Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Archaeologists probe Kentucky cemetery for 19th century war remains

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Archaeologists probe Kentucky cemetery for 19th century war remains

Written by DeadGirl
Wednesday, 04 August 2004
CHARLES WOLFE Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. - Archaeologists with radar equipment probed a cemetery Wednesday for something that has eluded generations of historians: the unmarked mass grave of 15 Kentuckians massacred during the War of 1812. "There have been historians who spent a lifetime trying to find out what happened to these remains," said John Trowbridge, director of the Kentucky Military History Museum, who was among those overseeing the project. Researchers are now banking that modern technology will yield an answer. Ground-penetrating radar, a device resembling a computerized baby buggy, was wheeled slowly around Kentucky's 1850 state battle monument in the center of the Frankfort Cemetery. David Pollack, a Kentucky Heritage Council archaeologist, said the radar detects subterranean "anomalies" that could indicate burial sites. Its data will be analyzed in a lab, possibly taking weeks, Pollack and others said. The 15 Kentuckians were among casualties of the Battle of Raisin River near present-day Monroe, Mich. Historians say they surrendered to British troops but were handed over to Indians and killed. Mutilated remains were strewn about but eventually buried in Detroit. They were finally returned to Kentucky, in a single box, about 1848. The anonymity of the final burial site has puzzled researchers. Newspapers of the period reported the remains being paraded through Cincinnati, then taken by boat across the Ohio River to Covington and placed in a vault in Linden Grove Cemetery. There they stayed until 1850, when the Kentucky General Assembly decreed that they should be interred as heroes in the "State Lot" of the Frankfort Cemetery. After that - nothing. "It's a great mystery," said Jim Richardson, Frankfort Cemetery superintendent. Trowbridge speculated that one of the region's recurrent cholera scares may have prompted a quick burial with little or no ceremony and no permanent marking. "Basically they were just buried up here and forgotten about," he said. "They could be out here anywhere." Trowbridge also was looking for a casualty of the 1848 war with Mexico - Lt. Joseph W. Powell of Kenton County, killed at the Battle of Buena Vista. Powell's name is carved high on the state battle monument. Trowbridge said Powell's body is known to have been among those brought back from Mexico for burial around the monument, but he has no marked grave. A 1909 photo shows a pair of headstones where there now is a sidewalk to the monument. "There's a good chance our young lieutenant is buried right here," Trowbridge said. Trowbridge, the driving force behind the project, said he was spurred as a historian by a desire for exactness and as a military veteran by a feeling that soldiers past should be honored in death. "I'd want someone to properly mark my grave," he said. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/9319705.htm

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries