In a story posted at Nashville Public Radio today, it was reported that James Brown and Harold Becker will speak at a service for an unknown Civil War soldier on Saturday, 10 October in Franklin, Tennessee. The remains of this soldier were discovered over the summer at a construction site, and the city of Franklin has organized a memorial service to honor the soldier and to bury his remains.
In his honor, two sons of Civil War soldiers – one Union and one Confederate – will speak at the ceremony.
James Brown, age 97 and from Knoxville, recounts how his father, a private in the Confederate army who fought at Shiloh and Gettysburg, was wounded at Appomattox when the Confederacy surrendered. His father, also named James Brown, then walked home to Georgia with a knee injured by a mini-ball. It forced him to use a cane the rest of his life.
93-year-old Harold Becker of Grand Rapids, Michigan is the son of a Union soldier who fought in the Battle of Franklin, November 30th, 1864. According to the story:
It’s something of a fluke for any child of a Civil War veteran to be alive. Brown was born in 1912 when his father, who had remarried a much younger woman, was 71.
The unknown soldier will lie in state at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Franklin beginning today. Re-enactors will provide a period funeral service on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. “It’s not known which army the soldier fought for, though Union buttons were found with the remains. They were discovered by private developers on the former ‘Through the Green’ golf course.”
