Recently Identified Unknown Civil War Soldier To Be Honored

The only Confederate soldier interred in the Beaufort National Cemetery with a tombstone marked as unknown has been identified.  Pvt. Haywood Treadwell of the 61^st NC Volunteers, Co. G whose identity emerges after 150 years, will be recognized along with other Confederate soldiers on May 9^th and 10^th.

The event will include a Friday evening symposium and a Saturday formal memorial ceremony with the unveiling of the new Treadwell gravestone. During the Friday May 9^th symposium, historians will trace the life of Private Treadwell, from his years as a turpentine farmer in Sampson County, NC, to his military service, his wounding and capture during the battle for Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor, and ultimately to his death in Union Hospital No. 4 in Beaufort and burial on September 12, 1863.

The symposium will be held at the University of South Carolina Beaufort Performing Arts Center at 7:00 P.M. Beginning at 6:00PM, there will be a dry encampment of Confederate re-enactors, an informal talk on Civil War medical practices and a live band performing Civil War era music on the grounds of the Performing Arts Center.  The symposium is free and open to the general public.

24 April 2014 UPDATE from program organizers: There will be a $10 fee for entrance into the symposium - unless one attends in Civil War era period costume. 

Planned for May 10^th is a formal Confederate memorial ceremony at the Beaufort National Cemetery. Beginning at 10:00 AM, it will include an honor guard of Confederate re-enactors, a cannon salute to Pvt. Treadwell and the other Confederate soldiers interred in the Cemetery and the unveiling of Pvt. Treadwell’s new gravestone by Treadwell descendants. Th Confederate memorial ceremony event is free and open to the general public.

Chairing the symposium will be Dr. Lawrence S. Rowland, Professor Emeritus, the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Speakers will include Joel Rose, President of the Sampson County Historical Society; Neil Baxley, author of No Prouder Fate: The Story of the 11th SC Volunteer Infantry; and, Penelope Holme Parker whose research on the William Wigg Barnwell House (Union Hospital #4) in Beaufort, SC for its owners Conway G. and Diane Ivy, led to the discovery of Treadwell’s identity.

Co-sponsoring the event are the Historic Beaufort Foundation, the Richard H. Anderson Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Stephen Elliott Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

For more information on the event contact: Penelope Holme Parker at pwhparker@gmail.com and Jody Henson at jodyhenson@yahoo.com.

PS:  Some of Parker's research was done here in the Beaufort District Collection and our discussion of strategies for solving her research problem led to the discovery of Treadwell's identity.  Having a competent ALA-accredited degreed librarian to talk through her research problem did make a difference in the identification process.  As they say, "A library without a librarian is just a room."