THE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN

CONFEDERATE SOLDIERORAL PRESENTATION BY: RAM CHATOTH AND

QUINTIN PETERS

INTRODUCTIONTHE STORY BEHIND THIS SOLDIER IS A PECULIAR ONE. QUINTIN AND I ARE RESEARCHERS, AND WE DECIDED TO GO TO KINGSTON GEORGIA TO VISIT THE KINGSTON CEMETERY IN BARTOW COUNTY. AS WE WALKED THROUGH THE CEMETERY, SOMETHING CAUGHT MY EYE. SOMETHING WAS GLIMMERING NEXT TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER’S GRAVE. THEY DUG UP AN OLD BOX, WHICH CONTAINED THE SOLDIER’S FEW POSSESSIONS. THEY BEGAN THEIR RESEARCH, TRYING TO FIND OUT AS MUCH AS THEY COULD ABOUT THIS UNKNOWN SOLDIER. FROM WHAT THEY FOUND IN THEIR RESEARCH, THIS WAS AN AREA OF INTENSE FIGHTING IN MAY OF 1864, DURING THE EARLY PART OF THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. FROM THEIR RESEARCH, THERE ARE 250 UNKNOWN CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS AND 2 UNION SOLDIERS BURIED IN KINGSTON.

ARTIFACTS

WHAT DID WE FIND:

• THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER’S HAT

•SOME CONFEDERATE MONEY IN A WALLET

•A PICTURE OF WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE THE SOLDIER’S WIFE

•A PICTURE OF THE SOLDIER’ S BROTHER

•DIARY ENTRIES

CONFEDERATE HAT• The color of the hat indicates that it

belonged to an infantry captain.• The crossed guns also indicate the

rank as infantry captain.

WALLET• The wallet that we found

was made of well aged leather and the inside is a trifold design with inner pockets.

• It was in great condition because it was stored inside the box.

CONFEDERATE MONEY• When the United States split into the

Union and Confederacy, they had different currencies.

• The one dollar bill is from Florida, and depicts the Goddess of Liberty on the top left and slaves picking cotton in the middle.

• The two dollar bill is from The Bank of Chattanooga and depicts the Goddess of Liberty

• The one hundred dollar bill shows Native Americans, and is from Alabama.

• None of the money was backed by hard assets, but simply by a promise to pay after the war.

• The money was called grey backs.• At the end of the war, the money lost all

value.

PICTURE OF HIS WIFE• This is a picture of what is a picture

of the soldier’s wife.• He never wrote about her in his diary

entries, but he kept the picture with him in his wallet.

PICTURE OF HIS BROTHER • We think that this is the

soldier’s brother.• His brother is believed to have

died fighting for the Confederacy, and is buried with the hundreds of other unknown soldiers.