THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
DANVILLE — This week’s “Taps on Tuesday” program focused on Juneteenth and highlighted some African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War and are buried in Vermilion County.
Some of the tombstones pointed out in the Soldiers Circle included a newly replaced military headstone for Henry Parker of the 29th United States Colored Infantry, with all troops from Illinois.
Parker served in Company C of that regiment and is buried in lot number 60 in Soldiers Circle.
“For several decades, Henry’s headstone was unreadable with just a few letters on the marble stone showing. Last year, we researched, filed for and received a new stone for Private Parker. So, this is the first time in many, many Juneteenths that we can actually read the wording on Private Henry Parker’s stone. He is among a number of veterans who served in United States Colored units who are buried here at Spring Hill,” said Vermilion County War Museum President and Spring Hill Cemetery Board Secretary Larry Weatherford.
Part of Tuesday’s program: “On Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, along with several Union regiments of the United States Colored Troops. Their mission was twofold: to enforce freedom for all enslaved black people in Texas who were already freed under the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and to ensure that all 250,000 were informed of their freedom. The 8th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 38th and 43rd United States Colored Infantry Regiments were among those represented. All played a significant role in this historic event, as they were part of the Union troops that had traveled to Galveston to free enslaved African-Americans on that momentous day.”
“These actions provided a powerful image to the enslaved people on the island and throughout Texas who were previously unaware that they had been granted freedom. General Granger made the news official. He stepped onto the balcony of Ashton Villa, the former headquarters of the Texas Confederate Army, and read from General Orders No. 3. The order informed the slaves that the war was over and that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier.”
“The actual event commemorated by ‘Juneteenth’ appeared at the time to be a small and seemingly unimportant event to the lives of most the population of the United States. General Granger’s reading of General Orders No.3 in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865, occurred simultaneously with two other orders that day. But the effect of that order would have a much more long-lasting impact than any other orders announced on June 19th, 1865.”
Weatherford also said more about Parker, “We don’t know a great deal about Henry before the war, other than that he enlisted while living in Chicago. So, whether he had been a free Black man or had escaped slavery and moved north, we aren’t sure. But we do know that he stepped forward to fight for the freedom of all enslaved Black Americans. After the war, he moved to Danville.”
“Following the formal presentation in Galveston, Henry and the troops went about through the countryside informing enslaved people that they were now free. Imagine having the duty and honor of telling around a quarter of a million people that after years of enslavement and four terrible years of war, that they were now free.”
Weatherford and others, including caretakers of the cemetery, continue to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to see that these headstones and markers, such as Parker’s, that are broken, missing or are illegible are replaced.
Since last year, they’ve cleaned, repaired and replaced about 30-40 headstones at Spring Hill, Weatherford said.
There will be another 20 replacements this year, just in Soldiers Circle, Weatherford said. Soldiers Circle at Spring Hill Cemetery on Voorhees Street in Danville contains almost 500 veterans’ gravesites.
Weatherford said the headstone replacement process can take about a month from submitting paperwork to the VA to actually replacing them.
The old tombstones being replaced go back to around 1888. As part of the paperwork to the VA, Weatherford has to prove the person is buried there.
