At least 30 Union soldiers were killed during the battle at Parker's Crossroads. Those who were killed in action were buried here shortly after the battle took place.
Those burials took places according to orders issued by the War Department in April 1862 directing commanding generals to "Lay off lots of ground in some suitable spot near every battlefield ? and to cause the remains of those killed to be interred, with headboards to the graves bearing numbers, and where practicable, the names of the persons buried in them." Registers were to be kept listing the names of the persons buried. Records of burials were ultimately sent to the quartermaster general's office in Washington, D.C.
Immediately after the war ended a concerted effort began to identify the resting places of the Union dead and to remove them to national cemeteries, many of which were founded in those early post-war years. In July 1867 the bodies of the soldiers buried here were exhumed and reinterred at the National Cemetery in Corinth, Mississippi.
The monument was erected by the Parker's Crossroads Battlefield Association in 1994 to commemorate the initial resting place of the Union soldiers killed in action.
The Union Dead
The names below are those of the men killed during the Battle of Parker's Crossroads and who were probably buried in this cemetery.
122nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry
Private John Baird
Private Roswell Briggs
Second Lieutenant Pleasant L. Bristow
Private Jesse T. Bryant
Private Joseph S. Crossgrove
Private John W. Davis
Private George W. Finch
Corporal Reuben R. Fletcher
Private James T. Gibson
Private Samuel F. Hicks
Corporal William B. Moore
Private Henry Opperman
Private Samuel W. Peter
Private Evan F. Richmond
Private Ernst Russell
Private James Thornton
Private Henry M. Wilcox
50th Indiana Volunteer Infantry
Private John W. Browning
Second Lieutenant Daniel J. Dean
Private James R. Dougherty
Corporal Samuel H. Taylor
39th Iowa Volunteer Infantry
Corporal Jacob Koontz
Waggoner Dimmick Layton
Private Jonah Stearns
7th Wisconsin, 7th Battery Light Artillery
(Badger State Flying Artillery)
Second Lieutenant Samual Hays
Sergeant M.I. Marsden
Sergeant A. Wallwork
Archaeology at the Cemetery
An archaeological investigation conducted in November 1993 verified that this was the location where Union casualties were buried following the Battle of Parker's Crossroads. Two more excavations were conducted 1994. These limited investigations demonstrated conclusively that this was the original Union cemetery. Differences in soil color and texture allowed the archaeologists to identify the location of a number of burials. During the excavations the remains of one individual, mistakenly left behind when the others were relocated, were uncovered.
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