illinois, which assisted the 78^th Illinois, had five killed and 14 wounded at Jonesboro. From May to Sept. 20, 1864, it suffered about 125 casualties.

The writer of the history, Sgt, Edwin Payne of Company A, described rudimentary field hospitals. Regarding one, “There were forty-nine cases of amputation at the hospital, this writer contributing a right arm to the general assortment of such discovered appendages.”

The loss of the Macon & Western Railroad near Jonesoboro left Atlanta isolated and largely unsupplied. On the evening of Sept. 1, Hood finally evacuated Atlanta, which surrendered to Federal troops on Sept. 2.  

The Warren House (above, Picket photo) was just one of many hospital sites trying to save lives on both sides.

“For many years, a bullet lodged in the wall and cannonballs in the yard were evidence of the proximity of heavy fighting,” says an historical marker outside the home, which is located at 102 W. Mimosa Drive, off busy Jonesboro Road.

I visited the house several years ago and took photographs of the signatures, which are preserved under a clear covering. I couldn’t make out enough words to connect them with a specific soldier, as I did with Dunlava.

“Willi Wood” may be a reference to 34^th officer William S. Wood. The “am” in William likely faded away with time.

Two more names at the end of the long panel in house; click to enlarge (Picket photo)

Veteran, wife endured ups and downs of life on the Plains

Dunlava stayed with the army until October 1864, when he received a 20-day furlough and went home.

“Upon his return, the Army had started on the ‘March to the Sea,’ and he remained in Chattanooga, with Lieutenant Hall, of his Company, until March 1865, and then went, by way of New York, to Morehead City and Goldsboro, and joined his Regiment, 17 miles beyond Raleigh, N.C., and was mustered out as a Sergeant, at Louisville, Ky.,” says the regimental history. His service ended July 12, 1865.

Dunlava is listed in most census forms as a farmer. By 1870, he was living, apparently unmarried, near Lake Charles, La.

The lure of the Great Plains, specifically North Dakota, drew Dunlava and other settlers bent on obtaining land and making their mark on the agricultural expanse.

He met a divorced Clara Seager, seven years his junior, on the Amenia Sharon Land Company's farm at Amenia in spring 1880 (photo, above). The company built a depot and, later, a grain elevator at the nearby Northern Pacific tracks.

“John was one of the farm hands on this farm of 30,000 acres. Clara cooked for the crew of 30 men,” says a page on Digital Horizons, a consortium of institutions celebrating life on the Northern Plains. The account comes from a 1962 history of Arthur, N.D.

“They were married in 1880 and went to live on John's homestead; the NW1 h of Section 30 of Arthur Township. Here they lived through many vicissitudes the next twenty-five years; drought, grasshoppers, hail, chinch bugs, rust and blizzards.”

The couple had four children, according to the Red River Valley Genealogical Society; Clara had two children from her first marriage. A newspaper article referred to him as "one of the old pioneer farmers" in Arthur.

John died May 3, 1905, and is buried in Erie, N.D. His obituary said he had suffered from bronchitis for years, having acquired that in the army. (The notice said Dunlava was wounded at the 1862 Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Va., and was in Libby Prison for six months. The 34th Illinois was not at that action, instead it was in Tennessee at the time.)

Clara moved with family the next year and died in 1920 in Roscoe, S.D. She was 72.

These names speak of lives long gone

Soldiers have long left their mark at places associated with battles and campaigns. There are several other sites in the South bearing scrawled names and graffiti.

This appears to be by a soldier with the 69th Ohio, which was at Jonesboro. This is downstairs (Picket photo)

The Warren House features several names, dates and poems. A history on its website said they were discovered during repairs made in the mid-1930s. The names include Robert Sullivan, James B. Washington and George W. Harding.

“During the Battle of Jonesboro bodies of the dead and wounded were reputedly piled three deep in the grounds behind the Warren House,” according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Crawford, of the GBA, said when he leads tours of Jonesboro or speaks about the Atlanta Campaign, he mentions that of all the engagements during the campaign, there was only one in which the attacking force was largely successful, and that would be Jonesboro

"When the 1993 Civil War Sites Advisory Commission report evaluated the 384 battles it considered, only two battles in Georgia were ranked as Class A -- i.e., having a decisive influence on a campaign and a direct impact on the course of the war," he added. "Those two battles were Chickamauga and Jonesboro. How great it is that Chickamauga was the first battlefield created as a national military park, and how sad it is that Jonesboro is totally unprotected."

Dr. Jack Farrar, who operates Mind Synch, a neuroscience center, bought the house in 1994. He provided mental health services there before revamping it as an event venue in 2012. Those services were largely curtailed after Covid-19 and the house is home to the therapy practice, says Farrar's daughter Sarah (Photo of exterior, Civil War Picket)

Rear of the Warren House can be seen just off Jonesboro Road (Georgia MLS)

Sarah Farrar told the Picket the house, zoned commercial, could be used for a business, residence or bed and breakfast. The family prefers that it be preserved and keep most of its character.

A 2014 article in the Clayton News Daily quoted Jack Farrar as saying soldiers were moved to a dying room when nothing else could be done for them after the battle.

"The surrounding land was once marked by visible breastworks, and relics such as Minie balls were commonly found on the grounds," says the real estate listing.

Was Dunlava wounded at Jonesboro? Visiting a comrade who was? Or just stopped by the Warren House out of curiosity?

If only his signature could tell.

Colonial Williamsburg asking descendants of South Carolina soldier to provide DNA to determine whether he was among 4 Confederates buried near Powder Magazine

2023 excavation of graves (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation); 1907 view of church and Powder Magazine (Harry Mann photos, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary); Battle of Williamsburg (LOC)

Last fall, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation mailed out a handful of letters, the correspondence topped by a drawing of the old Virginia Capitol and beneath it the words: “That the future may learn from the past.”

The heading read: RE: Potential Ancestral Connection to Skeletal Remains at Colonial Williamsburg.

Contained in the letter’s five paragraphs was a request that must have jolted the recipients and, if they complied, help fulfill the mission of making the past relevant.

The letter explained the remains of four Confederate soldiers had been found in 2023 in a pit and grave near the history site’s Powder Magazine. They died from wounds suffered in the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg. Further, the letter stated, a handwritten list of those treated at a makeshift hospital – established in a Baptist church near the magazine – still exists.

Then the inquiry became very personal.

“We are reaching out to you because our genealogist has identified you, based on publicly accessible data sources, as a descendant of … one of the soldiers who is named on the hospital list.” That individual mentioned in the letter believed to be among the four remains.

One of Isabella T. Sully's hospital patient list pages she recorded at Williamsburg Baptist (Tucker-Coleman Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary)

“If this matches your understanding of your family tree, would you be willing to participate in a DNA study to help confirm the name of this individual?,” the letter continued.

Four descendants said yes. On March 2, a kit was mailed out to each. The recipients will provide DNA from their cheeks and mail the swabs back for analysis.

Their presumed ancestor, says Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, was from the Piedmont region of South Carolina. DNA analysis showed him to be in his 20s. The infantryman was mortally wounded in fighting at Fort Magruder.

The South Carolinian has the most robust family tree of the four, and the project decided to confirm his identity first, aiming the letters at his kin. The soldiers’ names are being withheld for now as research and analysis continues.

Hospital list made the search possible

Gary, who signed the letter and heard from one descendant within a few days, said the endeavor has already been remarkable -- with much more to learn.

“I have not experienced this in my career,” he told the Picket in a recent phone call. “Not many archaeologists have used DNA this way.”

Final resting place for four soldiers at Cedar Grove Cemetery (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

Gary’s team -- which includes staff archaeologist Eric Schweickart,  lab technician Evan Bell and Elizabeth Drembus, a genealogist at William & Mary -- are the beneficiaries of good fortune in their hunt to put names to the four sets of remains, which were buried last year at the city’s Cedar Grove Cemetery, near the graves of other Confederates killed in the battle.

Working from the hospital list, census, newspaper accounts, the ledger of an undertaker and other records, the team narrowed the possible identities to four men who served in regiments from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia.

Without those documents, the effort would never have gotten off the ground.

“You have to have a known person to go off to trace their ancestry to the modern day,” said Gary (right, at another dig. Photo Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).

The list of names, made by a widow who visited the hospital and later raised money to rebury scores of Rebel soldiers who died at Williamsburg, was especially crucial.

It provided names and regiments of more than 60 soldiers and notes indicating if and when they died. Colonial Williamsburg did not see the hospital list until after the graves were found in 2023. Bell stumbled across it while doing research and the discovery opened the door.

Bell studied two versions to winnow the list of possible candidates down to the four soldiers.

Gary said, if the attempt to identify the remains is successful, descendants will know precisely what happened to the soldiers after they were sent to Virginia to fight. That knowledge will fill in gaps for each of their stories. Somehow, these four warriors were left behind when other hospital dead were moved to cemeteries.

Another aim is to eventually publish all four confirmed names.

“We should try to put a name back with the individual out of respect for human dignity,” Gary said of the South Carolinian. “If this is the man who we think this is, it will be incredibly rewarding.”

At Williamsburg, soldiers first saw the elephant

Hancock's Federal troops launch attack on May 5, 1862 (Library of Congress)

The inconclusive Battle of Williamsburg was the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, following a Confederate retreat from Yorktown. Most of the combatants had seen little or no action before the clash.

Federal Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s division attacked the Southerners at Fort Magruder, but was repulsed. Confederate counterattacks ultimately failed and they made a nighttime withdrawal toward Richmond. Casualties numbered more than 3,800.

Federal forces took the city, holding it for the rest of the war. A few hospitals sprang up to handle the influx of wounded on both sides.

Williamsburg Baptist Church, which was formed in the early 19^th century, had already been pressed into service before the battle, treating sick Confederates soldiers stationed at Fort Magruder and elsewhere.

Historic courthouse (left), the Powder Magazine and old Williamsburg Baptist church (right) / Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

It received the largest crush of the wounded. 

The church, which moved to a new location in the 1930s, kept no records during the Civil War. But an article provided to the Picket by church office administrator Haley Matthews claims the old site was “greatly abused” during the chaos following the battle.

“Bloodstains were on the floors and the pews were stored in an open shed exposed to the weather. Soldiers were buried in the church yard near the west door, as many as 17 in one grave. Their bodies were afterwards removed to the cemetery.”

The 2023 surprise discovery at the Powder Magazine proved not all had been relocated.

Isabella Sully is the story's primary hero 

The Confederates treated at the Baptist church hospital were prisoners of war. The Union forces wanted to move those well enough to Fort Monroe.

But dozens, including these four, were grievously wounded and could not be sent elsewhere. Many died in the days and weeks following the battle.

Local residents and clerics came to the hospital, to give comfort to the wounded and send updates to family members.

Among them was Isabella Thompson Sully, a widow from Richmond who had traveled to Williamsburg. She and friend Cynthia Tucker Coleman provided riveting accounts of the suffering, with Coleman calling one drunken surgeon the “Head Devil.”

A 1937 article in the journal Religious Herald mentioned the 17 soldiers interred in the churchyard near the west door, “buried like sardines in a box.” The author said an African-American showed him the graves years before and they were removed to a cemetery.

In 1892, Sully wrote a letter (left, click to enlarge) that appeared in the Richmond Times, saying 25 of the Rebel dead were buried in the green near the Baptist church. She described the dearth of medicine and food until the Union army brought supplies.

“I shall never be able to tell how we managed to keep so many wounded and starving men alive, so that several days elapsed before I was able to make a list of those who remained,” wrote Sully.

As more men died, they were buried in pits near the first 25.

Critically, Sully in 1862 recorded the names of the wounded, their regiments and company. Dying soldiers were worried about being placed in unmarked graves

She recorded the date of death and burial locations, when possible. She gave the list to Coleman, and the latter’s papers ended up hiding in plain sight at William & Mary's Swem Library Special Collections.

Archaeologists at Colonial Williamsburg were aware of a list, but they had no idea where it was.

'They said they was goin' to take them up'

Following the Civil War, Sully and others raised money to move scores of Confederate soldiers from the graves around the church to Cedar Grove and Bruton Parish Church cemeteries.

A post-1892 monument at Bruton Parish (photo below) lists names of men allegedly buried there, but some apparently were laid to rest elsewhere in the city. One did not die at the battle, said Bell.

Bell believes the burial parties got those in the larger pits and trenches near the Baptist church but somehow did not come across the four soldiers. “It seems like they just barely were missed.”

Interestingly, a formerly enslaved woman mentioned those four burials in a conversation that appeared in a 1933 book.

"It is a pity, pity, pity, for people to treat each other so bad. Lots of men were buried around the Powder Horn. They said they was goin' to take them up, but I ain't never seen them do it,” Eliza Baker said.

I asked why officials did not excavate the graves after Baker mentioned the lost burials. Colonial Williamsburg as a tourist attraction had begun to take shape by the 1930s.

Archaeology was focused then on the site’s architecture and buildings, Bell said.

In 2023, archaeologists were working around the Powder Magazine, which was being renovated. A reconstruction of the 1757 Market House had replaced the old Baptist Church nearby. Both were near Duke of Gloucester Street.

At a reconstructed wall, they came across a single grave and a pit containing three men. All four had all of their limbs. Nearby was a pit with three amputated legs. It was a real surprise, since most histories indicated the dead from the hospital had all been accounted for and moved.

“There is a cluster of men who died around the same time,” Gary recalls. “We assumed they died the same day or one day and the next day. You are not going to leave a pit open.”

The research team determined the four soldiers died on and around May 15, 1862.

Cynthia Tucker Coleman (left), a writer and preservationist who advocated for the restoration of historic buildings at Williamsburg, provided a vivid account of the occupation of the town and the hospital.

“The writer can never forget seeing a dead soldier wrapped in his coarse blanket lying in the vestibule of the Church, his body kept for a comrade to die that the trouble of interment might be lessened – A Confederate woman placed a white rose upon his breast and shed a tear for those who loved him at home.”

Her account is kept at the William & Mary library and can be seen online here.

Bell recalls the archaeologists sanitized their excavation tools and wore personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep their own DNA away from the remains. Some of the deceased had personal items. They were not buried in uniforms.

Experts were able to extract genetic material from teeth and skull bones. Subsequent DNA analysis showed one soldier to be in late 40s or early 50s. One was maybe 15 while another was in his 20s and the fourth in his 20s-30s.

“We had well-preserved DNA,” said Gary, who has a theory as to why the skeletal remains were in relatively good condition.

The courtyard area around the magazine was paved with shell. “It is possible that the shell changed the pH of the soil, making it less acidic.”

His detective work soon began in earnest

Bell got to work on figuring out who these four soldiers were. The journey had a few twists and turns, but the key was finding Sully’s pages, which are kept at William & Mary.

While Bell (right) was looking at documents relating to Cynthia Coleman, he asked one of the Special Collections assistants, Carolyn Wilson, about the hospital list. That’s when he learned the pages were kept in papers related to Charles Washington Coleman, Cynthia’s son.

He recalls thinking, “Oh, my God. This is the list Isabella Sully was talking about. The archivist there saved the day.”

Bell later found a somewhat similar list at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. The page is within the family papers of Samuel Blain. It is not known for certain who took those handwritten notes.

The Presbyterian minister visited the hospital and corresponded with the family of patient William Davis, who died in Williamsburg. The list at Washington & Lee helped Bell eliminate soldiers whose limbs were amputated.

The technician kept an Excel spreadsheet, ensuring the narrowed list did not mention men with amputations. He found some of the 60-plus patients at the church were buried elsewhere. Using the Blain list helped him cut the number of possibilities to 29.

Bell provided the Picket a breakdown of the numbers he used:

-- 66 names on the combined lists; this includes men who only stayed at private homes, not just the hospital.

-- 31 of the 66 survived Williamsburg leaving 35 men who died of their wounds after the battle.

-- 15 of the 35 have recorded burials or died in private homes leaving 20 men who died of their wounds after the battle, but do not have recorded burials. (At left, map of Fort Magruder, Library of Congress)

-- 5 of the 20 have recorded amputations leaving 15 men who died of their wounds after the battle, and did not have amputations. (11 of the 58 names on the Blain list have amputations)

That was how the list was reduced down to 15 names for analysis.

Death dates were key because three men were buried together, allowing the team to pinpoint soldiers who died about the same time.

 “We believe they were some of the first to die,” said Bell.

The four apparently were buried close to a wooden fence. “There is no space for any other burials.” That means they were off by themselves from other pits dotting the green.

Trying to bring closure more than 160 years later

The research team, which includes Dr. Raquel Fleskes at Dartmouth College, noted that the South Carolina soldier had no children but several brothers and sisters. They are in touch with male descendants of one brother. 

Those who responded to Gary’s letter have the same last name as the unnamed soldier, who died in his 20s. (Below, Powder Magazine, Wikipedia)

“If we can make a match with him we can likely confirm the other individuals,” said Gary.

Bell said the challenge with the other three soldiers is there are either few siblings to work from or almost no information available on their families.

Even if Colonial Williamsburg is unable to match DNA matches, the descendants will know their ancestors fought at Williamsburg and struggled for life in a field hospital before passing away.

“I want to see if my hypothesis is right and (we) bring closure to the descendants,” said Bell.

The result also could bring narrative stories to an American citizenry that doesn’t interact as much with history as they used to, he added.

Fort Jefferson: Archaeological divers at Dry Tortugas National Park in Gulf survey submerged Civil War-era graves

Grad student Devon Fogarty at John Greer's grave (C. Sproul/NPS)

A submerged Gulf of Mexico island reportedly spotted from the air a few years ago contains a cemetery holding the grave of a laborer who died at Fort Jefferson, the Civil War-era fortress.

Dry Tortugas National Park recently announced the discovery of the cemetery and the remains of a small 19^th-century quarantine hospital. The latter was used to treat yellow fever patients at the fort between 1890 and 1900. The park is 70 miles west of Key West, Fla.

Laborer John Greer died in the first year of the Civil War. The isolated Fort Jefferson is mostly associated with that time, when it held Confederate prisoners and Lincoln assassination conspirators.

Water color depicts hospital and cemetery on Dry Tortugas island (NPS)

The park released photos and video of the fascinating August 2022 find near Garden Key, with a maritime diver checking out Greer’s grave not far from the surface.

Research shows the post cemetery contains dozens of graves of US military personnel, prisoners and civilians who were at Fort Jefferson or nearby islands. Greer died at the fort on Nov. 5, 1861. His cause of death is currently unknown.

His grave was marked with a well-preserved large slab of greywacke, the material used to construct the first floor of Fort Jefferson. The slab was carved into the shape of a headstone and inscribed with his name and date of death. Greer’s is the only currently identified grave on the sand.

Greer's grave stone is still legible (C. Sproul/NPS)

“This intriguing find highlights the potential for untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, both above and below the water,” Josh Marano, maritime archeologist for the south Florida national parks and project director for the survey, said in a statement. “Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners, we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian laborers.”

Marano told The New York Times he noticed a strange pattern in the water while he was flying over the Gulf of Mexico in 2016. He then pored over nautical charts. “There was dry land here at one point. There was a structure on that island at one point,” Marano told the newspaper. “When did it disappear?”

The archaeologist and students surveyed the island last summer and have since been conducting more research.

John Greer's name appears on 1861 roll at Fort Jefferson (NPS)

Park officials note a couple factors that may explain why this island is now below water.

“While the facilities identified in this survey were originally built on dry land, the dynamic conditions caused many of the islands to move over time. Climate change and major storm events have even caused some islands to settle and erode beneath the waves.”

Fort Jefferson was ringed by other islands used for various purposes, including quarantine sites for ill military members, prisoners and civilians.

As the population of Fort Jefferson swelled, the risk of deadly communicable diseases, particularly the mosquito-borne yellow fever, drastically increased. Major outbreaks of disease on the island killed dozens throughout the 1860s and 1870s.

Fort Jefferson is surrounded by submerged and above surface islands (NPS)

The National Park Service’s South Florida National Parks Cultural Resources Program will monitor the archaeological site, and officials remind visitors it is protected by federal law.

Park cultural resources staff, assisted by members of the NPS Submerged Resources Center, the Southeast Archeological Center and a University of Miami graduate student conducted the 2022 survey. The park is not divulging the exact location of the site.

Fort Jefferson is accessible only by boat or seaplane. Visitors are required to provide their own food, water and all other supplies while at the park. 

Their bones were found during work on a riverfront park. Now Union soldiers may be interred at Fredericksburg National Cemetery

Archaeologists test potential gravesite (National Park Service)

Scores of bone fragments found near the site of a hospital used during the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., are expected to be interred at a federal cemetery that holds the remains of more than 15,000 soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park this week posted a Facebook update on the city’s request that the unidentified remains find a final resting place at Fredericksburg National Cemetery, which has not had a soldier or veteran buried there since 1945.

Park officials are trying to find a suitable spot for the burial. They posted  photographs of a National Park Service team at the cemetery testing the proposed location.

“Ground-penetrating radar (done earlier) indicates that the proposed location at the end of this row would work for a new gravesite,” the post says. “However, in this part of the process, the archaeologists need to make sure that the location of the proposed grave is clear of any other burials or archaeologically significant material.”

Wartime image of the town, shows Rowe-Goolrick home at right foreground, 
facing the Eliza Eubank home at left (Library of Congress)

John Hennessy, chief historian and chief of interpretation at the park, told the Picket in an email that the remains were found on city property – the site of the downtown Riverfront Park along the Rappahannock River – by a cultural resources firm working with the city.

“Any analysis of the remains has been done by them and to my knowledge has not been made public,” said Hennessy.

Hennessy said officials have made no decisions about the timing or nature of any ceremony that may attend the reinterment of the soldiers’ remains

The Picket reached out to Dovetail Cultural Resource Group but received no immediately reply.

Recent testing at the national cemetery (NPS photo)

A November 2015 article by The Free Lance-Star newspaper detailed the find near the Rowe-Goolrick house, which served as a hospital during the December 1862 battle. A report said the bones were found mixed in with buttons and bits of fabric from Union infantry uniforms and other items in what may have been a root cellar.

The discovery was made after a Masonic hall next to the Rowe-Goolrick house site was torn down and officials called the company in to study the site. Presumably, remains of soldiers who died at the hospital were buried in the adjoining parcel.

The Rowe-Goolrick house was among several on Sophia Street. It was demolished in 1973 to make room for a parking lot that is now part of the park development. The Picket reached out to the city for a status report on the park project, but received no reply.

A 2019 blog post on the Dovetail website details the discovery of several building foundations and artifacts in the historic area after excavations for the park. It describes the Rowe-Goolrick house:

The now-gone Rowe-Goolrick house in the 1930s (Library of Congress)

“Built in the mid-eighteenth century, this two-story, three-bay home did not face today’s street grid but rather the original town ferry lane, which ceased use shortly after the home was constructed. The foundation of the house was fashioned of local Aquia sandstone.”

As at other battle sites, temporary hospitals were established in Fredericksburg.

According to the Free Lance-Star, there are written accounts from several individuals, including some serving in the 14^th Connecticut Infantry, that describe convalescing on the house’s grounds. Park officials in 2019 said graves were often overlooked in the years following the war.

Sophia Street fronts the Rappahannock River and was home to some of the earliest structures in Fredericksburg, Hennessy has written on his blog. A few survive.

A fascinating circa 1863 photograph of the city shows the Rowe-Goolrick house. It was then the home of Absalom Rowe, a cattleman and future mayor of the town. Near it was the Eliza Eubank home, also shown in the picture. It still survives and may be the oldest building in Fredericksburg (circa 1746).

The Eubank home (By Bradley Owen, HMdb.org)

In recent years, the Eubank home was renovated into office space and a sign outside uses the name Thornton’s Tavern to mark a pre-Civil War establishment in the building.

The Historical Marker Database’s page on the home includes this description on the marker:

“In December 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed violently in the city's streets during the First Battle of Fredericksburg. The Tavern's owner … one of Fredericksburg's few female property owners at the time … returned after the fighting to find that her home had miraculously survived the battle with only minor damage.”

The park visitor center, about a mile from Sophia Street, interprets the story of several Civil War campaigns and battles in the area over a three-year period.

“Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania -- this is America's battleground, where the Civil War roared to its bloody climax,” its website says. “No place more vividly reflects the War's tragic cost in all its forms. A town bombarded and looted. Farms large and small ruined. Refugees by the thousands forced into the countryside. More than 85,000 men wounded; 15,000 killed -- most in graves unknown.”