Union Veterans Finally Rejoin the Right Side

From the May 23, 2008, On Milwaukee "Fallen Civil War veteran finally rejoins Union side" by Andrew Wagner.

For over 100 years, the gravestones of William Ryan and Lewis Jolliot, buried in Calvary Cemetery both read they were in the Confederate Army. On May 24th, a ceremony was held to rededicate their markers as being members of the Union Army.

Jolliot was in Battery G, 2nd Missouri Light Artillery, US, died in 1885.
Ryan was in Co. C, 10th Tennessee, US, died in 1892.

Into the late 1800s, members of the Confederate military were allowed to be buried in federal cemeteries. Originally, both Union and Confederates got the same rounded-top headstones. In 1905, the Sons of Confederate Veterans lobbied the government for a separate designation on southern markers. According to legend, Confederate markers were ground to a point. Confederate veterans "didn't want no darn Yankees sitting on (their) headstones.

Paul Komlodi, a Registered Nurse at the Milwaukee VA Hospital began investigating Confederate soldiers buried in Milwaukee and discovered these two men were incorrectly identified because they were from border states.

A ceremony was organized by the Sons of Union Veterans in which two color guards will participate. A Confederate one will be at the grave sites first, but then will step back and be replaced by a Union one.

This will be at Calvary Cemetery, 5503 West Blue Mound Road in Milwaukee.

At Long Last. --Old B-Runner