Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994 TAG: 9401300028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Another letter, from a Florida man, said his wife's eyes "filled up with tears, and my throat became tight."
They were typical of the response to a story about a Southern lady solemnly decorating a Union soldier's grave each Memorial Day. Alice Heflin Abernathy says she hasn't received so much mail since she closed her dress shop 20 years ago.
Abernathy, who will be 90 in February, believes she is just doing her duty by keeping a promise her grandfather made to a Massachusetts family at least 120 years ago.
Her grandfather, Civil War veteran Andrew Birdsall, was hired as superintendent of Fredericksburg National Cemetery about 1870. The hilltop cemetery is the resting place of 15,000 soldiers, mostly Union.
Shortly after becoming superintendent, Birdsall received a letter from the family of Jerome Pierce, a young corporal from Orange, Mass., who was killed during the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in 1864.
Pierce was buried at Fredericksburg National Cemetery, and his relatives could not travel to Virginia to honor the grave. Instead, they sent Birdsall $100 and asked him to place flowers on Pierce's marker each year. Birdsall kept the promise. The responsibility for decorating the grave passed from Birdsall to Abernathy.
People wondered about the wreaths on Pierce's grave. But it remained a mystery until last Memorial Day, when Abernathy's great-great-nephew, 12-year-old Kent Ingalls, told classmates about his family's tradition. Abernathy's story received national publicity, and letters began arriving last summer.
by CNB