The city of Franklin has organized a memorial service for a Civil War soldier whose remains were discovered over the summer at a construction site. The sons of two Civil War veterans will speak at the service Saturday.
The two sons will help re-inter the soldier’s remains. 93-year-old Harold Becker of Grand Rapids, Michigan is the son of a Union soldier who fought in the Battle of Franklin, November 30th, 1864.
James Brown of Knoxville is 97. His father was a private in the Confederate army and fought at Shiloh and Gettysburg. At the funeral service, Brown says he’ll share stories passed down from his father.
“We had a bunch of my young friends out on my front porch under a magnolia tree, and he told us of the hardships they endured, and towards the end of the war, they hardly had enough to eat.”
Brown’s dad, also named James Brown, was at Appomattox, Virginia when the Confederacy surrendered. He then walked home to Georgia with a knee injured by a mini-ball. It forced him to use a cane the rest of his life.
It’s something of a fluke for any child of a Civil War veteran to be alive. Brown was born in 1912 when his father, who had remarried a much younger woman, was 71.
A coffin containing the unknown soldier’s remains will lie in state at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Franklin starting Thursday morning. Re-enactors will provide a period funeral service Saturday morning at 10.
It’s not known which army the soldier fought for, though Union buttons were found with the remains. They were discovered by private developers on the former “Through the Green” golf course.
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