BALDWIN COUNTY, GA - Civil War Brown's Hospital Milledgeville

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Milledgeville's unknown Civil War soldiers ID'd 
By Rob Peecher 
Telegraph Staff Writer 
MILLEDGEVILLE -Since 1868 their names have been forgotten. 

Above their final resting place is a monument engraved
with the word "unknown." Today, Hugh Harrington will
put names to them. 

Harrington will speak this afternoon at the Confederate
Memorial Day ceremony in Milledgeville's historic
Memory Hill Cemetery. The speech will be brief, he
said, just a few minutes to describe how he stumbled
upon the identities of the unknown Confederate soldiers
in the cemetery. And he will identify them for the
first time publicly. 

Harrington was in the library at Georgia College &
State University, going through the microfilm records
of the Southern Recorder, a Civil War-era Milledgeville
newspaper. He was looking for articles about a prison
break from the women's prison when he found a list of
soldiers who had died at Brown's Hospital - a hospital
named for a former Georgia governor where Confederate
militia were treated. 

The hospital was moved from Atlanta to Milledgeville
when Union soldiers laid siege to Atlanta. 

Harrington knew that the unknown soldiers in Memory
Hill Cemetery had died at Brown's Hospital. 

"As soon as I saw that it was Brown's Hospital, I knew
immediately what it was," Harrington said, standing at
the Confederate memorial on the site of the unknowns'
grave. "I knew that that list was these men. It was an
exciting day. 

"I looked all around the library trying to find
somebody who would appreciate it, and I couldn't, so I
went straight from the library right down here. All by
myself, late in the afternoon, I announced to these
fellows, 'I know who you are.'" 

Harrington describes himself as a "history buff." He
and his wife have indexed cemeteries in Baldwin,
Hancock and Jones counties, and his knowledge of Memory
Hill Cemetery assisted him in realizing what he'd
discovered in that old newspaper article. Two of the
soldiers buried with the unknown have monuments marking
their graves. Their names - with varied spellings -
appeared in the list in the newspaper article, and
Harrington recognized them. 

Louise Horne was among the first people Harrington
contacted to share the news. Horne is second vice-
president with the local chapter of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy. 

"I couldn't believe it," Horne said. "After all these
years we've had services here, and now to know who
these unknown soldiers are is simply wonderful. This is
a momentous occasion." 

Horne said there have been some discussions about
placing a plaque at the site identifying the unknown
soldiers. Horne and Harrington have written an article
for the Daughters of the Confederacy magazine about the
finding. 

Harrington - who still hasn't found an article about
the prison break - said he was thunderstruck to
discover something "new" about the Civil War. Noting
the plethora of books that have been written on the
subject over the years, he said the war is "well-tilled
ground." 

"So it was a thrilling day," Harrington said. 

Harrington sorted through the entire list and
determined if any of the soldiers appearing on the list
had been buried somewhere else. Many bodies were sent
home. 

But he's narrowed the list down to 24 men and boys -
two of whom have headstones. He was able to determine
the date each of them died (they all died in 1864) and
in some cases got more information about them. 

The men were buried in 1864 and the monument was
erected above them in 1868. The plaque, "Our unknown
confederate dead," was placed on the monument about
1900. 

"At the time they were buried, their names were known,"
Harrington said. "Four years later they were
forgotten." 

All of them died in August or September of 1864 as
patients of the hospital, and apparently all of them
died of disease and not of battle wounds. Only Georgia
soldiers were in Brown's Hospital, and as part of the
Georgia militia in 1864, these men were probably all
elderly men or boys. 

The unknown solders are: 
J. M. Winn of Company F, 2nd Regiment, who died of typhoid fever; 
J.R. Ellis of Company B, 2nd Battalion, who died of measles; 
Private Owen Ramsey of Company A, 12th Regiment, 2nd Brigade; 
Private Green B. Turner of Company H, 6th Regiment, 2nd Brigade; 
Aaron Rogers; 
Mardeal W. Wood; 
Ensign Marion Atkerson, Company C, 4th Battalion, State Guards; 
J.M. Hutcherson; 
Private T. Judge, Company G. 8th Regiment, 3rd Brigade; 
Reddick Thornton; 
Private Ringold Commander, Georgia Military Institute Cadet, Company B, who died of typhoid fever; 
William Fussell; 
Elisha B. Cape; 
J.M. Green; 
James T. Buckner; 
Edward M. Clark; 
William Tapley; 
Hugh Cannell; 
William E. Joyner; 
Willis Harrell; 
Private James J. Wren, Stapleton's Company, 12th Georgia Cavalry, State Guards; 
and Corporal Roland Mercer, 22nd Battalion, Georgia Cavalry, State Guards."