Civil War vet gets long overdue headstone at Derry Township cemetery

This Memorial Day will be special for a Derry Township woman, whose hours of research and diligence digging into family history and dealing with the Veterans Administration paid off this spring when a headstone was placed at the grave of her Civil War ancestor, more than a century after he died.

“It was a labor of love. It bothered me that he was a Civil War veteran without a headstone. People should have a headstone honoring their service,” said Mary Ann Jones Von Sennet, 74, whose work resulted in a headstone for William J. Burry, her great-great-grandfather.

Until an upright granite headstone was placed at his burial site in Hillside Cemetery, Derry Township, in April, Burry had been buried in an unmarked grave since he died July 28, 1918. The Veterans Administration last fall approved payment for the historical-style marker, which features his name, rank and regiment inscribed in an inset shield, with his birth and death dates inscribed below the shield. Shaffer Memorial in Loyalhanna set the stone for free, Von Sennet said.

Von Sennet started her journey to get a headstone for Burry after her husband, William “Bill” Von Sennet, died in July 2020. He is buried in the same cemetery adjacent to Hillside United Methodist Church, about 3 miles north of Derry Borough. A distant relative of Burry’s wife, Catharine Burry, contacted Von Sennet via findagrave.com and asked for a photo of Burry’s headstone.

Before she could get a headstone for her great-great-grandfather, however, Von Sennet had to answer what should have been an easy question.

The only indication that a Civil War veteran was laid to rest not far from where Catharine Burry was buried was a small, white ceramic marker with “1094” on it and the letters “G.A.R,” which stands for Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of veterans of the Union Army who fought against the Confederacy. That stone, with a flag holder, is more than 20 feet from his wife’s headstone. Just like about 20 other similar markers with flag holders for Civil War veterans buried in that small cemetery, there is no name on it.

The Grand Army of the Republic distributed the white ceramic markers, said Michael Kraus, a curator at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust in Oakland.

“Every town had a G.A.R. post. There were 500-some in Pennsylvania,” said Kraus, who noted Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall was founded by a G.A.R. committee.

While the markers were not limited to Westmoreland County graves, “I find them primarily in Western Pennsylvania cemeteries,” Kraus said.

But finding out who was assigned a specific numbered marker would be difficult to determine. The G.A.R. posts likely would have kept records of which veteran was assigned a number, but there is no central place where the marker records were kept, Kraus said.

Von Sennet knew from a newspaper obituary he was buried in the cemetery, but “the church could not prove the location of the grave.”

Burial records for the cemetery are incomplete, saidDaniel McLean, a Hillside Cemetery Association trustee.

Burry’s service in the Civil War, his regiment, his death and cemetery where he is buried is recorded on a card kept by the Westmoreland County Office of Veterans Affairs.

The card in the County Veterans Grave Registration Record is among the veterans’ cards stored in the courthouse basement, said Matt Zamosky, director of Veterans Affairs. The card states that Burry is buried in Section No. 92 in the Hillside Cemetery but does not have the corresponding G.A.R. marker number on it.

This brought Von Sennet back to the incomplete burial records at the cemetery.

“I’m 99.9% sure that is where he is buried,” Von Sennet said during a recent visit to the cemetery.

Yet, Von Sennet stated in a recent email that, “my mind is still troubled. Did we actually set the headstone at the proper gravesite?”

Civil War service

Sifting through online Civil War records, Von Sennet said, she “did tons of research” and learned before going to the Veterans Affairs office the regiment he joined from his home in Prospect, Butler County. Burry’s service with the 134th Regiment was listed in the 1890 census of “Surviving Solders, Sailors and Marines,” from the Millwood and Cokeville sections of Derry Township.

Burry was 31 when he volunteered in August 1862 to give President Abraham Lincoln nine months of service in the Union Army. He joined Company G of the 134th Regiment, leaving behind a wife who was pregnant and three young children.

According to a regimental history that Von Sennet discovered, Company G was transported from a camp in Harrisburg to Washington, D.C., to defend the capital from a feared invasion of Confederate forces in August 1862. The regiment marched from Arlington Heights, Va., toward Manassas and the Second Battle of Bull Run on Aug. 30 but arrived too late to engage in the fighting.

The troops were dispatched to Antietam, Md., but reached the bloody battlefield Sept. 18, a day after the fighting had substantially ended. The regiment was engaged in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, then the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

Burry was corporal when his enlistment expired May 26, 1863, just as Gen. Robert E. Lee was preparing to move his large Confederate army to invade Pennsylvania. It would culminate in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1 through 3, which became a turning point in the war.

After the war ended, Burry returned to Butler County, then moved with his family to Moon Township in 1880, where he worked as a shoemaker. The 1890 census states he suffered from a “spinal affliction,” for which he would receive $20 a month in 1907. He lived with family in Texas for four years, returning to Hillside in 1918, where he died at his son’s home, Von Sennet said.

Looking around at the weathered G.A.R. stones scattered through the cemetery, Von Sennet said she hopes her successful search for answers about her Civil War ancestor’s grave will inspire others to do research to get a headstone for a veteran who does not have one.

“They’re (G.A.R. markers) all over Westmoreland County. I would like other people to know that … you can get a headstone (from the VA).”