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Woodlawn National Cemetery Flag Project
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The ProjectOur camp project "Flags for Elmira," is the fund raising project to purchase and maintain Confederate Battleflags to be placed on all the known Confederate soldiers graves that are buried in the Confederate section of the Woodlawn National Cemetery, in Elmira, New York. |
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In the case of the Elmira prison graves, we have a former runaway slave from Leesburg, Virginia to thank for the documenting & burying the known Confederate dead. His name was Sexton John W. Jones. Mr. Jones took the responsibility of documenting each known Confederate grave with his name, regiment and death date. The Federal Government paid him cheaply for his services (averaging about 6 cents a body).
The Confederate soldiers are buried in the Woodlawn National Cemetery. In the Confederate section, there is a monument to the Confederate dead, and a marker to the 49 Confederate prisoners who were killed in a train wreck in Shohola, Pennsylvania while being transported from Point Lookout prison en route to Elmira, and the grave makers of the 2988 Confederate soldiers from 14 states.
The Federal Government & army were not under any obligation or
guidelines to make detailed or accurate reports on prisoner deaths. They were
not responsible for the recording of information of a Confederate soldiers
death, burial, (for the most part), or death statistics of any federal prison
site.
Even today, the only thing the Federal Government is obligated to do is give a
federal marker for any Confederate soldiers grave site. National cemeteries are
maintained (grass cut, etc.), but not much else is done for our honored hero's,
except having a U. S flag upon his grave, as a remembrance as an American
Soldier.
There is no Confederate flag flying from the flagpole, for which to honor our Confederate dead. The only thing the U.S. Government provides is a U.S. flag to honor these American soldiers. They will not place a Confederate flag on these graves.
The Buffalo Guards Camp 1975 raised enough funds to honor our Confederate dead, by purchasing flags and other decorations, to place on each of the known Confederate dead in the Woodlawn Cemetery, and place a wreath by the Confederate monument and marker to those who dead in the Shohola train disaster on our noted holidays for remembrance.
Our camp is responsible for the placement and removal of all our Confederate Battleflag and decorations in accordance of all the National Cemetery Administration guidelines and Federal regulations set by the Veterans Administration.
Listed below is a listing of the known numbers by state who have Confederate dead buried at the Woodlawn National Cemetery:
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Confederate prison deaths buried in Cemetery - 2988
(6 are buried outside of Cemetery nearby)
Shohola, PA train Wreck victims - 49
TOTAL 3037
As a courtesy, our camp would be happy to send you a listing your states Confederate dead, in an MS Excel format or Word, for a donation of your choice. For personal grave photographs, please list names. We will do our best to get you a picture of your ancestors, regiments or states, etc., photo out to you as quickly as possible. (Preferred to send you a photo via, Internet, from a digital photo, from our digital camera.)
Please feel free to contact us with any comments or questions.
We currently have the funds needed to maintain the project, but still accept donations, which will be earmarked for future expenses of this project.
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If paying by check, please make checks payable to: |
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