This past April 18th, the Illinois Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans had its 16th annual convention in Springfield, Illinois, at the Hilton Hotel.
This convention was dedicated to the Confederate Cemetery and Memorial on Rozier Street in Alton, Illinois.
According to the brochure, about 300 Confederate prisoners and Union guards who died of smallpox during the war, were buried on Sunflower Island, which is currently under water. This island was used as a quarantine.
Those who were not buried on the island were interred in a special plot in North Alton known today as Confederate Soldiers' Cemetery. In 1905, the Sam Davis Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was organized and petitioned the Federal War Department for funds to erect a permanent marker.
Work on the 40 foot granite column was completed in 1909. A tablet at the base reads: "Erected by the United States to mark the burial place of 1,354 Confederate Soldiers who died here and at the Smallpox Hospital on the adjacent island while prisoners of war and whose graves cannot now be identified."
Gone, But Not Forgotten. --Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
