Wreaths Across America, the Monroe County History Center, and volunteers are hoping to identify all veterans in the cemetery and give them proper resting places.
(Cali Lichter, WFIU/WTIU News)
Shortly after the Civil War, the Grand Army of the Republic organization buried soldiers who had financial troubles in graves across the country.
And that includes many of the veterans buried in Section A of Rose Hill Cemetery. But those graves were usually far away from family and left in poor condition. Many of the veterans buried in Rose Hill are unknown, their resting places unmarked or without the proper stone.
Local organizations are hoping to change that.
Wreaths Across America, the Monroe County History Center, and volunteers are hoping to identify all veterans in the cemetery and give them proper resting places.
Wreaths Across America Bloomington Coordinator Jenny Tracy works with the organization to place wreaths on all military veterans graves.
“Being a part of veterans service organizations, they place flags on the wreaths, and you'll soon find out that they don't keep a list of just veterans, right?” Tracy said. “It became very apparent that trying to keep track of that is not as easy as one would like.”
Joining together with the Monroe County History Center and other volunteers, they set to work, walking around the cemetery and trying to identify veterans’ gaves.
“So now this year, I think here in Rose Hillare 1040 veterans, and we're still identifying veterans that we were not aware of,” Tracy said.
Veterans like James Bowman, whose headstones was one of the first to be replaced. Bowman was a private in the 112th Indiana Infantry in the Civil War.
Scott Emery, chairperson of the cemetery committee and Navy veteran, said all veterans in the cemetery deserve a proper burial.
“There’s a lot of ways people sacrificed during the war,” Emery said.
One of the ways the groups are trying to rectify the burials is by having the wives of veterans be buried next to their spouses and recognized on their stones.
“They had to figure out what PTSD was before we even knew,” Emery said.
John Thiel, a staff sergeant in the Vietnam War, helped fund the wives’ headstones.
“Legacy is a very important thing to me. It's important to be remembered after you're gone,” Thiel said. “And to not have a stone, it’s like the person never existed.”
The plan is to try and identify all veterans in Rose Hill and White Oak Cemeteries and give them all proper markers.
“We're just really proud that we have a lot of dedicated people who care about veterans, whether they're still with us or not,” Tracy said. “Their service matters. They laid the foundation they sacrificed and they're worth our remembrance and honor.”
Wreaths Across America will be laying wreaths on all veterans’ graves and saying each name aloud Dec. 17.
