Brent Goodwin, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans, places a flag at the gravesite of Private Wiley Poe at Union Hill Cemetery in Homewood. At some point during the Civil War Poe left the Confederate army and enlisted in the 1st Alabama Cavalry, which was a Union outfit.By Anne Ruisi
On Memorial Day, families and friends of the fallen will set flags on graves to honor the sacrifices their loved ones made in the line of duty, most during their own lifetimes.
Others, like members of the Sons of Union Veterans, will commemorate their Civil War ancestors and early Jefferson County residents who fought in blue. It was a ceremony for Union soldiers in 1866 that led to the creation of Memorial Day two years later.
“It’s people appreciating history,” said Michael Garrett, commander of the organization’s Maj. Gen. John T. Croxton Camp #17, whose 20 members are from the Birmingham area.
Five Sons of Union Veterans camps in the state will be placing American flags on the graves of men who served in the Union Army. Members will place the flags in cemeteries in their communities, Garrett said.
Some were Alabama natives, or they were like Garrett’s ancestor Sgt. Hamilton K. Moore of Rome, Georgia, who served in regiments such as the 1st Alabama Cavalry. Moore rode with the regiment’s Company E, which escorted William T. Sherman’s army as it marched through Georgia.
Others were former soldiers who headed south after the war, in the 1870s and 1880s, for the opportunity to prosper and thrive in the fast-growing young city of Birmingham.
At the time, the Elyton Land Co. heavily promoted Birmingham in newspapers throughout the country, hoping to attract newcomers. By 1884, the city’s industrial boom was well under way.
The Union veterans were carpenters, like Henry S. Hinman, former corporal in Co. E, 38th New York Infantry; machinists, like Adelbert O. Chapman, former corporal in Co. A, 104th New York Infantry; and entrepreneurs, like Valentine Gilb, former private in Co. D, 5th Ohio Infantry. Gilb and his sons ran a brass foundry.
Some rest in cemeteries associated with the early Birmingham area, such as Oak Hill just outside downtown Birmingham and Union Hill in Homewood, where the Croxton Camp will place flags on the Union graves and tidy them up just before Memorial Day.
Many of the area’s men in blue were members of George A. Custer Post No. 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic, a national society of former Union soldiers.
The Birmingham chapter members were active and earned the respect and friendship of their former Confederate adversaries. This was notably demonstrated in 1891 when 75 Union veterans dedicated a monument for the GAR plot at Oak Hill Cemetery. They were accompanied by their Confederate friends.
That same GAR plot and the tombstones are visible today. At least 25 to 30 Union veterans are buried in the plot, said Stuart Oates, Oak Hill’s director. Other Union veterans are buried in other spots throughout the cemetery, but the exact number isn’t known.
Those soldiers are among the veterans who will be recognized May 27 during a 90-minute veteran military tour of the cemetery led by Oak Hill docent Karen Downs. The tour begins at 10 a.m. from the Pioneer Memorial Building, 1120 19th Street North, Birmingham. For tickets and more information, go to oakhillcemetery.ticketleap.com.
Interest in Alabama’s Union veterans has grown in the past few years, with two new Sons of Union Veterans camps organized in the past four years, Garrett said. The growth seems to be spurred by the removal of Confederate monuments, which he thinks has sparked interest in family history.
What some people, like Garrett, discover is they are descended from ancestors who fought on opposing sides of the war. They even have their own soubriquet.
“SOBs,” Garrett said. “Sons of Both.”
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