DEPARTMENT of RHODE ISLAND
SONS of UNION VETERANS of the
CIVIL WAR
Commodore Joel Abbot, Camp No. 21
Article taken from the Newport Daily News, Friday, March 31 2000 (used with permission)
'It's the right thing to do'
Group raises money to replace flag holders on veterans' graves
By Janine Landry
Daily News staff
NEWPORT -- Over the years, vandals, storms and even mowing equipment have contributed to the disappearance of the cast iron, star-shaped flag holders that once adorned the graves of Civil War veterans buried in Island Cemetery.
Now a local group of history buffs and descendants of Civil War veterans wants to replace the Grand Army of the Republic flag holders.
"It kind of feels like a duty," said Michael Kennedy of Tiverton, senior vice commander of Commodore Joel Abbot Camp No. 21 of the Rhode Island Department of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
"We're veterans ourselves," added Kenneth Lucier of Middletown, the camp's secretary/treasurer. "It's the right thing to do."
Both men served as submariners in the Navy, Lucier for 10 years and Kennedy for eight, and work at Raytheon. Both also can trace their ancestry to men who served in the Union army during the Civil War.
Camp No. 21 is raising money to buy new aluminum flag holders, replicas of those originally placed in the Soldiers and Sailors Burial Plot in the cemetery. The plot contains the remains of 49 veterans from numerous states and units, including some who served in the U.S. Colored Troops. Lucier estimated that about a half-dozen of the veterans buried in the plot were black and are believed to have served in the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery or the Colored Troops.
The plot was deeded in April 1889 to Edmund H. Schermerhorn, who made a $1,000 deposit for its perpetual care. Schermerhorn sold the plot to the two Newport Grand Army of the Republic posts, Charles Lawton Post No. 5 and Govenour K. Warren Post No. 21, for $1.
The deed states that only "the bodies of deceased soldiers and sailors who fought in the Army and Navy of the United States in the late war for the preservation of the Union" can be buried there. The intent, Lucier said, was that no Civil War veteran would ever be buried in a pauper's grave.
The group has raised about $300 for the project. Their goal is about $1,500, so they can purchase flag holders, plants and flowers and install a flagpole nearby. A photograph taken in the early part of the century shows the plot with the stars, the flagpole and two cannons on display.
The flag holders cost $11 each; Lucier said he hopes to find individuals who would like to sponsor each one. He posted the group's fund-raiser on the Internet and received a variety of responses. So far, 21 graves have sponsors.
A Virginia woman sent money to sponsor a black soldier, Lucier said. A military re-enactors group from New York sponsored a flag holder for the grave of William Rapp, who served with the N.Y. Volunteers, Company C, and fought at Gettysburg. The camp hopes to replace the flagpole and flag holders and add plantings in time for a ceremony on Decoration Day, May 30 - the original Memorial Day holiday. The camp will collect donations at the Newport Artillery Company 45th Historical Arms and Militaria Show Saturday and Sunday at the Rhode Island National Guard 103rd Field Artillery Armory on Metacom Avenue in Bristol. Donations payable to the Commodore Joel Abbot Camp. No. 21, GAR Memorial Restoration Fund, may be dropped off at any Bank of Newport branch.
Click HERE to view a map of Island Cemetery.
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