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storage room and into a space with aisles of
staples, affectionately called a “mini Kroger.”
While the food pantry is open to all
students, CARE focuses on students who
have been or are homeless, in foster care, or
lacking reliable access to food. The new food
pantry operates like a grocery store, in which
students will be able to get a certain amount
of food (determined based on need) free of
charge.
CARE’s director, Marcy Stidum, said CARE
distributes around 11,000 pounds of food
each year to over 500 students, though she
believes numbers have been higher during
the pandemic.
‘He was a hero’: Historian
hopes to bring Black
Union soldier’s remains
to Marietta National
Cemetery
BY CHART RIGGALL
On a July day in 1864, no doubt in either
sweltering heat or a summer downpour,
a Black man fighting under the banner of
the Union Army died on the banks of the
Chattahoochee River, not far from where
the I-75 bridge stands today. Felled by a
Confederate bullet, his body lay in that spot
for nearly a hundred years.
And on a July day in 2021, that soldier
may finally come to his rightful and final
resting place, among the thousands of other
American soldiers buried at Marietta National
Cemetery.
That, at least, is the hope of Brad Quinlin,
the cemetery’s volunteer historian for over
three decades. For years, Quinlin has been
at work on a project documenting the
contributions of Black men and women to
the Union war effort, including the over 250
Black soldiers buried at the cemetery, many
of them in graves without names.
For months, he’s been lobbying federal
authorities to open the cemetery and allow
a funeral for the unknown soldier’s remains,
complete with full honor guard. He intends
to have the ceremony coincide with the
approximate date of the soldier’s death,
around July 9, 10, or 11.
By then, Quinlin hopes to have identified
the man so a headstone bearing his
name can be placed. Through extensive
archival research, he’s narrowed down the
possibilities to four names.
The journey of the soldier, whoever he
may be, has been a long and winding one,
Over 250 graves of United States Colored Troops, such as this one belonging to “Dan’l
Kennedy,” lie on the grounds of Marietta National Cemetery. Local historian Brad Quinlin is
hoping to bring one more Black soldier home to his final resting place this summer.
according to Penn Templeton, a Civil War
collector and former president of the Civil War
Round Table in Atlanta.
Templeton first came across the soldier’s
remains nearly 50 years ago, while visiting
the Atlanta home of Dr. William Stone, a noted
collector of Civil War artifacts. In Stone’s
basement, among the trove of weapons and
paraphernalia, was a glass case containing a
skull, a Union belt buckle, breast plate, and
buttons.
Stone told Templeton he’d found the
remains while out hunting by the river one
afternoon, with a Confederate Minie ball
still lodged in the skull. For years, historical
orthodoxy held that Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman did not have Black soldiers in
his army, and thus Stone and Templeton
assumed the soldier had been white.
Upon Stone’s death in 2010, Templeton
was given the remains by the late doctor’s
family. A few years later, Templeton passed
them along to another collector, who
contacted Quinlin. The men conferred
amongst one another and decided it was past
time to lay the soldier to rest.
Quinlin then contacted Dr. Rick Snow, a
Knoxville-based forensic anthropologist who
has worked for organizations ranging from
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to the
United Nations. And it was Snow’s forensic
analysis which produced the revelation that
the soldier was a Black man.
“That blew me away,” Templeton said. “But
he’ll finally have some good words said on
him and get a Christian burial.”
Quinlin emphasized he wants the affair to
carry the same respect as would any burial of
a U.S. soldier.
“I want this to be dignified, and to
celebrate him,” Quinlin said. He plans to
work with Zion Baptist Church in Marietta,
where many Black Cobb Countians were
parishioners after the Civil War, to help
organize the ceremonies.
Until this summer, Quinlin is hoping to get
back into the National Archives and review
muster lists and other documents to pin down
the soldier’s identity. But Templeton aptly
summed up his feelings toward the thus-far
unknown soldier.
“He was a hero to his country,” Templeton
said, “whoever he was.”
PHOTO BY CHART RIGGALL
APRIL 2021 | COBB LIFE 145