Confederate General Buried in Brooklyn

From the May 22, 2011, New York Times.

Not exactly where you would expect to find a Confederate general buried, but Robert Selden Garnett, the first general killed during the war, is buried at Brooklyn New York's Green-Wood Cemetery where he is buried at the family plot.  His grave was unmarked at first at the family didn't want visitors to know.

He was made a brigadier general in 1861 and briefly commanded Confederate troops in western Virginia until he was killed at the Battle of Corrick's Ford July 13, 1861.  Reportedly, his last words were, "Three cheers for Jeff Davis."

Union forces turned his body over to his family.  Four years later, his family decided that he should be buried alongside his wife and son, who had died before the war, in Brooklyn.  His remains were exhumed and secretly re-interred in Green-Wood.  They left the grave unmarked, however, for fear of anti-Southern sentiment.

Earlier in May, his grave was marked, one of 75 Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.  Many of these ex-secessionists had economic ties in New York City after the war and some had come looking for jobs.

A project to identify Civil War graves began in 2002 in the cemetery which has about 600,000 burials.

Embarrassed By a Confederate in the Attic.  --Old Secesh